Southbound

Well, we are heading south, with note much of note happening. We spent a couple of nights in Mendoza, just eating steaks and sampling the local vintages, with Trapiche the clear favourite. It´s Malbec country here, and not too bad either. Also had a lovely aromatic Sauvignon Blanc.
It was 18 hours on the bus from Salta to Mendoza, and another 18 plus a two hour wait at a stop to get to where we are now, Bariloche. The buses in Argentina are damn good though, depending of which class you go... We have been travelling in "Coche Cama" which means there are only three seats across the bus, and they recline almost to horizontal, you get served meals including wine or whisky, tea and coffee, and its pretty comfortable - more comfortable I would say than alot of the beds we have slept in! I figured out we have done 42 hours on buses in Argentina, and have a lot more to do yet!
Bariloche is in the Lake district, its all glacial fed lakes, snowy mountains, swiss style log cabins, and chocolate shops here. Terrible. We might do some kayaking, and a day trip over to neighbouring El Bolson, then we head further south into Patagonia. I decided to make a map to show what we are up to, and where we have been. Did that and its being slow to upload so I will do it later.
We just got all excited because the lonely planet said that you can do a three night ship journey from Puerto Montt (just over the border in Chile) through the Chilean fjords to Puerto Natales, in Patagonian Chile, which is where we are headed, for $166 in the low season. Just looked it up and bugger, prices have gone up considerably, $500 for a double. There goes that idea. Never mind, the buses are pretty comfy.

A Hoss is a hoss of coss of coss...

Cactuses... or cactii?
Naughty hoss. No, it was the guide showing off. Note cute hoss in the background.
Me on my hoss.

Yes, I went horse riding in Tupiza, Butch Cassidy and Sundance kid territory. It was ok. We went for five hours, and five days later I still hurt. The horses were not in too bad condition really, I was worried they would be half starved pitiful creatures. My horse wouldn´t eat the two apples I bought for him, so he can´t have been that hungry. He did stop to chew on thorn bushes though.

Then we moved south, crossed the border into Argentina relatively painlessly, and spent a couple of pleasant days in Salta, Argentina.

I was worried that Argentina would be expensive, but its not, we are eating alot of steaks, drinking red wine, and generally living it up. Brilliant.

We are off this affternoon to Mendoza, the heart of Argentina´s wine country. It´s 18 hours on the bus, and it leaves in an hour or two so I better get going!

Rurrr, rurrr, rurrenabaque.

Amaszonas is the small airline that flies every day to Rurrenabaque, in the Bolivian Amazon. They have a fleet of about three fairchild metros. Rurre is only a 40 minute flight from La Paz, or a 20 hour valium-necessary bus trip, b.y.o. shovel for landslide removal.

We flew with Amaszonas. We got there some 27 hours after we first went to the airport for our flight. So the bus would have been quicker, but less reliable (!)

