This is just to say a quick so long to all who read out post over the last 3 and a half months. It was a phenominal adventure and a fantastic experience. To quickly update you of our journey home; it was mainly uneventfull, except for the occasional police stoppings. Max was stopped once and asked to enter a private booth with the guard for a more detailed search, which was due to the two pairs of trousers he was wearing so he had more space in his bag. I was stopped twice, once after 30 seconds of entering America, and once just before boarding the plane to Miami, due to the chocolate brownie I had in my pocket. After that we tried to chill in a sweltering Miami, and then caught the last flight home to Heathrow.
So thats it. A big thank you to everyone that read this, and hope you enjoyed it. From Max 'MonsterDog' Taylor, Mateito 'Beaker' Franklin and Alex '**** the **** pot' Devaraj.
P.s. since getting back we have all kept the promises to ourselves by drinking large quantities of cider and doing very little. Cheers!
Welcome to the Jungle
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For the last real event we did on our trip, we spent 3 days in the jungles of Bolivia. This envolved taking a motorised canoe at 9am for an hour, wearing shoddy lifejackets so we wouldn´t be stopped at a checkpoint, then walking for 30 minutes whilst ladened down with 3 days supplies of food and water. On this walk we stopped briefly in a local village, where we tried some local chicha (alcoholic beverage) that tasted like cold chicken soup, and saw some highly unusual animals (a chicken with flares and a MASSIVE duck). At the camp, we immediatly went for a dip in the river nearby, only getting out when we had had enough of the fish and crabs nibbling at our feet. After lunch it was time for a jungle walk, in which we saw not many animals, but impressive scenery and a load of plants. Our guide used the foliage of the jungle to make us a water-bottle-holder (made by brading a large number of vines) and a set of pan pipes. He was also rather adept at cuting down any plants in our path, using his rather large machete. That evening, we relaxed, set up our mosquito nets, and crouched under tarpaulins to avoid the rain. Dinner was provided by our cook called Chubela, who took a shine to our Mr Franklin, calling him her ´Mateito´ (meaning ´little matthew´). The next day we went on a long walk to a large hill in the jungle, with magnificent views of the rainforest and rivers below. Our fuel for the long and tiring walk was chewing coca leaves, a practice we will miss when we return as it is illegal in England. In the afternoon we had a siesta, to be ready for our night walk, where as usual a large number of insects were attracted to our torches. After an uncomfortable nights sleep (due to the wasps, cockroaches and ants that had found my supply of cookies) we had one final walk in the jungle, before heading off back to civilisation. We stopped off in the local village again, where, and I have no idea why, Max accepted another glass of chicha. After our jungle trip, we were destined to La Paz, with me flying in 45 minutes (due to a desire to watch the world cup final) while the others took a 20 hour bus ride. It was on this ride that Max unfortunatly had his camera and phone stolen, but fortunatly he had most of his lost photos on Franklin´s ipod. So, in La Paz Max and I went to the tourism police to report the thefts (as I had lost my ipod - see the earlier post) while Franklin bought some souvenirs. After it was time for the 18 hour bus ride to Santa Cruz, where we have spent the time eating huge ice-creams (4 pounds for a kilo of ice-cream) and wondering why a city with an average temperature of 27 degrees centigrade could be so cold. Seriously it´s been so cold here it´s caused ´confusion in the schools´. Its about 12 degrees centigrade. We fly this evening to Miami, where hopefully it will be warmer, and then that evening to Heathrow, arriving at about 6am. How fun...
"Are we swimming here?" ask Alex, "it´s right next to the alligators". "No", replied Max, "hang on, we´re stopping..."
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After the excitment of the mine tour in Potosí, we ate some pizza with some, quite frankly hilarious Scottish guys, then caught a taxi to Sucre, the Bolivian capital. After exploring the streets of this gorgeous colonial city we found a room, complete with an extra bed and cable tv. The next moning was the England game, so I stayed in the room while Max and Franklin went to explore the central market. After, we visited the mercado campesino, the local market, which stocked everything, from coca leaves to fireworks, from wallets to little bags of fried fish. For the next few days in Sucre, we relaxed, I watched football while Max and Frankin went to museums and did generally bugger all. On Friday, Max and I visited a nearby Dinosaur theme park (about as far away from Jurrasic park as one could hope to get) and bought rather ridiculous and expensive dinosaur figurines, much to the amusment of Mr Franklin. I´ve wraped mine in about 5 wolly hats, while Max used scarfs. I´m not sure of the state of mine, but unfortunaly Max´s has broken into 4 parts. On Sunday there was a weekly market in the nearby (by Bolivian standards) village of Tarabuco. Max and Franklin joined a Dutch and American girl to visit the market, whereas I stayed back to watch the football first, and would join them there. My day started by getting a full english at a dutch cafe and watching England unfortunatly loose. Then, I caught taxi to the bus stop for Tarabuco, at which I could see no buses leaving. In true, South American traveller style, I asked a local truck driver, full of locals and their merchadise, if he was going go Tarabuco. He was, and I hoped onboard for the 2 hour journey to the market. As I arrived, I saw Max and Franklin leaving in a taxi. I explored the market, bought a large amount of gifts, and caught a minibus back, wondering how I was going to carry so many gifts back to England. The next night, we caught a night bus to La Paz, and that day we explored the citys´ Mecardo Negro, all buying some designer jeans. The next day was also filled with trips to the markets of La Paz, with both Max and myself buying so much stuff we needed extra bags to carry it all. That evening we met up with Sam Clarke and Ben Eccles, friends from school, but we couldn´t go out for long as we needed to pack, ready for our 18 hour bus ride the next day to the jungle.
The bus to Rurrenabaque, the town where we are now, takes, according to the guide book ´18 hours at the best of times´. Acoording to the acounts we had heard, the bus took the continuation of the road from La Paz to Corioco, also known as the ´road of death´. Undeterred, we caught a bus leaving at 11am from the villa fatima district of La Paz. All was going fine until at 6pm, just over 1/3 of our trip, the bus broke down, and remaind that way for 2 hours, more or less. Not being mechanics, we were unsure what to make of the fact that they were pouring water into a hole in the bonnet, only for it to bubble out ferociously. After in was fixed (thanks to our driver catching a bus to a nearby town and getting spare parts) we headed of, slowly and having to stop every 15 minutes to let the engine cool and add more cold water to the radiator (we assumed). We stopped in a nearby town where we were told we had 30 minutes to grab some dinner. It was now 10pm, so we hungryly made our way to the nearest cafe. We then switched to a newer, more comfortable bus at about 11.30, but in the switch, or just before, I lost/was robbed of my ipod. We arrived in Rurrenabaque, known locally as Rurre, at about 9.45am, and quickly found a very nice hostal, complete with a ceiling fan and hammocks. That day was spent relaxing in said hammocks, and for me, watching the football. The next day we organised a tour for our trip to the pampas, a swampy part of jungle full of animals. I was keen to go with ´fletcha´tour agencies, because of their very pretty tour orginiser, but insted we went with ´Donato´ who were excellent and we are going to the jungle with them tomorow. Our trip to the Pampas was a 3 day excursion with Elizabeth, a Glaswegian accountant, 3 Frenchies, our guide Daniel and our cook Mercedes. After a 3 hour bumpy and dusty jeep ride to the river, we boarded our motorised canoe and headed off, where immediatly we saw capibara (massive guinea pigs), caiman and alligators, monkeys (which came on to our boat when our guide offered bananas), terrapins which were sunbathing on any surface that was sticking out of the water, and loads of birds. Our camp consisted of lodges, complete with a shower and flushing toilet. After a quick time unpacking and relaxing in the hammocks, we went to a nearby viewpoint to watch the glorious sunset and drink a cerveza. After, it was a buffet dinner, followed by caiman spotting at night, which, although plagued by mosquitos, was a peaceful and relaxing experience. The next day we were up at 5.30 am to go and see the sunrise, then breakfast followed to a trip to the marshland of the pampas, for a session of ´anaconda hunting´. This is where our guide excelled himself. On the surface, Daniel exhibited none of the qualilties you would expect to see from a guide; he was large and wore jeans, trainers and a t-shirt that said ´I´d quit drinking, but I´m no quitter´. By contrast, the other Guides at the marsh wore boots, army jungle camo and carried knives and machetes. However, it was our guide who found the only snake, and who made sure we didn´t touch it, due to the deet repelent we had on our hands. Other guides who came after were about to let their groups touch it, before Daniel stopped them. After, we went looking for cobras, with less luck. Then we returned to camp, for a cold drink and lunch, before a siesta. After that, it was time to go swimming with the dolphins. We wern´t too sure when Daniel stopped the boat at a meander of a river, especially when we could see caiman, before they submerged into the murky water. Daniel told us that the dolphins didn´t like caiman either, and would keep them away. However, we were yet to see any dolphin. Fortunaly, they were there, and eventually we did see some, be it just for a second or two. As we swan in the muddy water, we became aware of the watching eyes of Pedro, the large caiman, about 6 foot, who lived in the water. Clearly he and Daniel were friends, as Daniel went over and tapped him on the nose. I was allowed to try, as long as I didnt aproach him from the side, as you should NEVER aproach from the side. After this, we wen to another mirador to watch the sunset, and then retired for the evening. The final day of our trip started with us being awoken by howler monkeys, who were defacating in the trees above our lodge. After breakfast we went pihrana fishing, where we caught some of the smallest fish you have ever seen (10cm would have been an exaggeration), returned to camp, then headed back to Rurre, a 4 hour journey (3 in jeep). That was yesterday, and today we relaxed (you really can´t do much in this sweltering heat) and I, of course, watched the football. Tomorow we head back out to the jungle, in the penultimate adventure on nuestra historia grande.