We were booked for 4pm on Sunday, and at 11 am, we were both sitting down on the internet at the guest house when the travel agent rang and said ´can you make it to the airport by 12´as it is a half hour trip to the airport, we could, so we did. So we were on the plane at 1pm, they were trying to beat the bad weather into Rurre. It was funny, as all the people in the plane were taking photos of each other, and thought the plane was hilarious - it was a metro, so not something new to us in the slightest!
So we accelerated down the runway in la paz, and boy, you have to go really fast to take off at altitude, something that I am sure Richard the Plane Buff will have explained in full on his blog (www.richard666.blogspot.com) so I won´t bother. Off we go, and circle around La Paz, with spectacular views of the nearby mountains, one of which I know is called Illimani, and another I think is Huayna Potosi. 8 minutes up, and the pilot makes the announcement that we have to go back to la paz because the weather in Rurre is too bad to land. Like, they did not know that ten minutes ago? So we went back, and all the flights for the rest of the afternoon were cancelled. Travel agent said they would update us at 6pm. Went back to the hostel we were at - full. Went back to another hostel we had been at - also full, oh no, wait, he said he had a room with one bed in it downstairs. The bed seemed generous enough for both of us (decieving) so we took it. It was easter sunday, which is the end of one of the biggest festivals of the year, so pretty much everywhere in la paz was full. Travel agent at 6 said we were on the 2pm plane the next day, but she would confirm again at 10 am. 10:30 rolls by, and we hadn´t heard from them, so we called, and she told me, like she said yesterday, we were confirmed for 2pm, but that wasn´t what she said yesterday at all. Never mind, we were on the plane!!
Back to the airport. Another 40 boliviano taxi fare. Now that is pretty cheap by Australian standards (about $6) but when you are only spending 250 to 300 Bovs a day its a lot! So we wait, wait to check in, they tell us come back at 2.30 for more info, so we wait, and come back, and we are scheduled for 3.45 from gate 7. So we are all waiting at gate 7, and at 3.42 a man comes and gets us and says no, no, its gate 2, which is back out through security and go to the international departure area and wait there. Finally we go to the plane, walk out at the international end of the airport, and all the way alomg the tarmac to right next to the gate we were originally waiting at. Never mind, we are getting on the plane. All aboard, oh hang on, we have one too many people, so the hostess called our names and made one israeli guy get off, he was supposed to be on the next flight. Taxi down the runway, accelerate for AGES again, and then, wham, they whack on the skids and we come to a halt just before we run out of runway. Apologies everyone but there is an instrument malfunction, we have to go back to the terminal. So we do. Richard the Plane Buff informs me what it is, something to do with the torque on the props, they have a gauge for each one to measure it, and one of the gauges wasn´t working. SO we go back into the terminal (at gate 7) and the Amaszonas Lady comes and tells us we need to wait for 10 minutes, while they fix the plane. About 40 minutes later, she comes back and tells us that we have to wait another half an hour. RIchard the Plane Buff spotted a box going out to the plane, that looked like a part, this is good news. Meanwhile, the Israeli that was meant to be on the later flight has well and truily overtaken us and is probably in Rurre by now. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, they fixed it, we took off, and this time we landed in Rurre, 40 minutes away, on basically a grass and mud runway (now it is obvious that with half a dozen drops of rain, nothing could take off here). It was absolutely lovely to walk off the plane into the soggy humidity and warmth. La Paz is cold. Rurre is positively tropical. So nice.
(view from the plane) (At rurrenabaque airport)
The guide from Chalalan met us at the airport, and took us to the Chalalan office to give us a run down on everything, then took us to our hotel, the Oriental. Sounds flash. It was ok, we had four beds in our room, and a lightswitch that gave me a hell of an electric shock. I used a rubber tipped pencil to turn the light on and off after that.

Chalalan in a community run ecolodge built in the Madidi Conservation area. The lodge was originally the concept of an Israeli guy that was rafting down the river and sank, and was then found by the community some 18 days later. He wanted to build it, 50/50 with the community. So they approached big american banks, and on the 5th attempt they said we will give you the money, but only to the community, not to this Israeli guy. So that happened, and then the CI (some american organisation) got involved with it all, and five years later they had built a few huts and spent 75% of the money on consultants. The community was naturally not too impressed wit this, and kicked the CI out, and built the whole of Chalalan themselves in five months. Each family of the 74 in the community had to send one member to work there for free for one month, and in return, got a share of ownership of the lodge. So that is how it is now, the church owns 1%, the community as a whole 50%, and individual families from the community the other 49%. I may have got some of the details imperfect, but that is pretty much the story of how Chalalan happened.