The bus to Rurrenabaque, the town where we are now, takes, according to the guide book ´18 hours at the best of times´. Acoording to the acounts we had heard, the bus took the continuation of the road from La Paz to Corioco, also known as the ´road of death´. Undeterred, we caught a bus leaving at 11am from the villa fatima district of La Paz. All was going fine until at 6pm, just over 1/3 of our trip, the bus broke down, and remaind that way for 2 hours, more or less. Not being mechanics, we were unsure what to make of the fact that they were pouring water into a hole in the bonnet, only for it to bubble out ferociously. After in was fixed (thanks to our driver catching a bus to a nearby town and getting spare parts) we headed of, slowly and having to stop every 15 minutes to let the engine cool and add more cold water to the radiator (we assumed). We stopped in a nearby town where we were told we had 30 minutes to grab some dinner. It was now 10pm, so we hungryly made our way to the nearest cafe. We then switched to a newer, more comfortable bus at about 11.30, but in the switch, or just before, I lost/was robbed of my ipod. We arrived in Rurrenabaque, known locally as Rurre, at about 9.45am, and quickly found a very nice hostal, complete with a ceiling fan and hammocks. That day was spent relaxing in said hammocks, and for me, watching the football. The next day we organised a tour for our trip to the pampas, a swampy part of jungle full of animals. I was keen to go with ´fletcha´tour agencies, because of their very pretty tour orginiser, but insted we went with ´Donato´ who were excellent and we are going to the jungle with them tomorow. Our trip to the Pampas was a 3 day excursion with Elizabeth, a Glaswegian accountant, 3 Frenchies, our guide Daniel and our cook Mercedes. After a 3 hour bumpy and dusty jeep ride to the river, we boarded our motorised canoe and headed off, where immediatly we saw capibara (massive guinea pigs), caiman and alligators, monkeys (which came on to our boat when our guide offered bananas), terrapins which were sunbathing on any surface that was sticking out of the water, and loads of birds. Our camp consisted of lodges, complete with a shower and flushing toilet. After a quick time unpacking and relaxing in the hammocks, we went to a nearby viewpoint to watch the glorious sunset and drink a cerveza. After, it was a buffet dinner, followed by caiman spotting at night, which, although plagued by mosquitos, was a peaceful and relaxing experience. The next day we were up at 5.30 am to go and see the sunrise, then breakfast followed to a trip to the marshland of the pampas, for a session of ´anaconda hunting´. This is where our guide excelled himself. On the surface, Daniel exhibited none of the qualilties you would expect to see from a guide; he was large and wore jeans, trainers and a t-shirt that said ´I´d quit drinking, but I´m no quitter´. By contrast, the other Guides at the marsh wore boots, army jungle camo and carried knives and machetes. However, it was our guide who found the only snake, and who made sure we didn´t touch it, due to the deet repelent we had on our hands. Other guides who came after were about to let their groups touch it, before Daniel stopped them. After, we went looking for cobras, with less luck. Then we returned to camp, for a cold drink and lunch, before a siesta. After that, it was time to go swimming with the dolphins. We wern´t too sure when Daniel stopped the boat at a meander of a river, especially when we could see caiman, before they submerged into the murky water. Daniel told us that the dolphins didn´t like caiman either, and would keep them away. However, we were yet to see any dolphin. Fortunaly, they were there, and eventually we did see some, be it just for a second or two. As we swan in the muddy water, we became aware of the watching eyes of Pedro, the large caiman, about 6 foot, who lived in the water. Clearly he and Daniel were friends, as Daniel went over and tapped him on the nose. I was allowed to try, as long as I didnt aproach him from the side, as you should NEVER aproach from the side. After this, we wen to another mirador to watch the sunset, and then retired for the evening. The final day of our trip started with us being awoken by howler monkeys, who were defacating in the trees above our lodge. After breakfast we went pihrana fishing, where we caught some of the smallest fish you have ever seen (10cm would have been an exaggeration), returned to camp, then headed back to Rurre, a 4 hour journey (3 in jeep). That was yesterday, and today we relaxed (you really can´t do much in this sweltering heat) and I, of course, watched the football. Tomorow we head back out to the jungle, in the penultimate adventure on nuestra historia grande.
Potosí, land of the miners
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To start this post, I will quickly note the most prominant parts of mine and Franklins little adventure while max was staying in Arequipa. Firstly, we caught a 6am bus to Puno from Arequipa, seeing some gorgeous scenery along the way and herds of wild Vicuñas, a llama like creature whos hair is so fine it was used only for the clothes of the incan kings. Well, I saw some lovely scenery, while Franklin and a local lady used their feet to hold a cover over a massive hole in the bus, through which you could see the engine below. The only other noteworthy point of that trip was the communal toilet stop on the altiplano, when everyone on the bus to random places on the altiplano to, well, you know... When we arrived in puno, we found a hostal and went to explore the city, famous for being on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest lake of its size in the world. We then explored some markets, where I bought a fedora and Franklin made a woman cry with his hard line bartering. Our time in Puno was over when we caught the 6am bus to Desaguadero (the border town) the next morning. After a relativly easy crossing (I had to pay a ´fine´ for loosing my paper visa, no big deal in South America), we met a friendly Bolivian ´business man´, although we never found out his business. We then caught a bus and headed to Tiwanaku, the base of one of the largest civilisations in South America. It was here that we realised how cheap Bolivia was going to be, as Franklins Model of the large Ponce (don´t laugh) cost just 50p. A Combi then took us into La Paz, during which time we learnt that locals do get car sick, and not all locals speak spanish. La Paz itself, we found, is an exciting city to say the least, full of large plazas, colonial buildings and very dangerous road crossings. Our tatics for crossing roads in La Paz were to stand behind larger Bolivians (or better yet police men) or just run and hope. During the next few days, we went to a few museums, walked up a 5400 metre mountain (although we were driven 5300 metres of the way up) and saw the Valley of the Moon, a valley full of weirdly eroded rocks. We then met up with Max, and did the whole ´road of death´ thing.
Anyway, back to the main story. After a dinner of ´Heart Attack´ pizza pie or llama steak pizza, we headed back to the hostal, and the next day took a 6 hour bus to Potosí, a city which was once one of the biggest and most profitable in the world. This was due to the large mountain overlooking the city, which was once full of silver and other precious minerals. However, these days are long gone, and due to the way it was run hundreds of years ago, none of the profits from the mine went to the miners or the city. Nowadays, the miners work for themselves in family groups, which is more beneficial. We stayed in dorms on the top floor on the hotal, which is a pretty tiring climb when the city itself is above 4000 metres above sea level. Here we met 2 dutch guys who had just come from Sucre, and had warned us about the riots going on at that time, and a French girl called Margo. we decided to go for dinner, where we got proper llama steaks, and then for a drink. A word to the wise - anyone who wants as llama steak should have a large collection of toothpicks ready. The next day started like any other, with us exploring the city. I then went back to watch the football, along with some fellow Brits, 3 Mancs and a Cockney. The beers started flowing during the football and film which followed, to the point that by the time we went for dinner I was not at my most, well, you catch my drift. I can recall very little of that night, but apparently I was a barrel of laughs, high-fiving tramps, asking peoples names again and again, telling a story, apologising for repeating myself, then starting all over again. The 2 things I have absolutly NO recollection of is having a 5 minute conversation with the waiter about the way I wanted my steak cooked, and ordering a bottle of water for ´table Alex´. Franklin very kindly escorted me back to the hostal, where a good nights sleep helped me return to my normal self. The next day was a rest day for myself, whilst the other went to various museums and markets, where instead of purchasing the cow heads for sale, they bought CDs and DVDs for ridiculously cheap prices. After that, it was time for our trip to the mines...
The Potosí mining trip experince is a fantastic one, but not the sort of one you ever do again. It starts with getting mine-suited up, wearing protective trousers, jacket, helmet, torch and boots. After this a trip to the miners market is in order, where for $3 you buy dynamite, ammonuim nitrate, a fuse and a soft drink. This is your standard present for a family of miners. Our group also bought a few sticks of dynamite extra, for a little ´celebratory party´ after the mines. You then go to the refinery, where you stand uncomfortably close to liquid Cyanide, which is used to separate the percious minerals from the useless rock. Then it´s into the mines proper, a place not reccomended for claustraphobes (no problems there) or asthmatics (ah...). The mines are as you would expect; dark, dusty and dangerous. Pipes of air are used to provide oxygen for the lowest levels, and miners aged from 14 to 40 work there, although if you last 20 years you are considered very lucky. Our tour took us to the 4 main levels, where miners work for 50 pounds a month shoveling, transporting or dynamiting the rubble looking for silver, lead or other minerals. It was a tough but amazing experience, one that I would reccomend doing, but just the once. Again thanks should go to Efra, our guide who, at the end, gave us Conac and blew up excess dynamite.
Anyway, back to the main story. After a dinner of ´Heart Attack´ pizza pie or llama steak pizza, we headed back to the hostal, and the next day took a 6 hour bus to Potosí, a city which was once one of the biggest and most profitable in the world. This was due to the large mountain overlooking the city, which was once full of silver and other precious minerals. However, these days are long gone, and due to the way it was run hundreds of years ago, none of the profits from the mine went to the miners or the city. Nowadays, the miners work for themselves in family groups, which is more beneficial. We stayed in dorms on the top floor on the hotal, which is a pretty tiring climb when the city itself is above 4000 metres above sea level. Here we met 2 dutch guys who had just come from Sucre, and had warned us about the riots going on at that time, and a French girl called Margo. we decided to go for dinner, where we got proper llama steaks, and then for a drink. A word to the wise - anyone who wants as llama steak should have a large collection of toothpicks ready. The next day started like any other, with us exploring the city. I then went back to watch the football, along with some fellow Brits, 3 Mancs and a Cockney. The beers started flowing during the football and film which followed, to the point that by the time we went for dinner I was not at my most, well, you catch my drift. I can recall very little of that night, but apparently I was a barrel of laughs, high-fiving tramps, asking peoples names again and again, telling a story, apologising for repeating myself, then starting all over again. The 2 things I have absolutly NO recollection of is having a 5 minute conversation with the waiter about the way I wanted my steak cooked, and ordering a bottle of water for ´table Alex´. Franklin very kindly escorted me back to the hostal, where a good nights sleep helped me return to my normal self. The next day was a rest day for myself, whilst the other went to various museums and markets, where instead of purchasing the cow heads for sale, they bought CDs and DVDs for ridiculously cheap prices. After that, it was time for our trip to the mines...
The Potosí mining trip experince is a fantastic one, but not the sort of one you ever do again. It starts with getting mine-suited up, wearing protective trousers, jacket, helmet, torch and boots. After this a trip to the miners market is in order, where for $3 you buy dynamite, ammonuim nitrate, a fuse and a soft drink. This is your standard present for a family of miners. Our group also bought a few sticks of dynamite extra, for a little ´celebratory party´ after the mines. You then go to the refinery, where you stand uncomfortably close to liquid Cyanide, which is used to separate the percious minerals from the useless rock. Then it´s into the mines proper, a place not reccomended for claustraphobes (no problems there) or asthmatics (ah...). The mines are as you would expect; dark, dusty and dangerous. Pipes of air are used to provide oxygen for the lowest levels, and miners aged from 14 to 40 work there, although if you last 20 years you are considered very lucky. Our tour took us to the 4 main levels, where miners work for 50 pounds a month shoveling, transporting or dynamiting the rubble looking for silver, lead or other minerals. It was a tough but amazing experience, one that I would reccomend doing, but just the once. Again thanks should go to Efra, our guide who, at the end, gave us Conac and blew up excess dynamite.
A Condensed Fortnight of South American Hijinks
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Ages since our last post so I'll just give the much-edited highlights. Our last full day in Cusco was the day of the Corpus Christi processions so we spent ages watching the various floats, brass bands, dancing school-children and people dressed up in brightly coloured woollen costumes. Another plus was that as part of the celebrations, everywhere served 'chirri uchu' which is a plate of chicken, pork, guinea pig, toasted corn, caviar and seaweed that you eat without cutlery. For some reason ours came with a glass of straight pisco that tastes like petrol so we subtly mixed it with coke to make it actually drinkable. After this Alex and I went to 'Paddy Flaherty's, the highest Irish pub on the planet!' which as promised was very high and fairly Irish.
Next day after a full English breakfast and some general Cusconian wandering we get a hefty night-bus to Arequipa and spend the following morning recovering in our hotel. For lunch we go to a Turkish place where we bump into Leela and Ellie! Bizarre how things like this keep happening. In the evening we meet up with them at the house they've been staying for the last month or so, for Chinese take-aways and a really long game of 'Ring of Fire', then more drinks at a club until the morning.
Alex and Franklin left for Puno a couple of days later while I stayed on in Arequipa (for more details of their time together see Alex's post, coming soon to a blog near you). My time alone was not as exciting as I'd been planning given that I was laid down by some stomach bug so rather than live the Arequipan high-life I spent most of my three days lying in bed watching crime shows. I have very little else to report other than that I went to a massive nunnery and spent half an hour in a park translating someone's English copy of National Geographic into Spanish.
Border crossing into Bolivia was successful other than the git of a border official who searched me "for drugs" and ended up nicking forty dollars from me. First Bolivian stop was Tiahuanaco, a massive archaeological site that is still being excavated by all of the Tiahuanacan locals. After that I bussed to La Paz and met up with Alex and Franklin at our hostel (which is insanely cheap, just like pretty much everything else in Bolivia). La Paz is a cool city with a decent cocaine musuem and a witches' market where you can buy basically everything from armadillos and llama foetuses to cat toenails and a candle for raising the dead. The rest of our time was spent finding a decent tour agency for the Death Road, which we booked for the following day (sorry Mum). Anyway, it was amazing - about four hours of mountain-biking down a narrow dirt-track with massive drops to our left. Luckily we only met two other vehicles on the way down. High-speed riding and some great views, then to finish off we had a massive buffet lunch at a high-class hotel. And no-one fell off, which is a plus.
After some more exploring of La Paz we got a bus to Uyuni, a freezing cold dead-end town which you'd never visit other than to book a tour to the salt flats, which we did without much hassle. And the tour was stunning. The salt-flats themselves are amazing and we got all kinds of crazy perspective-cheating photos, but they only made up a small part of the tour - as well as that there was the train cemetery, coloured lakes, volcanoes, geysers, the Salvador Dali desert and a surreal cave that looked like it was made out of papier-mache and fibreglass. Almost as surreal as that was the fact that in one of the dead trains we met Fenna, a Dutch girl who we last saw partway through Ecuador. Another highlight was the thermal baths, which were fun to get in but painfully cold to get out of. Our agency (Oasis) was great - they gave us cake and wine, and against all the odds our desert jeep didn't break down once.
After that we got out of Uyuni as soon as was humanly possible and now Alex, Franklin, Fenna and I are in a hostel in Potosi about to go out for dinner because all we've had to eat today is Pringles. Next stop Potosi mines, which are meant to be like 'hell on Earth'. So that should be a laugh.
Next day after a full English breakfast and some general Cusconian wandering we get a hefty night-bus to Arequipa and spend the following morning recovering in our hotel. For lunch we go to a Turkish place where we bump into Leela and Ellie! Bizarre how things like this keep happening. In the evening we meet up with them at the house they've been staying for the last month or so, for Chinese take-aways and a really long game of 'Ring of Fire', then more drinks at a club until the morning.
Alex and Franklin left for Puno a couple of days later while I stayed on in Arequipa (for more details of their time together see Alex's post, coming soon to a blog near you). My time alone was not as exciting as I'd been planning given that I was laid down by some stomach bug so rather than live the Arequipan high-life I spent most of my three days lying in bed watching crime shows. I have very little else to report other than that I went to a massive nunnery and spent half an hour in a park translating someone's English copy of National Geographic into Spanish.
Border crossing into Bolivia was successful other than the git of a border official who searched me "for drugs" and ended up nicking forty dollars from me. First Bolivian stop was Tiahuanaco, a massive archaeological site that is still being excavated by all of the Tiahuanacan locals. After that I bussed to La Paz and met up with Alex and Franklin at our hostel (which is insanely cheap, just like pretty much everything else in Bolivia). La Paz is a cool city with a decent cocaine musuem and a witches' market where you can buy basically everything from armadillos and llama foetuses to cat toenails and a candle for raising the dead. The rest of our time was spent finding a decent tour agency for the Death Road, which we booked for the following day (sorry Mum). Anyway, it was amazing - about four hours of mountain-biking down a narrow dirt-track with massive drops to our left. Luckily we only met two other vehicles on the way down. High-speed riding and some great views, then to finish off we had a massive buffet lunch at a high-class hotel. And no-one fell off, which is a plus.
After some more exploring of La Paz we got a bus to Uyuni, a freezing cold dead-end town which you'd never visit other than to book a tour to the salt flats, which we did without much hassle. And the tour was stunning. The salt-flats themselves are amazing and we got all kinds of crazy perspective-cheating photos, but they only made up a small part of the tour - as well as that there was the train cemetery, coloured lakes, volcanoes, geysers, the Salvador Dali desert and a surreal cave that looked like it was made out of papier-mache and fibreglass. Almost as surreal as that was the fact that in one of the dead trains we met Fenna, a Dutch girl who we last saw partway through Ecuador. Another highlight was the thermal baths, which were fun to get in but painfully cold to get out of. Our agency (Oasis) was great - they gave us cake and wine, and against all the odds our desert jeep didn't break down once.
After that we got out of Uyuni as soon as was humanly possible and now Alex, Franklin, Fenna and I are in a hostel in Potosi about to go out for dinner because all we've had to eat today is Pringles. Next stop Potosi mines, which are meant to be like 'hell on Earth'. So that should be a laugh.
The road to Machu Picchu
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After spending 15 hours on a bus ride from Nazca watching some dreadful films, we arrived in Cuzco and headed straight to a hostal. Afterwards, a spot of lunch was in order, where we started to get the ´Cuzco gringo experience´, which involves the constant offering of hats, puppets, massages and drugs. We declined all except the hat. The morning of the next day consisted of getting a full english breakfast from the only Real McCoy restaurant in Peru, looking for a decent tour to take us to Machu Picchu, and going to internet cafes. After uploading some pictures on Flickr (a link for which you can find on the webpage) we met up with two Australian travellers, Zane and Emma, Who we met in Vilcabamba, in Ecuador (during the night of free alcohol - see one of the previous blog posts). We then went for an all-you-can-eat indan buffet, for about 4 quid each. Also at dinner was Todd, who worked as the ´director of Cinematography´ in the adult entertainment industry. Didn´t really ask him about his work, but apperently he intends to name one of his future movies with the lead characters called Zane and Emma. We wern´t sure what to make of the either. The next day, I went quadbiking with Zane and Todd while Max and Franklin went to one of the massive markets in this area. After this, it was time to prepare for our 3 day tour to Machu Picchu, which would consist of biking, rafting and hiking.
The tour started at 6 am Peruvian time (so about 6:45 am), when a minibus took us and some fellow travellers to the top of a nearby mountain. We got our helmets and gloves wrapped up warm and headed off down the mountain, firstly on tarmac roads and then on dirtroads. By far the best bit was cycling on the dirtroad, due paticually to the heavy rain fall that started as soon as we got on to the dirtroad, which made things all the more exciting. During the biking, both Max and myself fell off, grazing our left knees. Max fell whilst high-fiving peruvian schoolchildren, whilst I fell after trying to simultaneously take a photo and steer a bike. Fortuantly, we are now both ok (relativly), but my camera has seen better days. With the biking over, we thought we would do a little white water rafting, but with only one place available, the others kindly let me do it whilst they drank 1.1 litre bottles of lager. After this is was an hours drive to the next town, then bed. The next day was taken up by a rather long hike through the highlands of Peru, which mainly consisted of climbing up one big hill, seeing some ruins (and Machu Picchu from a distance) and walking back down. This left us quite hot and sweaty, so the guide suggested a dip in the river at the bottom of the valley. However, this is where Max decided to get rid of pair number 3 of his sunglasses, for when he went under the water he was with sunglasses, and when he emerged he was without. He then had to borrow my ´Genuine´raybans for the rest of the walk, but I believe he has now bought his own, for the pricey sum of 5 pounds. After a decent lunch we headed up to the town of Aguas Calientes, following the river. On the way we learnt a quechua word ´apucontititriksiillawericochapachayacachik´. This means God. Just God. Why not just say God. Its not hard to learn, but much quicker. Ridiculous. In Aguas Calientes we trated ourselves to warm showers, ate dinner and went to bed, unaware of how long the next day was going to be...
We woke up at 3.30am and started to walk to Machu Picchu at 4. To get to Machu Picchu, one can either catch a bus, or climb 3600 stone steps built by the Incas. Naturally we chose the latter, and 45 minutes later we were waiting at the entance, about 50th in line. At 6am the gates opened, and we started our tour of Machu Picchu. The first place you go to is the ledge just behind the city, which is where all the stereotypical pictures of Machu Picchu are taken. After getting our pictures of the sunrise over the Incan city, we learnt about the various temples and houses that make up most of the city. A little bit of history: Machu Picchu was an Incan stronghold for about 70 years after the Spanish invasion, after which there is little evidence of where they went next. Some believe they may have fought and killed eachother, but some believe they retreated to the jungle, where they formed the city of ´El Dorado´. After the tour, we hiked up Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu in all the photos. A gruelling 30 minutes hike and we were at the top, savouring the grandeur of the occasion (or for Max, having a little nap). After getting our customary photo at the top, we headed back down, where Max and Franklin headed to the Sun gate (another part of the ruins) whilst I went up Machu Picchu mountain, a trek that was exhausting but totally worth it. By the time I got back down, it was time to leave. Being the skint students that we are, we walked back down to Aguas Calientes instead of getting a bus, where we killed time until the train by eating dinner and listening to ipods. 1 train ride, 1 minibus ride and 1 coach ride later, we arrived in Cuzco at 2 am this morning, exhausted but amazed by what we had done. A big shout out to Hugo, our guide for the trip, who was full of facinating stories, useful information and ´interesting´ jokes.