So after the night at the oriental, we jumped in a small, but long, wooden boat, for the 5 hour trip up river, first on the Beni and then we chucked a right up the tuichi. The rivers were fairly moving, and the baotmen were no doubt quite skilled in their craft. One sat up the front with a stick, dipping it quickly in the water to see if it was deep or shallow, and guiding the one at the back on the outboard. If the stick bounced off the bottom, the motor was cut, and they tried to find deeper water. Once or twice the bottom of the boat scraped on the bottom of the river. (the boat trip)
We stopped for lunch, (yummy) and then kept on going, saw birds along the way, and butterflies, but no animals. Arrived at Chalalan and walked the 1.8kms from the river to the lodge.

The lodge is set on a natural lagoon a 25 minute walk from the Tuichi River. The Lagoon is spring fed, and the excess flows down to the river. The lodge consists of a bunch of natural huts, all decked out very nicely and harmoniously, with very effective mosquito nets. Very much a necessity. At the moment they can accomodate 28 guests in the huts, and up to 40 camping in the high season. Our group, myself and Richard the Plane Buff, Andrea and Lisa from Sydney, and Susan from California, were the only guests there, it was very peaceful.

(Peaceful lagoon full of sleeping caiman)

We had lunch (again) and then went off for a walk in the jungle with the guide, and about 77 species of flying biting insects, and a whole lot more that crawl up your legs and get you. I guess it was nearly dusk, so it was a bad time. But I was sure I could feel my blood pressure dropping as the little buggers helped themselves to me. They even bit me in the part in my hair.

About 45minutes along the trail we appeared at a little jetty on the lake where there was a canoe waiting for us, the mossies had eased abit by then, and we pleasantly paddled around in the canoe, observing two of the species of monkey that live on the lake, Yellow squirrel monkeys and brown Capuchins.

(canoeing on the lake.)

Then back to the lodge for dinner.

After dinner we went for a night canoe trip in the lake, to see all the baby caimans. Caimans are long skinny crocodiles.

(baby Caiman)

There were literally thousands of them, you hold your torch up to eye level and look around, and all the little red caiman eyes glow back at you. We stopped by these reeds, and they guides made us turn off our torches while they made baby caiman noises, which is something like swallowing or gulping in the back of your throat. So there we were in the dark, in a small wooden canoe, and as soon as they made the noise we heard this great SPLASH, and of course, that was a BIG MUMMY caiman, thinking the babies were calling her. I swore, loudly. We paddled over a couple of metres to observe the big caiman, and she ws big, perhaps 5 metres. We pbserved her for much to long and much to closely for my liking. Then paddled back to the lodge to contemplate how close we were to being caiman food.

(big caiman by night)

the next day Richard, I, and our guide Sergio embarked on a very long walk that involved crossing a river (twice). After we had crossed it the first time (on foot) he asked us if we would like to go Piranha fishing. Where? Yes, right there in the river we had just walked across. We went Piranha fishing later when we crossed the river again, and didn´t catch any.

(Jungle trail)

We were on the lookout for a group of Black spider monkeys, these are much bigger than the yellow ones. We did find them, and alrge group passed over head in the top of the canopy, all stopping to look at us and call to each other, it was pretty cool.

Then we headed back to the lodge for another late lunch. Lunch this time was not brilliant, kind of mashed plantain (bananas) and rice. The rice was nice.

After lunch was siesta, then anther canoe on the lake to see the monkeys again (after such a big walk in the morning, I opted out of a walk and went for the canoe option again) and we got to see the monkeys again, much closer up, as the yellow spider monkeys were all coming down to the lake to drink. So that was cool.

(Yellow squirrel monkey in action)

Dinner, of catfish baked with herbs, and heaps of different salads, and all the other guests who had arrived that day, about 6 geologists, spanish speaking.

We then went for a night walk, which I was not keen on at all, because basically all that comes out at night is spiders, caiman,s and frogs, and you can´t really see the frogs. We did however see a nest of juvenile tarantulas, which was positively disgusting. We also saw another big caiman in the inlet, and we happened to be standing right near the nest, which is not a Good Thing. No dramas though.