The tour started at 6 am Peruvian time (so about 6:45 am), when a minibus took us and some fellow travellers to the top of a nearby mountain. We got our helmets and gloves wrapped up warm and headed off down the mountain, firstly on tarmac roads and then on dirtroads. By far the best bit was cycling on the dirtroad, due paticually to the heavy rain fall that started as soon as we got on to the dirtroad, which made things all the more exciting. During the biking, both Max and myself fell off, grazing our left knees. Max fell whilst high-fiving peruvian schoolchildren, whilst I fell after trying to simultaneously take a photo and steer a bike. Fortuantly, we are now both ok (relativly), but my camera has seen better days. With the biking over, we thought we would do a little white water rafting, but with only one place available, the others kindly let me do it whilst they drank 1.1 litre bottles of lager. After this is was an hours drive to the next town, then bed. The next day was taken up by a rather long hike through the highlands of Peru, which mainly consisted of climbing up one big hill, seeing some ruins (and Machu Picchu from a distance) and walking back down. This left us quite hot and sweaty, so the guide suggested a dip in the river at the bottom of the valley. However, this is where Max decided to get rid of pair number 3 of his sunglasses, for when he went under the water he was with sunglasses, and when he emerged he was without. He then had to borrow my ´Genuine´raybans for the rest of the walk, but I believe he has now bought his own, for the pricey sum of 5 pounds. After a decent lunch we headed up to the town of Aguas Calientes, following the river. On the way we learnt a quechua word ´apucontititriksiillawericochapachayacachik´. This means God. Just God. Why not just say God. Its not hard to learn, but much quicker. Ridiculous. In Aguas Calientes we trated ourselves to warm showers, ate dinner and went to bed, unaware of how long the next day was going to be...
We woke up at 3.30am and started to walk to Machu Picchu at 4. To get to Machu Picchu, one can either catch a bus, or climb 3600 stone steps built by the Incas. Naturally we chose the latter, and 45 minutes later we were waiting at the entance, about 50th in line. At 6am the gates opened, and we started our tour of Machu Picchu. The first place you go to is the ledge just behind the city, which is where all the stereotypical pictures of Machu Picchu are taken. After getting our pictures of the sunrise over the Incan city, we learnt about the various temples and houses that make up most of the city. A little bit of history: Machu Picchu was an Incan stronghold for about 70 years after the Spanish invasion, after which there is little evidence of where they went next. Some believe they may have fought and killed eachother, but some believe they retreated to the jungle, where they formed the city of ´El Dorado´. After the tour, we hiked up Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu in all the photos. A gruelling 30 minutes hike and we were at the top, savouring the grandeur of the occasion (or for Max, having a little nap). After getting our customary photo at the top, we headed back down, where Max and Franklin headed to the Sun gate (another part of the ruins) whilst I went up Machu Picchu mountain, a trek that was exhausting but totally worth it. By the time I got back down, it was time to leave. Being the skint students that we are, we walked back down to Aguas Calientes instead of getting a bus, where we killed time until the train by eating dinner and listening to ipods. 1 train ride, 1 minibus ride and 1 coach ride later, we arrived in Cuzco at 2 am this morning, exhausted but amazed by what we had done. A big shout out to Hugo, our guide for the trip, who was full of facinating stories, useful information and ´interesting´ jokes.
Lines in the sand.
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After we left Huaraz we went via Lima and Ica to the small desert oasis of Huaccachina, on our first day here, after mostly sleeping we climbed the large dune behind our hostal for the sunset across the desert... As we clambered up the gigantic slope sliding in the sand, our minds fell back to two days before when we were trekking up the glacial peak of Vallunaraju, except this time it was not the cold but the heat which was our enemy. The next morning Alex and Max decided to go to the top for the sunrise, at 5.30 in the morning they climbed the slopes passing several groups of heavily inebreiated Brits, only for the sunrise to be obscured by a heavy fog. Thankfully making the extra time i spent in bed all the more worthwhile. Later that morning we organised and booked our sandboarding and the dune buggy tour, before heading out to an Internet cafe for some communications. Then we took the sandboards out for a little practice... we climbed a fair way up the dune and before long we were tumbling down the sand at quite some speed. We frequently fell over on our attempts with alex bruising his backside after attempting to use it to slow down. After a few hours of travelling at high speed down the dune then taking the tiring walk back up we went to lunch. After this our Dune tour/sandboarding commenced. The buggy drove quickly over the undulating terrain and if we weren´t packed so tightly in there may have been some genuine fear. At the first dune we stopped at we attempted to stand up whilst going down, and experienced some pretty spectacular falls. Next up it was a much larger dune for which we decided upon (and were advised to) lie down whilst doing. On this we built up some serious speed and the bumpy section at the bottom was suprisingly painful. Back in the buggy and we attempted a succession of ever larger dunes, and ultimatly finished on a smaller dune which we did standing with an amazing sunset across the desert landscape. Once back at the hostal we had a small rest before heading out for tea, and then back in preperation of our trip to Nazca the next day.
We got a bus straight from Ica to Nazca where we took a taxi to the airport. At the airport we bought a flight over the ancient geoglyphs, and soon set off. The flight totalling 35mins took us over all of the most famous sites, but was also rather warm, and bumpy not a great combination for Alex. Nethertheless we all managed to get some amazing views of the lines and animals. Tonight we plan to travel on a disproportionatly expensive bus to Cuzco where hopefully the next installment of the blogothon will be released.
We got a bus straight from Ica to Nazca where we took a taxi to the airport. At the airport we bought a flight over the ancient geoglyphs, and soon set off. The flight totalling 35mins took us over all of the most famous sites, but was also rather warm, and bumpy not a great combination for Alex. Nethertheless we all managed to get some amazing views of the lines and animals. Tonight we plan to travel on a disproportionatly expensive bus to Cuzco where hopefully the next installment of the blogothon will be released.
Hijinks in the Cordillera Blanca
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The last week in Huaraz has been our most active yet. Our first jaunt was to Laguna 69, a crazily bright blue lake at 4500m above sea level surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was the first properly high altitude walk we've done but none of us were ill, just really really knackered. Next day we started a three-day trek, with an agency this time, to some place none of us can ever remember the name of, but it sounds like Turbluhbluhhulahula. We had expected it to be a gruelling strenuous hike but happily it turned out to be the slowest walk we have ever done thanks to the pace set by our two guides. Joining us on our three days of ambling through the mountains were a French lady called Cecile and Andrea, a sarcastic German. Given that we finished walking pretty early each day and there wasn't much to do, most of our entertainment came from the swarms of cows that surrounded our campsite, followed us around, tried to steal our food, and ignored us when we threw rocks at them. So all in all a very good trek that took us to the highest we had ever been, a mountain pass at 17 thousand feet. The third and final day of walking was followed up by numerous free pisco sours at the agency's office then a slap-up filet mignon.
After an uneventful day of rest (during which we bought a lot of clothes, most of them made out of llama) we began our second organised hike, this time to a glacier-topped mountain called Villunaraju. The first day was short but HARD due to our very heavy bags (containing our usual hiking stuff plus harnesses, crampons, pots, pans, fuel and food), the steepness of the hill, the altitude, and the fact we were all wearing ski boots. We got to the campsite reasonably early where it became apparent just how much food our guide had brought along with us. Won't go into the details but it could have easily lasted a small village from now until we get back to England. For the rest of the day we slept, ate, and sheltered from hailstorms. Coincidentally, at the campsite we were reunited with Andrea our German friend who seemed to have already met everyone at the campsite.
Then at three o'clock the next morning we got up to begin the real ascent - roped up, slapped on the crampons and started our journey across the snow. We seem to have blanked most of the ascent from our minds but we all have similar impressions of amazing views (at least after the sun had risen), freezing hands, and extreme knackered-ness. When we eventually got to the top though - which is at nineteen thousand feet above sea level, setting a new record for the highest we have ever been - it was definitely worth it. We collapsed onto the snow, panted and ate chocolate while our guide got out his mobile and called a taxi. Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long because it was getting hot and we didn't want the glacier to melt before we'd had a chance to walk back down it. Needless to say the descent was a lot more enjoyable than the ascent and for the very last stretch we gave up on walking and just slid, which seemed like a good idea until Alex almost fell down a crevasse and Franklin almost brained me with his crampons. Once back at the campsite we handed Franklin over some presents and a cake to celebrate his NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY! Well we didn't have enough space in our bags for a cake and we couldn't find any candles so instead Alex got a doughnut and stuffed it full of matches. Franklin was less than thrilled with this but he liked his Swiss army card and his flask full of peach juice so that's okay.
We had been planning to make the whole trek last three days but seeing as how we were a lot quicker than expected we decided to forego another night of camping and made it back down to our original starting point by one o'clock of the same day. Only trouble was that our hostel was fully booked so instead we stayed at our guide's dad's "house" which was actually an unfinished and totally abandoned building that had two beds and some mattresses and a pornographic calendar and... that's it. Our bathroom had no door but at least the water worked. Anyway we were so amazingly shattered by this point that we didn't care where we stayed as long as there was a roof. That evening we went our for another decent meal with Andrea and Cecile, followed this up with a beer at a nearby bar, then crashed at our hostel. Bit of hassle when we couldn't remember exactly where it was but after a lot of wandering around and a failed attempt at breaking into someone else's home we made it.
And that is pretty much it. Off to Lima at ten thirty tonight to continue our Peruvian adventure!
After an uneventful day of rest (during which we bought a lot of clothes, most of them made out of llama) we began our second organised hike, this time to a glacier-topped mountain called Villunaraju. The first day was short but HARD due to our very heavy bags (containing our usual hiking stuff plus harnesses, crampons, pots, pans, fuel and food), the steepness of the hill, the altitude, and the fact we were all wearing ski boots. We got to the campsite reasonably early where it became apparent just how much food our guide had brought along with us. Won't go into the details but it could have easily lasted a small village from now until we get back to England. For the rest of the day we slept, ate, and sheltered from hailstorms. Coincidentally, at the campsite we were reunited with Andrea our German friend who seemed to have already met everyone at the campsite.
Then at three o'clock the next morning we got up to begin the real ascent - roped up, slapped on the crampons and started our journey across the snow. We seem to have blanked most of the ascent from our minds but we all have similar impressions of amazing views (at least after the sun had risen), freezing hands, and extreme knackered-ness. When we eventually got to the top though - which is at nineteen thousand feet above sea level, setting a new record for the highest we have ever been - it was definitely worth it. We collapsed onto the snow, panted and ate chocolate while our guide got out his mobile and called a taxi. Unfortunately we couldn't stay too long because it was getting hot and we didn't want the glacier to melt before we'd had a chance to walk back down it. Needless to say the descent was a lot more enjoyable than the ascent and for the very last stretch we gave up on walking and just slid, which seemed like a good idea until Alex almost fell down a crevasse and Franklin almost brained me with his crampons. Once back at the campsite we handed Franklin over some presents and a cake to celebrate his NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY! Well we didn't have enough space in our bags for a cake and we couldn't find any candles so instead Alex got a doughnut and stuffed it full of matches. Franklin was less than thrilled with this but he liked his Swiss army card and his flask full of peach juice so that's okay.