(big ass nasty spider, in a tree next to the dining room)

Back to the lodge, for a party, where they rolled us up coca leaves with the ash from the oil palm, and a bit of vine, which we were meant to chew. Now I don´t like the taste of coca tea at all, and a big wad of the stuff sitting in my cheek made me feel like I was at the dentist. also because it made my cheek go numb. Now we also had a rather lethal concotion to wash it down, they called it ´Puma milk´ and it was some kind of alcohol and milk, served warm. It tasted a bit better than the coca. So they played music, and we dnaced, rather uncomfortably, drank puma milk, chewed coca, then had enough and went to bed (after sitting outside playing with the two half grown kittens).

The next morning we left about 9 to walk to the river, get the boat back, only three hours down river. We were lucky enough to spot some capybaras on the return trip.

Chalalan was lovely, and it was good to go and see the jungle while supporting a community initiative, and ecologically sensitive operation. Another day or two would have been nice there.

And we flew safely back to La Paz, landed in the freezing cold. This time the altitude hit me almost immediately, my head was swimming, and felt dizzy, nauseous and horrid. We got a taxi back to Loki hostel, as we were booked in this time. Felt terrible, and went to bed at 5pm, didn´t get up til 7 am the next day!!

So yesterday we ran around and organised our trip out of here - the bus to Oruro on Monday, and then the train from there to Tupiza, where we will spend a couple of days before heading to Salta, Argentina. We are looking forward to getting out of the cold, and to the Argentine steaks!

The world´s most dangerous road by mountain bike.

It wasn´t that bad really. I reckon the road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng in Laos is porbably worse. We left La Paz at about 7:30 am, with Richard suitably hung over after one too many Bocks, a 7% beer. I have never seen Richard not finish a beer, but the night before, he did just that, left a half behind. I had a feeling he wouldn´t be in prime condition for the 66km of mountain biking ahead.

So we get to the starting point, beside a freezing, I MEAN freezing, lake, at La Cumbre 4,700m. Got allocated bikes, and kitted up with helmet, goggles, wet weather jacket and pants, buff (scarf thing) and gloves. Took the bikes for a little spin to see how they felt. They were pretty good.

We cruised down 22km of bitumen first, past snowy mountains, in light misty rain. Our hands were absolutely ICY- so cold!! Had a couple of stops at what are usually scenic points on the road, but today were just banks of cloud. I was a bit hesitant to go too fast as the road was wet, but the group on the whole wasn´t going that quick, we probably only got up to about 60kmh. It was pretty cool.

In this section we went through a drug check point, they are basically looking for the chemicals that are needed to refine coca into cocaine, out in the northern bolivian coca growing regions. Then it is on down to the next checkpoint, where we had to pay the 24 Bs fee to use the road. This fee goes to maintaining it now that it is (supposedly) closed to traffic, as the new road is open.

Then we get into the start of the proper ´world´s most dangerous road. ´ the first section is narrow, rocky, degraded, with waterfalls and overhanging cliffs on the right, and 400m sheer drops on the left hand side. I think it was a good thing there was so much cloud and fog, we couldn´t see the drops at all. I was nervous enough as it was!! Getting used to the bike, and getting abit more confident through this section. The bikes were great, huge big coil rear suspension you hardly felt a bump. Well, not bad anyway.

So we continued on through the rain and the mud for a total of 44kms, the mud was flicking up off the wheels and straight into our faces. You couldn´t wear the goggles because they just fogged up, and if you went without you were just constantly blinking mud and grit out of your eyes, and having to stop all the time when you couldn´t see. I used a combination of both methods!

Occasionally we had some views of the valleys which were lovely, but we were too cold and wet to be standing around looking at the half obscured scenery.

Overall I really enjoyed the riding, alot more than I thought I would, even despite the rain and the mud, and soaking wet feet.

We hurried on down to the finishing point, at a restaurant and accom place called la senda verde. There we had a ´hot´ shower (it was just off freezing) and lunch. They house rescued wildlife there, they had at least three macaws, one without many feathers, a boa constrictor, and a bunch of monkeys, including the one month old howler monkey that is in the photo. He was tiny. There was also loads of ducks, geese, guinea fowl and kittens around.