We had been planning to make the whole trek last three days but seeing as how we were a lot quicker than expected we decided to forego another night of camping and made it back down to our original starting point by one o'clock of the same day. Only trouble was that our hostel was fully booked so instead we stayed at our guide's dad's "house" which was actually an unfinished and totally abandoned building that had two beds and some mattresses and a pornographic calendar and... that's it. Our bathroom had no door but at least the water worked. Anyway we were so amazingly shattered by this point that we didn't care where we stayed as long as there was a roof. That evening we went our for another decent meal with Andrea and Cecile, followed this up with a beer at a nearby bar, then crashed at our hostel. Bit of hassle when we couldn't remember exactly where it was but after a lot of wandering around and a failed attempt at breaking into someone else's home we made it.
And that is pretty much it. Off to Lima at ten thirty tonight to continue our Peruvian adventure!
Sun, sea and sand
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After the excitement of hiking in the Peruvian cloud forest, getting lifts in pickup trucks and staying with random Peruvian families, we decided we needed some time to relax. After a 15 hour bus ride from Chachapoyas to Trujillo, we agreed to get a taxi to Huanchaco, a costal town about 20 minutes from Trujillo. Exhausted from the last few days, we listened with wonderment as our taxi driver told us of a place with long sandy beaches, delicious cuisine and so many beautiful women we would have to get a room each. He dropped us off at a hotel, where we showered, watched tv and relaxed. After muddying up the bathroom, we went for a spot of lunch (chicken sandwich and chocolate cake) in a cafe. This would become our regular spot for lunch. The next few days passed in the same routine. We got up about 10 ish, got ice cream or a pastry, and relaxed on the beach, where Peruvian surfers would come up to us and offer us surf school, followed by pot. We politely declined both. To break up the routine, we visited Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the world (whatever that means). It was here that our very own Mr Franklin caused a considerable stir amongst the Peruvian female population, not for the first time on this trip. After a few pictures (and giving away and email address) we explored the ruins. Whilst doing so, and in an attempt to emulate a character of a videogame, I jumped off a 8 foot wall (altough i must have cleared the 10 foot mark in the air) and landed, in a word, poorly on the hard ground below. This resulted in a very painful (and slightly sprained) ankle. I should point out that both Max and Franklin would like to point out that the chain of events was slightly different (ie it was more of a fall than a 10 foot leap), but you will have to judge for yourself when the pictures are on flickr. Other highlights of our beach time including some excellent sea food, some massive burgers, a very large amount of high quality pastries and ice creams, and a dog who was probably high. We caught another night bus from Trujillo to Huaraz, a city in the mountains of Peru, but thats another story for another time...
"Sorry Mum got to go, I´m getting in the back of a pickup truck!"
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After our brief stay in Chachapoyas (primarily to try and acquire some clean clothes...) we left for Leymeybamba, where we hoped to do the Laguna de los Condores trek. When we got there we went in search of the hostal in the guide book, after looking for a while we gave up and chose a random, pleasant looking place. Here the hostal owner woman told us about the hostal we had intended to stay in and how they were "clandestine" and that "they don´t pay taxes". The next day we tried to organise the tour, but unfortunatly the tourist office was apparently permanently closed, and instead we headed off to the museum outside the town which contained all the artefacts from the Chachapoyan people of the Laguna de los Condores. At the museum they had a vast array of relics, ranging from interesting pots to mummified opossums. Inside we were told no photographs, but as we seemed to be the only people there we took a fair few anyway. Here we all bought souvenirs, in the form of handcarved mummies done, in the shop by a peruvian man. The next day we had unfortunatly given up on the visit to the Laguna de los Condores, and instead we set out on the 6 hour round hike to La Congona ruins instead, asking directions on the way as we passed indiginous people on their horses. After a brief (and accidental) detour to some other ruins we found the settlement we had been looking for: shrouded in cloud forest, and invisible to you were literally on top of them were some 30 round stone houses of Chachapoyan design, the houses ranging from one to 3 floors, and being the only site to display all 4 chachapoyan designs. We stayed here for a while admiring the impressive views of the surrounding mountains and of the ruins themselves, before heading back down the mountains to Leymebamba.
The next day, we had to wake up early to catch a combi (like a minibus) to a small town where we could get a bus to Tingo, arriving at tingo at around 6. From here we began walking up to Nuevo Tingo where we hoped to get a taxi to Maria before continuing our walk to Kuelap, supposedly the most important Chachapoyan ruins. Only a few steps into the walk, and whilst Max was on the phone to his mum wishing her happy birthday, we got offered a lift in the back of a pick up truck heading in the right directions, we accepted and soon were headed up the perilous mountain road towards Maria. This only took us part of the way, and we had to hitch another lift to maria when we were dropped off. In Maria we had intended to walk the rest of the way supposedly taking 4 hours to Kuelap but the weather had turned bad, and we were still tired from the walk the previous days. After asking we were told "Of course, loads of cars come through here, just get any of them" this proved harder than we had originally anticipated, with no cars passing through in 1hr 45mins, then every subsequent car being full. After 2 hours a lorry came through and had space for us and about 5 women with their young children. We clambered into the back and set out on the bumpy ride our bags acting as seats for the women and children in the lorry. 45 mins later and we were at the bottom of the hill to Kuelap. We set out on the path we had been told about which was meant to take half an hour. A whole hour later and we realised we must have gone the wrong way, and decided to head back through the incessent drizzle of the cloud forest. After our 2 hour detour we decided it best just to walk up the road, and before long we were at the entrance to Kuelap where we bought our tickets for two days and headed towards Kuelap village where we hoped to stay in a hostal. On the way to the village we met, a child of about 12 on horseback who offered to put us up in his house with his mother and siblings. Wet and unsure what we were getting in for we accepted. When we arrived at his house it was a typical Peruvian cob building, with no electricity or running water. We were told that we had to pay for meals and the accomodation was done on a donation basis. At this point we had yet to see anyone over the age of 14. As they showed us our room, a dark building with a mud floor and walls...and ceiling, we squinted in the dark, and pointed out there were only two beds. Quickly the children went into another room and started dismantalling another bed and subsequently rebuilding in our room. They stuck a candle to the wall and before long there were three beds. When eventually the mother arrived and welcomed us we asked politlely if we could have a late lunch and within minutes we were given a large plate of broad beans, and some pig skin. This was all gone within minutes and yet another plate of broad beans arrived. The children were all very excited to have gringo guests, and insisted we play many rounds of their board game, before asking if we had any games. At this point Max produced his pack of cards and taught them snap, a game which they all took to very quickly. After many many rounds of snap we ate a dinner of chips, egg and rice, and played more snap in the candle light until everyone went to bed.
The next morning we woke relatively early, ate a breakfast of boiled egg and biscuits, before getting a guided tour of the ruins by the oldest of the siblings; Alejandro, 14, he gave an informative and interesting history of teh ruins of Kuelap, and afterwards returned to their house, where his mother was cooking more broad beans on the open fire in the kitchen/dining room of their house. Around us running about were chickens, chicks, cats, kittens, children, dogs and guinea pigs. They began listing all of the films they had seen (which included an aweful lot of horror films) which they had seen in the nearest city of Chachapoyas. They had seen seemingly every vampire film ever made, and asked us whether vampires existed. They were also big fans of Jackie Chan and after listing probably most of his films, the young girl of around 8 asked us whether Jackie Chan existed "¿Jackie Chan existe?" and was most suprised to find out he did, about five minuites later, their mother who was half listening in whilst cooking, turns around looks suprised and asked "¿Jackie Chan existe?". In Peru it was mothers day on the 9th of May, and the school was selling special Mothers day trout, which we had been offered and one of the children had set out on a horse to get. Meanwhile the young girl continued to monologue in quick excited spanish about everything that had ever happened in Kuelap, with none of us able to keep up with what she was saying, not even the mother. Soon after some delicious trout, broad beans, and rice we had to leave, we left a donation equal to that of a normal hostal (much to the suprise of the mother) and also donated the pack of cards as Snap! had taken over as their main form of entertainment. We set out from their house with the oldest child who was going to tingo anyway as he went to school there during the week. The walk took 2 hours down the side of the mountain taking many shortcuts through the bushes. When we were there we tried to get a car to Chachapoyas so that we could get the night bus to Huancacho and again they were mostly full. We very nearly got a lift to Huancacho direct in a lorry but unfortunatly it was full of produce. The only car we could find had both its spare tyres flat and didn´t want to risk it. Somehow eventually the guy came up to us saying he now had some tyres and would take us to Chachapoyas. In Chachapoyas he took us to the bus station where we bought our tickets, and waited for the bus. Whilst we were waiting there was a power cut, and we boarded the bus in the dark....
The next day, we had to wake up early to catch a combi (like a minibus) to a small town where we could get a bus to Tingo, arriving at tingo at around 6. From here we began walking up to Nuevo Tingo where we hoped to get a taxi to Maria before continuing our walk to Kuelap, supposedly the most important Chachapoyan ruins. Only a few steps into the walk, and whilst Max was on the phone to his mum wishing her happy birthday, we got offered a lift in the back of a pick up truck heading in the right directions, we accepted and soon were headed up the perilous mountain road towards Maria. This only took us part of the way, and we had to hitch another lift to maria when we were dropped off. In Maria we had intended to walk the rest of the way supposedly taking 4 hours to Kuelap but the weather had turned bad, and we were still tired from the walk the previous days. After asking we were told "Of course, loads of cars come through here, just get any of them" this proved harder than we had originally anticipated, with no cars passing through in 1hr 45mins, then every subsequent car being full. After 2 hours a lorry came through and had space for us and about 5 women with their young children. We clambered into the back and set out on the bumpy ride our bags acting as seats for the women and children in the lorry. 45 mins later and we were at the bottom of the hill to Kuelap. We set out on the path we had been told about which was meant to take half an hour. A whole hour later and we realised we must have gone the wrong way, and decided to head back through the incessent drizzle of the cloud forest. After our 2 hour detour we decided it best just to walk up the road, and before long we were at the entrance to Kuelap where we bought our tickets for two days and headed towards Kuelap village where we hoped to stay in a hostal. On the way to the village we met, a child of about 12 on horseback who offered to put us up in his house with his mother and siblings. Wet and unsure what we were getting in for we accepted. When we arrived at his house it was a typical Peruvian cob building, with no electricity or running water. We were told that we had to pay for meals and the accomodation was done on a donation basis. At this point we had yet to see anyone over the age of 14. As they showed us our room, a dark building with a mud floor and walls...and ceiling, we squinted in the dark, and pointed out there were only two beds. Quickly the children went into another room and started dismantalling another bed and subsequently rebuilding in our room. They stuck a candle to the wall and before long there were three beds. When eventually the mother arrived and welcomed us we asked politlely if we could have a late lunch and within minutes we were given a large plate of broad beans, and some pig skin. This was all gone within minutes and yet another plate of broad beans arrived. The children were all very excited to have gringo guests, and insisted we play many rounds of their board game, before asking if we had any games. At this point Max produced his pack of cards and taught them snap, a game which they all took to very quickly. After many many rounds of snap we ate a dinner of chips, egg and rice, and played more snap in the candle light until everyone went to bed.