About 4 weeks ago an israeli tourist died on the ride, he went over a section of cliff that was a 170m drop. There are loads of stories about what happened, everything from he was racing his friend and they were being silly buggers bumping each other, to he was smoking pot, to his brakes completely failing. It could be any of these or something completely different. But basically you would have to be an idiot to ride off the edge, or have your equipment fail. Hence our decision to go with the company with the best reputation. They have been riding the road for 9 years, and have not had a single tourist die, in that time, though, there have been 10 deaths. There has also been a hell of a lot more deaths from bus crashes and all that.

At one point along the road there is a ´democracy monument´. The story issomething like this: Bolivia decides to have democratic elcetions, the ruling military party fancying that they will win hands down anyway. Election time nears, and they realise they are probably going to get beaten, so they round up the five most popluar candidates, take them out to this spot on the road, and push them off, 400m to their deaths. Nice.

Now we have our shoes hanging out of the window at our guest house, hoping that they will dry in time for our jungle trip on Sunday. Considering that it generally takes three days to get clothes dry, and that we just heard some thunder and saw lightning, I think we are asking a bit much.

They took lots of photos of the ride, and we bought the CD, but overall they are not very good, mostly cloudy, and fogged up because of the moisture in the camera. It was a very soggy day.

This last photo is of dried Llama foetuses on the street in La Paz. there were also dried baby llamas, and armadillos, snakes, bats, frogs, allsorts. Not quite sure what one does, exactly, with a dried llama foetus.

The funny things we have seen post.

Here are just three to get it started.

Wheelchair, peruvian bus station.

Kitchen, Uros Islands

Anyone for hole meal toast?

Ok, so they aren´t that funny. There´ll be more though!

Copacabana to La Paz

We rested up well in Copa, did not alot (Richard climbed a hill while I slept) and got the bus to La Paz. We had the worst bus in the street, but I guess it was not too bad.

(Scenic view of Copacabana from the hill)

Left at 8 in a belching cloud of black diesel smoke, and at 9.40 we had to get off in the rain to get a boat across a part of the lake, while the bus got another boat. It wasn't exactly calm, so we were just a little worried about the bus and our bags on the roof tumbling into the lake. When I download the photos you will see what I mean! The boat was being ferried along on essentially what was a bunch of planks tied together and painted, with a 25 hp evinrude for power.
Cold, severely cold, like, freezing (and damp) we piled back into the bus for the rest of the trip to La Paz, arriving pretty early at 12. The approach to La Paz through the sprawling suburb/city of El Alto was a little bit disconcerting, very very poor, flithy, and just not very nice looking at all. Richard was giving me those 'where the hell are you bringing me to now' looks, and I was a little apprehensive. Then you come over the crest of the canyon, and 400m below lies La Paz itself. We got a taxi to the hostel we had booked, and while it is not quite as great as the web site makes out, it will do. We have our own room, not quite ready for dorms yet I think.
Hit the street and walked down to the main drag, and the two offices of the two tours we wanted to do were literally right next to each other. We booked our mountain biking trip down the World's most Dangerous Road (you will see what I mean when I have done it and have pictures). http://www.gravitybolivia.com/ that is the company we are going with, they look pretty good.
Walked next dour to america tours and booked our 4 day, 3 night trip out in the Bolivian Amazon, plus flights to get there (the 20 hour bus ride did not appeal). We fly to Rurrenabaque, stay the night there, then cruise up river for 5 hours and walk for half an hour to get to the jungle Lodge, Chalalan, stay 2 night there, all inclusive, with walks n stuff.
It was not cheap, not cheap at all, but I guess it is going to be the only time we go and visit the Brazilian amazon, so it is not to be missed. Plus we have heard good things about it from other people.