The next morning we woke relatively early, ate a breakfast of boiled egg and biscuits, before getting a guided tour of the ruins by the oldest of the siblings; Alejandro, 14, he gave an informative and interesting history of teh ruins of Kuelap, and afterwards returned to their house, where his mother was cooking more broad beans on the open fire in the kitchen/dining room of their house. Around us running about were chickens, chicks, cats, kittens, children, dogs and guinea pigs. They began listing all of the films they had seen (which included an aweful lot of horror films) which they had seen in the nearest city of Chachapoyas. They had seen seemingly every vampire film ever made, and asked us whether vampires existed. They were also big fans of Jackie Chan and after listing probably most of his films, the young girl of around 8 asked us whether Jackie Chan existed "¿Jackie Chan existe?" and was most suprised to find out he did, about five minuites later, their mother who was half listening in whilst cooking, turns around looks suprised and asked "¿Jackie Chan existe?". In Peru it was mothers day on the 9th of May, and the school was selling special Mothers day trout, which we had been offered and one of the children had set out on a horse to get. Meanwhile the young girl continued to monologue in quick excited spanish about everything that had ever happened in Kuelap, with none of us able to keep up with what she was saying, not even the mother. Soon after some delicious trout, broad beans, and rice we had to leave, we left a donation equal to that of a normal hostal (much to the suprise of the mother) and also donated the pack of cards as Snap! had taken over as their main form of entertainment. We set out from their house with the oldest child who was going to tingo anyway as he went to school there during the week. The walk took 2 hours down the side of the mountain taking many shortcuts through the bushes. When we were there we tried to get a car to Chachapoyas so that we could get the night bus to Huancacho and again they were mostly full. We very nearly got a lift to Huancacho direct in a lorry but unfortunatly it was full of produce. The only car we could find had both its spare tyres flat and didn´t want to risk it. Somehow eventually the guy came up to us saying he now had some tyres and would take us to Chachapoyas. In Chachapoyas he took us to the bus station where we bought our tickets, and waited for the bus. Whilst we were waiting there was a power cut, and we boarded the bus in the dark....
Dr Johnny Lovewisdom, free alcohol and the journey to Peru
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Well, a lot has been going on since our last post. First stop was Cajas National Park - according to Franklin, an Ecuadorean version of the Lake District. We camped here for one night and finally got a chance to use Franklin's stove using our wonderful new methylated spirits. Our original plan to wake up at five o'clock the following morning for a six hour walk was stymied by our general laziness so instead we went for an aimless wander in some mystical Lord of the Rings-style woods.
Then it was a public transport fiesta from Cajas, to Cuenca, to Loja, to Vilcabamba, where we shacked up in our best hostel yet. Vilcabamba is a really peaceful place renowned for the longevity of its residents and the massive number of weirdos living there. Most famous nutjob was Dr Johnny Lovewisdom, who started a cult there called the 'Pristine Order of Paradisiacal Perfection' some years ago. Not sure if that's still in swing but there were an alarming number of posters in our hostel calling all 'Keepers of the Earth and Workers of the Light to harness the violet transmutations and so bring order and perfection back into the community'. Which is nice. We didn't join a cult during our stay but we did go for a walk - during which we almost got flattened by a herd of cliff-top horses and thousands of ants crawled up my clothes. Also got massages, went for a swim, played numerous games of pool and ping-pong... Our last night there coincided with one of the owners' leaving do, which meant unlimited free rum & coke and pineapple wine. Which proved to be our downfall. Don't remember an awful lot about that night and we didn't wake up until past ten the following day, half an hour after we'd been planning to catch our bus into Peru. But no worries. Instead we went on a long and precarious bus-ride to an end-of-the-road town called Zumba and stayed the night in a dingy hotel.
Next morning, a 'ranchera', which is like an open-sided truck with benches, to the border crossing called La Balsa. Easily the least official border crossing any of us have experienced - when the lady running the migration office eventually turned up she spent most of the time telling us how good-looking we were and complaining that Peruvian men were so much uglier than foreigners. Then she took some pictures of us - nothing to do with security, she just wanted our photos - and we went on our way.
SO... here we are on our second full day in Peru. Next thing lined up is a hike/horse-ride to Laguna de los Condores, which Alex is currently getting organised. Franklin is on Facebook and I'm eating yoghurt. And that's our blog-post pretty much up to date.
Then it was a public transport fiesta from Cajas, to Cuenca, to Loja, to Vilcabamba, where we shacked up in our best hostel yet. Vilcabamba is a really peaceful place renowned for the longevity of its residents and the massive number of weirdos living there. Most famous nutjob was Dr Johnny Lovewisdom, who started a cult there called the 'Pristine Order of Paradisiacal Perfection' some years ago. Not sure if that's still in swing but there were an alarming number of posters in our hostel calling all 'Keepers of the Earth and Workers of the Light to harness the violet transmutations and so bring order and perfection back into the community'. Which is nice. We didn't join a cult during our stay but we did go for a walk - during which we almost got flattened by a herd of cliff-top horses and thousands of ants crawled up my clothes. Also got massages, went for a swim, played numerous games of pool and ping-pong... Our last night there coincided with one of the owners' leaving do, which meant unlimited free rum & coke and pineapple wine. Which proved to be our downfall. Don't remember an awful lot about that night and we didn't wake up until past ten the following day, half an hour after we'd been planning to catch our bus into Peru. But no worries. Instead we went on a long and precarious bus-ride to an end-of-the-road town called Zumba and stayed the night in a dingy hotel.
Next morning, a 'ranchera', which is like an open-sided truck with benches, to the border crossing called La Balsa. Easily the least official border crossing any of us have experienced - when the lady running the migration office eventually turned up she spent most of the time telling us how good-looking we were and complaining that Peruvian men were so much uglier than foreigners. Then she took some pictures of us - nothing to do with security, she just wanted our photos - and we went on our way.
SO... here we are on our second full day in Peru. Next thing lined up is a hike/horse-ride to Laguna de los Condores, which Alex is currently getting organised. Franklin is on Facebook and I'm eating yoghurt. And that's our blog-post pretty much up to date.
Baths, trains and a whole lot of Rob Schneider films
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After several intensive days of trekking the Quilotoa circiut, we decided it would be wise to spend a little time having a well earnt rest. Arriving at Baños at 8 pm, we quickly got a taxi to a backpackers' hostel nearby. After getting unpacked, we were given a tour by the hostel owner, the lovely Yolanda, who took a shine to a certain blond member of our part (read - Franklin). Feeling pretty tired, we hit the hay after watching the only English thing on TV, NCIS.
The next day, after my tooth was fixed by a very friendly dentist (with very questional apparatus), we visited one of the town's famous thermal baths, the temperature of which was just too hot for us. In the evening, we treated ourselves to pizza and steak, found at a restaurant called ´restaurant good flavour´. On our 3rd day in Baños we again treated ourselves to more fancy food, in the form of an american breakfast. I cannot tell you how nice it is to smell frying bacon after over 3 weeks without it (3 weeks , my family can account for, is a very long time for me). To earn this breakfast (which also included fruit juice, coffee, croissants, butter, jam, eggs and bread) we walked up to a viewpoint above the city, and then in the surrounding paths around. After such an intensive workout, myself and Max (who has, for all you folks at home, requested the nickname ´Monsterdog´), decided it would be money well spent to get a massage. The options were limitless, from ´Geoffrey and Edith´s´, to an alley where a 60 minute full body massage was $20. In the end, we opted for the Chinese massage (performed by Ju Xing and her Ecuadorean friend), after reading a review in the window quoting ´Ju Xing knows all about the body´s capacity for pain´. 30 finger-cracking, back-hitting and shoulder-rubbing minutes later, we were walking down the street, eating vegetable dumplings and wondering whether Xu Jing would be able to understand the comments we left in her guest book.
The following day, it was time to depart Baños (after another fried breakfast, which we cooked ourselves). A few hours later, we were in Riobamba, staying in an old converted spanish colonial building for $4 a night. Our plan was to ride on the roof of a train along the ´Devil's Nose Railway´. Unfortunately, this was not possible, so instead we decided to do the offered alternative. Unfortunately again, we would have to get up at 5 am to purchase ticket. Oh well, we thought, I´m sure it will be worth it...
To pass the time in the afternoon, we got some chocolate cake (and, admittedly, a glass of milk) and bought some supplies to make sandwhiches with (in preparation for the upcoming train ride). In the evening, we went for a meal in one of Ecuador's many chicken and rice restaurants, where we ate while one of the waitresses kept on pointing her phone at Franklin (due to his blond hair). When we stood up to leave, she simultaneously ducked to hide under the counter. Most peculiar.
Early next morning, after eating our processed-cheese, processed-ham and couldn't-even-be-called-processed-chicken sandwiches, we boarded the alternative devil's-nose-railway train, which we assumed would be a fast, action packed adventure passing through the heart of the andean mountains. We couldn´t have been further from the truth. The train bumbled along at about 15 mph, passed through suburbs, visited a church and a muddy pond, bumbled along some more, passed through another little town, and ended. On the way we also passed a cement factory. According to our guide, it employs a lot of people and makes a lot of cement. Who would have thought. Admittedly there may have been more, but we all fell asleep. After this we had a 4 hour bus ride to Cuenca, during which we were forced to endure a medley of Rob Schneider films. In Cuenca, we found a nice hostel, relaxed and ate a massive pizza. In fact it was so massive that it didn´t fit on our table so our waiter took it to one side and guarded it for us while we ate. Then we visited a museum (where we saw real shrunken heads) and an aviary, ate lunch and visited an internet cafe, where I started to write this blog post. And that should get you just about up to date with our adventure so far.
The next day, after my tooth was fixed by a very friendly dentist (with very questional apparatus), we visited one of the town's famous thermal baths, the temperature of which was just too hot for us. In the evening, we treated ourselves to pizza and steak, found at a restaurant called ´restaurant good flavour´. On our 3rd day in Baños we again treated ourselves to more fancy food, in the form of an american breakfast. I cannot tell you how nice it is to smell frying bacon after over 3 weeks without it (3 weeks , my family can account for, is a very long time for me). To earn this breakfast (which also included fruit juice, coffee, croissants, butter, jam, eggs and bread) we walked up to a viewpoint above the city, and then in the surrounding paths around. After such an intensive workout, myself and Max (who has, for all you folks at home, requested the nickname ´Monsterdog´), decided it would be money well spent to get a massage. The options were limitless, from ´Geoffrey and Edith´s´, to an alley where a 60 minute full body massage was $20. In the end, we opted for the Chinese massage (performed by Ju Xing and her Ecuadorean friend), after reading a review in the window quoting ´Ju Xing knows all about the body´s capacity for pain´. 30 finger-cracking, back-hitting and shoulder-rubbing minutes later, we were walking down the street, eating vegetable dumplings and wondering whether Xu Jing would be able to understand the comments we left in her guest book.
The following day, it was time to depart Baños (after another fried breakfast, which we cooked ourselves). A few hours later, we were in Riobamba, staying in an old converted spanish colonial building for $4 a night. Our plan was to ride on the roof of a train along the ´Devil's Nose Railway´. Unfortunately, this was not possible, so instead we decided to do the offered alternative. Unfortunately again, we would have to get up at 5 am to purchase ticket. Oh well, we thought, I´m sure it will be worth it...
To pass the time in the afternoon, we got some chocolate cake (and, admittedly, a glass of milk) and bought some supplies to make sandwhiches with (in preparation for the upcoming train ride). In the evening, we went for a meal in one of Ecuador's many chicken and rice restaurants, where we ate while one of the waitresses kept on pointing her phone at Franklin (due to his blond hair). When we stood up to leave, she simultaneously ducked to hide under the counter. Most peculiar.
Early next morning, after eating our processed-cheese, processed-ham and couldn't-even-be-called-processed-chicken sandwiches, we boarded the alternative devil's-nose-railway train, which we assumed would be a fast, action packed adventure passing through the heart of the andean mountains. We couldn´t have been further from the truth. The train bumbled along at about 15 mph, passed through suburbs, visited a church and a muddy pond, bumbled along some more, passed through another little town, and ended. On the way we also passed a cement factory. According to our guide, it employs a lot of people and makes a lot of cement. Who would have thought. Admittedly there may have been more, but we all fell asleep. After this we had a 4 hour bus ride to Cuenca, during which we were forced to endure a medley of Rob Schneider films. In Cuenca, we found a nice hostel, relaxed and ate a massive pizza. In fact it was so massive that it didn´t fit on our table so our waiter took it to one side and guarded it for us while we ate. Then we visited a museum (where we saw real shrunken heads) and an aviary, ate lunch and visited an internet cafe, where I started to write this blog post. And that should get you just about up to date with our adventure so far.
The Curse of the Coffee Sugar
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Today we are in the small spa town of Baños and as I write this Max and Alex are getting a massage whilst eating chinese food, after the previous few days of trekking the Quilotoa circuit.
Let me take you back a few days, we wrote our previous post from the small market town of Latacunga, in our intense explorations of the town we discovered an interesting substance which was not dissimilar to Kendal mint cake, although instead of mint it´s coffee flavour, this was ultimatly to prove to be Alex´s demise, but more on that later. We set out from Latacunga onto the village of Zumbahua, where by coincidence there was a festival at the time of our arrival. After observing the celbrations, meeting the friendly local who offered us a lift in Quito from Latacunga to Quilotoa, and consuming a good sized portion of chickens foot soup, we began our walk to Quilotoa village a few hours away. After an hour or so we saw a sign saying ´Quilotoa 7km´ with this we felt like we were indeed getting closer to our destination, so we were severely dismayed when an hour later we asked a local man how far it was and he replyed ´seite kilometre´ exactly the same distance as an hour before. Fortunatly the next woman we asked told us it was only 1km a much more accurate estimate, it must be said that the Ecuadorians seem to lack in accurate estimations of either time or distance.So finally we arrived at quilotoa village and find an comfortable hostal (albeit with some disturbing features) where we rest and await dinner. After our hearty meal, the hostal staff light the wood burning stove, it was then a matter of minutes before we noticed the sickly smell, and the noxious fumes coming from the heating apparatus. As it turns out amongst the rocks resting on the burner had been a lump of the dreaded coffee sugar, looking extremely similar to a rock, it had melted giving off toxic fumes, making even breathing hard in the upstairs of our cabin...which just so happened to be my area. Eventually the air cleared and we managed to get to sleep, despite the heavy odour of coffee in the air.
The next day we had decided to walk around the entire rim of Quilotoa, and set out early after breakfast. Earlier that morning Alex had come to the horrible realisation that he had lost his wallet containing all his cards (although fortunatly only $30 in cash) in Quilotoa village we had no way of contacting the banks to cancel the cards, so we decided the best thing to do was wait until a more convienient time. As we walked to the rim a sign forbodingly warned ´must trek in groups of 4 or more´ a warning we decided to ignore. Suddenly we could see the fantastic vista of the Lago Verde in the basin of the volcano.
We continued to trek around the ridge, scrambling down craggy rockfaces, passing only the odd group of indiginous people with their flock of sheep. It was over half way round when we realised that we had bought too little water and that we would be wise to ration it. We passed several shepherd women, and then we saw one on her mobile phone, and Alex decided to take advantage of the tempermental signal.
Eventually after all the spectacular scenery we had made it back to the village, It was here that we bought a cheap lunch (as we were now running fairly short of cash without a cash machine in sight) and had a reasonable snooze. The next day we began to hike to Chugchilan (bringing far more water with us) Max assured us that todays hike would be far easier than that of the previous day due to it being entirely on a road. This considering the initial bit didn´t seem that easy with us getting confused in a maze of paths on the side of the volcano and eventually having to pay an indiginous woman (Maria) to take us to some woods where we could follow a road of sorts. She offered persistantly to take us to our final destination for only $10 but unfortunatly we had only $3 in change which would get us as far as the woods. Nethertheless this was indeed a worthy investment, and between shouting up the mountain to her friends in a mix of Quichua and Spanish about her sale, and emptying out her plimsole of sand and mud, we made excellent time through the maze of fields and ravines.
From here she estimated that we would arrive in Chugchilan by 1.30pm only 2 hours from then. So we set out in high spirit along the road. Several hours later the road ended abrubptly at a ravine with a plank for a bridge, and a bulldozer with an audiance merely sitting there the next step being unclear. It was obvious that we were not going to reach the destination by 1.30 as it was now 2.00 and despite being able to see it it was across a massive ravine, as we descended passing heavily laden donkeys treking up the ancient pathway we passed several traditional water holes, and after an hour or so we were down, only having the imminent ascent to look forward to. Eventually we made it to Chugchilan and our hostal, where we met some Canadians who were planning a similar move for the next day via the bus to the deserted town of sigchos from which we could get a bus back to Lactacunga. It was here that the curse of the coffee sugar struck again. In one swift move it removed alex´s tooth from his mouth (although a false tooth) which meant we were going to have to visit a dentist. Eventually we arrived in Latacunga and set out in search of a cash machine. The first one we came across failed to work, and the situation was getting desperate with sixty cents between us. A 20 minute walk later and the second one failed to work with Max´s card. Fortunatly it did work with mine, and we were back in business on the bus to Baños via Ambata, we arrived at our current location, where we remain until this day.
For those interested Alex´s tooth was fixed for a very affordable rate, he is now considering getting all his dental work done in Ecuador. AND we have also managed to upload lots more pictures including the Amazon, onto our Flickr Account, which can be accessed via the tab at the side of this blog.
Let me take you back a few days, we wrote our previous post from the small market town of Latacunga, in our intense explorations of the town we discovered an interesting substance which was not dissimilar to Kendal mint cake, although instead of mint it´s coffee flavour, this was ultimatly to prove to be Alex´s demise, but more on that later. We set out from Latacunga onto the village of Zumbahua, where by coincidence there was a festival at the time of our arrival. After observing the celbrations, meeting the friendly local who offered us a lift in Quito from Latacunga to Quilotoa, and consuming a good sized portion of chickens foot soup, we began our walk to Quilotoa village a few hours away. After an hour or so we saw a sign saying ´Quilotoa 7km´ with this we felt like we were indeed getting closer to our destination, so we were severely dismayed when an hour later we asked a local man how far it was and he replyed ´seite kilometre´ exactly the same distance as an hour before. Fortunatly the next woman we asked told us it was only 1km a much more accurate estimate, it must be said that the Ecuadorians seem to lack in accurate estimations of either time or distance.So finally we arrived at quilotoa village and find an comfortable hostal (albeit with some disturbing features) where we rest and await dinner. After our hearty meal, the hostal staff light the wood burning stove, it was then a matter of minutes before we noticed the sickly smell, and the noxious fumes coming from the heating apparatus. As it turns out amongst the rocks resting on the burner had been a lump of the dreaded coffee sugar, looking extremely similar to a rock, it had melted giving off toxic fumes, making even breathing hard in the upstairs of our cabin...which just so happened to be my area. Eventually the air cleared and we managed to get to sleep, despite the heavy odour of coffee in the air.
The next day we had decided to walk around the entire rim of Quilotoa, and set out early after breakfast. Earlier that morning Alex had come to the horrible realisation that he had lost his wallet containing all his cards (although fortunatly only $30 in cash) in Quilotoa village we had no way of contacting the banks to cancel the cards, so we decided the best thing to do was wait until a more convienient time. As we walked to the rim a sign forbodingly warned ´must trek in groups of 4 or more´ a warning we decided to ignore. Suddenly we could see the fantastic vista of the Lago Verde in the basin of the volcano.
Eventually after all the spectacular scenery we had made it back to the village, It was here that we bought a cheap lunch (as we were now running fairly short of cash without a cash machine in sight) and had a reasonable snooze. The next day we began to hike to Chugchilan (bringing far more water with us) Max assured us that todays hike would be far easier than that of the previous day due to it being entirely on a road. This considering the initial bit didn´t seem that easy with us getting confused in a maze of paths on the side of the volcano and eventually having to pay an indiginous woman (Maria) to take us to some woods where we could follow a road of sorts. She offered persistantly to take us to our final destination for only $10 but unfortunatly we had only $3 in change which would get us as far as the woods. Nethertheless this was indeed a worthy investment, and between shouting up the mountain to her friends in a mix of Quichua and Spanish about her sale, and emptying out her plimsole of sand and mud, we made excellent time through the maze of fields and ravines.
From here she estimated that we would arrive in Chugchilan by 1.30pm only 2 hours from then. So we set out in high spirit along the road. Several hours later the road ended abrubptly at a ravine with a plank for a bridge, and a bulldozer with an audiance merely sitting there the next step being unclear. It was obvious that we were not going to reach the destination by 1.30 as it was now 2.00 and despite being able to see it it was across a massive ravine, as we descended passing heavily laden donkeys treking up the ancient pathway we passed several traditional water holes, and after an hour or so we were down, only having the imminent ascent to look forward to. Eventually we made it to Chugchilan and our hostal, where we met some Canadians who were planning a similar move for the next day via the bus to the deserted town of sigchos from which we could get a bus back to Lactacunga. It was here that the curse of the coffee sugar struck again. In one swift move it removed alex´s tooth from his mouth (although a false tooth) which meant we were going to have to visit a dentist. Eventually we arrived in Latacunga and set out in search of a cash machine. The first one we came across failed to work, and the situation was getting desperate with sixty cents between us. A 20 minute walk later and the second one failed to work with Max´s card. Fortunatly it did work with mine, and we were back in business on the bus to Baños via Ambata, we arrived at our current location, where we remain until this day.