La Paz doesn't really grab me at all, I heard that the shopping here is good, but seeing as I lost BOTH my cash cards, I can't really go crazy on that front. Stupid ATMs over here, give you your money first, and then you have to push a button to get your card back, and silly me forgets to do that. But it is no big deal, I will just call travelex and cancel them, and then they wire me the remaining money to western union apparently, and there is one of them right around the corner. I suppose I should do that.

Next update with more photos....

Puno and goodbye to Peru.

(View of Puno)

We got the bus from Arequipa to Puno, excited by our first glimpses of Lake Titicaca, or as Richard likes to call it, Lake booby brmmm brmmm. Yes, I thump him for that.

Puno was ok, a reasonable little town, with a nice kind of pedestrian mall going from one plaza to the other. The first day we took a half day tour out to Sillustani, these great big kind of tombs, the largest being 12 metres high, and kind of an inverted cone shape. There were more than a hundred of them at the site, but mostly it was great just to be away from the cities and out in the fresh clean air by the lake.

(Sillustani tomb thingy)

Next was a day trip out to two islands on the lake; Richard could not be convinced to do the 2 day 1 night homestay trip, so we settled just for the day trip. First it took us to Uros, the floating islands, which are a whole bunch of very touristy yet still very interesting islands, which are made out of the local Totora reed, all bundled together, and they float. They have all these little boats made out of the reed, as well as the houses, pretty much everything made out of the reeds. One little island even had a couple of couches made from the stuff. We took a ride from one island over to another in one of the reed boats, which was pretty cool.

The islands originated because the people were escaping the nasty Callas and Incas, and took their boats out onto the lake, tied them together, and placed a bunch more reeds over the top. Evry two weeks they dump a heap more reeds on the top, and they rot away from the bottom. The island we were on was sitting in about 20 m of water.

(Cool reed boat) (floating island)

Then we motored on over to Taquile Island, which is a proper island, not floating. Walkd up a

bloody long way to the main town square, then to a restaurant for lunch, fired trout, rice and potatoes. Walked back down the other side of the island and onto the boat for the long slow trip back to Puno.

There were three other aussies on our trip, also from our hostel, and we all went out for Pizza, along with Maxine, and English girl who was in Mine and Richard's 'apartment'. (the hostel was divided into three apartments, with two bedrooms, a living room with couches, and a TV, and bathroom) I felt a little dodgy on the way to the restaurant, sat down in it and felt just a little dodgier. Whne the pizzas came, and they really did look fantastic, I got one whiff of the cheese and bolted for the loo, thank god it was empty, managed to get the door open and power spew and hit the toilet from about 2 metres away. Mostly hit the toilet anyway. So I threw my guts up, let the other end do the same, and bolted back to the hotel. And that was the rest of my night, being violently, violently ill, terrible stomach cramps, etc. Really nasty. We were supposed to get the bus to Copacabana, Bolivia, the next day, but there was no chance.

So I slept most of the next day, and this morning we got the bus to Bolivia.

Copacabana seems pretty nice, we tried to book a fancy $20 hotel, but it was booked out, so we took our chances when we got off the bus. Walked into the Hotel Ambassador, and here is a pic of our room, all for 80 bolivianos, which is about $10 US, its the best room we have had yet.

The border crossing was suprisingly uncomplicated, get off the bus in peru, get a police stamp, get an immigration stamp, walk 200 metres through marching bands and parades and all sorts (being that it is the first day of Semana Santa, the Easter celebrations) into Bolivia, get an entry stamp, and wait for the marching bands to finish so that the bus could get through. We had heard lots of stories about how they only pretend to stamp you passport and don't leave a mark and then fine you for it later, but we appear to have everything in order. The Peruvian immigration guy even got all excited about Kangaroos when he saw we were from Australia.

Well I am feeling better now, had a meal, the first in 48 hours, and now think a snooze is in order. We have a good feeling about Bolivia, so far, it is so good.