For those interested Alex´s tooth was fixed for a very affordable rate, he is now considering getting all his dental work done in Ecuador. AND we have also managed to upload lots more pictures including the Amazon, onto our Flickr Account, which can be accessed via the tab at the side of this blog.
Amazon, Baths, and Finnish People
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Our journey to the Amazon begins at 9pm in a British pub in Quito, where we had a few pre-7 hour journey drinks and played darts. We then tried (albeit unware and unsuccessfully) to leave without paying, as unlike all other pubs in britian, we were meant to pay at the end of the night instead of after every round of drinks. A large tip later we were on hour way, on our first night bus, a journey which was, in one word, scary. After a further 4 hours travel (2 in a minivam and 2 in a motorised canoe) we arrived at a lodge for a spot of lunch. stayng with us was a half German, half ecuadorian couple (who were not siamese twins) and 4 american guys (3 of whom were working in the peace corps). Then we went on our first trip into the amazon actual, floating downstream looking for monkey and birds. Afterwards it was a case of relaxing in hammocks and sampling the local ecuadorian cervezas. The next day started early (for 1 of us) as Franklin went looking for river dolphins, without much success. Then we paddled our canoes into the jungle proper, where we saw massive spiders, ants nests and gerenal insectary. The afternoon saw us go piranha fishing, monkey spotting (where we saw the more intimate part of the monkey lifecycle) and swiming in the river (away from the piranhas, electric eels, caiman, anacondas and those evilest of creatures the, you know, the willy catfish thingy). In the evening we went caiman spotting, seeing icle baby caiman but unfortunatly (or fortunatly) no mama caiman. On our third day we visited an indigenous village, where we ate some local food before playing football against them and swimming in the river. In the Evening we visited the jungle for a second time, taking pictures of all the nightlife, which is basically more insects, but much bigger. During the next day we did some more canoeing through the jungle, where we saw more monkey and even some river dolphins.
Early start next day then the epic journey back - canoe, minibus, five hours in the bus to Papallacta. Paid three dollars to ride the seven metres into the centre of town and found our hostel sin problemas. The next hours were spent washing ALL of our clothes which smelt of sweat, mud, Amazon and general decay. For the rest of the evening we watched a surreal blend of TV westerns and Japanese animé.
Papallacta is known for its thermal baths and we spent most of the following day bathing and relaxing and getting burnt. Ideal. That evening we met Tony: 'Hey guys! Do you have informations for me! I am from Finland, we make Nokia, HAHAHA! Oh, you go to dinner, then I come too!' And he did. He turned out to be an engineer and mildly racist. But all-round, a nice guy.
By Alex and Max
Early start next day then the epic journey back - canoe, minibus, five hours in the bus to Papallacta. Paid three dollars to ride the seven metres into the centre of town and found our hostel sin problemas. The next hours were spent washing ALL of our clothes which smelt of sweat, mud, Amazon and general decay. For the rest of the evening we watched a surreal blend of TV westerns and Japanese animé.
Papallacta is known for its thermal baths and we spent most of the following day bathing and relaxing and getting burnt. Ideal. That evening we met Tony: 'Hey guys! Do you have informations for me! I am from Finland, we make Nokia, HAHAHA! Oh, you go to dinner, then I come too!' And he did. He turned out to be an engineer and mildly racist. But all-round, a nice guy.
By Alex and Max
"Don´t Get Lost No-one Will Come For You"
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Hello, long time no see... We´ve done a lot since the last blog, and have largely been out of contact from the rest of the world. Way back on Monday, we left Quito for Mitadad del mundo - the "centre of the world" or the ecuator to the rest of us. It was here after a one and a half hour bus ride that we visited the exciting monument.
After a brief visit to the top we went for lunch. There was a variety of food oppurtunities at the ecuator, and in the bizzarely deserted tourist attraction we went for a cheap coke and fast food option. Shortly after this we said goodbye to Mckenna the second American girl who was about to meet someone to visit the Cloud Forest (albeit 2 hours late). Then we were once more on our own. After a short taxi ride up to Puluahua (at least we assumed it would take us near to our hostel where we would be camping.) we began to walk down the road, abruptly the road stopped and all that lay before us was a winding gravel trail leading 1000´s of feet down into the bottom of the volcanic crator, there between the clouds we could just about make out the roof a building we assumed to be our hostel.
As we headed down the small and steep trail several times we were overtaken by locals on donkeys, or worse by ancient old men using machete´s as walking sticks. Eventually we were at the bottom, and had found our hostel, where we met Avery the Canadian bird watcher (apparently no pun intended) who had come to the crater to see a type of bird which could only be found here. We spent the rest of the day relaxing out of the hustle and bustle of city, before our dinner, where we met Peter the swiss expat/rancher with a suprisingly strong handshake, and Bill the farmer from America who had looked everywhere for cheap farmland but didn´t want to go to missouri, so Ecuador was the obvious choice. It was at this meal that such gems as "Quechua is not a language its a sickness" came out of the largely silent Peter. We also met Chris the Norwegian fitness trainer. At the end of the meal the Hostel owner Ronalto arrived and advised us on hiking the next day, "don´t get lost no-one will come for you." a piece of advice we strictly followed. The next morning we rose early and bought a packed lunch from the Hostel, and set out in search of the hot springs. following ever smaller pre-incan tracks, we passed a heavily laden donkey and farmer, the only person which we saw for the entire day, As we traversed craggy trails, we eventually reached what can only be considered a semi-stagnant pool bubbling sulpherous gasses at the bottom of a muddy scramble. It was here that Alex was brave enough to take a dip. before we returned back to the hostal around the other side of the mountain.
At this meal both Avery and Chris had already left by horse and we were eating with Ronalto and Bill. Here Ronalto told us how his neighbour had been particularly bothersome and he had threatened to shoot her. (apparently she didn´t beleive him) He then told us he very nearly went through with this when he caught her dog bothereing his puppys and shot at it with his BB gun, he said that he also shot her rooster and that it subsequently died, but that his troubles seem to have been solved. After the meal we went back to our tent.
The next morning we woke and left soon after breakfast taking considerabley longer to exit the crater than had taken us to enter it. Yet due to the time of day we were able to see the spectacular view with a clear sky. Once out we went to an Incan sun temple on the volcano edge from which we rang Daniel our couchsurfing acquaintance, and agreed to meet him at 5 in the Park in San Antonio de Ibarra. Many bus rides later, and after a brief look around San Antonio at its famous wood carving workshops we met Daniel and his brother. Ten minutes later we were in his house, being given a gracious welcome into his family. We saw his garden which was full of exotic fruits and plants, and then we went to visit his Guinea Pigs for eating on "special occassions" Back inside Max and Alex attempted some of the equations set by Daniels brother a maths teacher (although without too much success), and discussed the tense history between Ecuador and Peru. After dinner and a bad Swarznegger film we went to bed. The next morning we went for a tour of the town and surrounding countryside with Daniel, and discussed how the indigenous strike may effect our travel plans. Later we went to the town of Ibarra via bus, where we tried some local icecream, and got rather wet. Then we traveled to the statue overlooking the town, before heading down to a lake and then on to Otavalo. Due to hte dreadful weather during the evening in Otavalo, we only venturede out of our hostel for some dodgy looking kebabs with 3 kinds of meat and a potato on, washed down with a large bottle of coke. Back at the Hostal we enjoyed the Bourne Ultimatum before going to sleep.
At this meal both Avery and Chris had already left by horse and we were eating with Ronalto and Bill. Here Ronalto told us how his neighbour had been particularly bothersome and he had threatened to shoot her. (apparently she didn´t beleive him) He then told us he very nearly went through with this when he caught her dog bothereing his puppys and shot at it with his BB gun, he said that he also shot her rooster and that it subsequently died, but that his troubles seem to have been solved. After the meal we went back to our tent.
The next morning we woke and left soon after breakfast taking considerabley longer to exit the crater than had taken us to enter it. Yet due to the time of day we were able to see the spectacular view with a clear sky. Once out we went to an Incan sun temple on the volcano edge from which we rang Daniel our couchsurfing acquaintance, and agreed to meet him at 5 in the Park in San Antonio de Ibarra. Many bus rides later, and after a brief look around San Antonio at its famous wood carving workshops we met Daniel and his brother. Ten minutes later we were in his house, being given a gracious welcome into his family. We saw his garden which was full of exotic fruits and plants, and then we went to visit his Guinea Pigs for eating on "special occassions" Back inside Max and Alex attempted some of the equations set by Daniels brother a maths teacher (although without too much success), and discussed the tense history between Ecuador and Peru. After dinner and a bad Swarznegger film we went to bed. The next morning we went for a tour of the town and surrounding countryside with Daniel, and discussed how the indigenous strike may effect our travel plans. Later we went to the town of Ibarra via bus, where we tried some local icecream, and got rather wet. Then we traveled to the statue overlooking the town, before heading down to a lake and then on to Otavalo. Due to hte dreadful weather during the evening in Otavalo, we only venturede out of our hostel for some dodgy looking kebabs with 3 kinds of meat and a potato on, washed down with a large bottle of coke. Back at the Hostal we enjoyed the Bourne Ultimatum before going to sleep.
Pizza & Panecillo
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For the last 2 days we have been doing genuinely useful stuff, like sorting out phones, bank accounts and cameras. Well we tried but things happen at a slightly slower pace in Ecuador. Except for the traffic, as we discovered whilst crossing the majority of Quito to find a bus station. This short task, plus getting stuck in a university and eating street kebabs, took up most of our day. During the night there was some heavy rain, followed by some torrential rain, followed by a storm. After volunteering to get pizza, Franklin and me had to cross the river that had formed infront of us (this was infact the road and was due to the horrendous rain). A river so deep Franklin took off his boots to keep them dry. I didn´t and my boots are still wet.
Today we went up to the Virgin de Quito, where we climbed to the top of the statue and had a very relaxing time. Then after a meal of fried fish, head and all (which I ate), we went to a park where we also did very little. Who said this travelling stuff was hard?
By the way, the first post on this blog was written by Matt, the Second by Max and the third by Alex. Please enclose any complaints about sombrero wearing Mexicans to Max
Today we went up to the Virgin de Quito, where we climbed to the top of the statue and had a very relaxing time. Then after a meal of fried fish, head and all (which I ate), we went to a park where we also did very little. Who said this travelling stuff was hard?
By the way, the first post on this blog was written by Matt, the Second by Max and the third by Alex. Please enclose any complaints about sombrero wearing Mexicans to Max
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