South America - part two
We can´t quite believe its the 21st of Feb already and we have not posted a single thing on this site for about three weeks. Excuses - well really only that we have been having lots of fun, Bolivia was impossible to do anything and actually writing one of these stories and uploading the photos we have now realised takes ages! Anyway - apologies and hopefully the next installment will not be three weeks away.
Departing Peru and Bolivia
Having well and truely done Inca Ruins to death in Cusco we headed off to the town of Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca - the highest navigable lake in the world according to the Lonely Planet and our base for a couple of days before heading into Bolivia.
The thing to do here is to visit the Uros floating islands - basically a community living on floating reed islands. Really quaint, including a trip on a straw boat, but it`s only when you realise that whilst their house might be made out of reeds, the satelite dish and TV tucked round the side gives away how touristy it has become.
From there we headed further into the lake to Taquille Island, for some lunch, to see another communities way of life and another Bec moment.
We have been having a competition through South America. The vomit count. As we write this I won´t tell you what we are up to, but lets just say that Bec had number three on the island, as we walked, sneakily by the side of the path, which some of the local animals decided would be great lunch!!! Some kids took a liking to Bec as we walked back to the boat - really they just wanted to be in the photo to get paid......
That night we witnessed a South American festival - quite tame really....lots of dancing and singing in the streets, and people letting off fireworks, using a cigarette and launching them from their bare hands.....crazy......we headed to the hotel for cover (it wouldn´t be the last time!).
And so onwards the next day to La Paz - another nightmare bus journey in true Peru style. A 7am bus left at 12pm and broke down within 5 minutes! Arriving into La Paz at 9pm we headed straight to the flat we had booked only to find the street in total darkness, the place shut up and not a sole around.....and it started to rain!!!! First stop - a 5 star hotel (these were Bolivian stars mind you).
Would love to say beautiful things about our first three days in La Paz - but to be truthful we spent them pretty much locked up inside the hotel. Yes it was festival time again - this time a three day festival - which basically involved locals parading the streets with water bombs, water guns, spay foam etc etc. It was literally a war zone and with every tourist at the top of the hit list it was not somewhere to spend lazily wandering the streets. On a venture out on day three I lost it when two five year olds, egged on by vicious parents, persuaded their evil children to cross the busy road and spray me with everything they had - I retaliated but definitely came off worse.
Thank god for the free internet at the hotel - so three days spent surfing and starting the wedding preparations. Not sure what was worse.......colour schemes, invitation styles, cakes or what would have happened had we braved the outdoors.
Overall Bolivia is a tough place to negotiate, trying to book a salt lake tour was a nightmare....with prices ranging from US$100 to US$800 for what appeared the same trip.....not even the tried and tested solution of throwing money at the situation would work. Take waiting for train tickets....went in, took a number, sat there for half an hour with 30 other people....nothing. When a fellow traveller finally got someone to come to the counter it transpired you couldn´t book tickets for the Friday train until Thursday....."what is everyone else buying?" she asked (given that the only train was Friday!) - god knows......
Some good things about Bolivia........
The festival ended! So we went on a walking tour with La Paz on foot, a truely informative walk from the slums of El Alto to the heart of the city where we learned a huge amount about Bolivian culture, politics and food....
That night, our last before heading to the salt lakes, we went to the minatures market - basically a tradition once a year in Bolivia is to buy in minature what you wish to buy / get in the coming year - and we mean everything from minature houses, buses, degrees, plane tickets, shops etc. You could even stop and get married.....after all the wedding planning this was seriously considered as a cheaper option!
Chris you´ll be pleased to know we opted for the minature wad of Euro notes (a Million) so hopefully the tab will stop growing! And so a bus and train journey later we headed to the South of Bolivia to Uyuni to visit the salt lakes.
We had opted (as usual) for the private tour, and it was with relief when we were met off the train at 10pm by our guide, 4x4 vehicle and driver for the 200m transfer (yes that´s metres!) to our hotel. Oh well - you get what you pay for!
You have to realise that our options here were limited. Squash with 6 other travellers into an old 4x4 for three days, with a Spanish speaking guide (we can now order beer, buy bus tickets and ask where the toilet is but not much else) staying in basic (and this puts this meaning to a whole new level) accomodation where sleeping bags were a necessity, otherwise you freeze to death and eat food which will more than likely make you sick. With the vomit count at Bec 4 - Iain 0, Bec persuaded me we had only one option (nor did we have a sleeping bag!!!).
And so the next morning we set off for our three day salt lake tour, in the comfort of our modern 4x4, with ample supplies of water, coke etc.....This being wet season, limited the distance we could drive across the flats but I don`t think the photos do it justice....truely amazing.
The trip was spent, visiting salt hotels (made entirely out of salt) where I brushed up on my pool skills, geysers and volcanic areas (that in New Zealand we were fenced off from....but not in Bolivia!)....
...and staying in pretty good accomodations considering these were remote communities.
On our final day, literally a days drive from anywhere, we picked up a flat tyre.....
....which thankfully was changed pretty quickly, and we stopped on route to the Bolivia / Chile border to relax in some hot springs and to admire the pink flamingos.
Not sure this border control would have stopped anything.....
...however they had just enough ink for half an exit stamp, our Chilian transfer somehow turned up on time, and before long we were travelling on tarmac roads to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile (seriously after three bumpy days off-road it was amazing to experience the sensation of tarmac under wheels again as we crossed into Chile - and a good example of this differences between these two countries....given the tarmac stops a short distance from the border....probably so the Bolivians don`t steal it!).
I know....I know this is turning into a bit of an epic....sorry for those of you that started reading this when you got into work this morning and its already lunchtime!
Northern Chile
We spent a couple of really enjoyable days in San Pedro de Atacama in Northern Chile. After the first panic of arriving and having nowhere to stay...and realising that this was peak season in Chile (Peru and Bolivia had been low season.....in fact its always low season in Bolivia!) and most places were full, we promised ourselves that from now on we would be more organised and pre-book some of our Chile accomodation to avoid the stress...and having to stay in a hostel!
San Pedro didn`t have a cash machine, or in fact it did but they were broken and you had to wade through a small mountain of white receipt slips to even work that out, so we headed to nearby Calama to stock up on cash, a book a plane ticket to Santiago. Here again we had two options - a three hour flight or 24 hour bus journey....this was not a difficult decision to make!
Rushing back to San Pedro (with Bec moaning that I was trying to fit too much in) we just made the evening tour of the Moon Valley for sunset - another spectacular landscape and sunset was stunning.
And so about a week ago we flew to Santiago, with a slight hic-up when our transfer didn`t materialise at the airport, but it was good to be back into familar surroundings. Even better was being able to catch Man Utd thrash Arsenal in the FA Cup - after three years in Australia have been missing my football and the opportunity to rub Carter`s nose in it in the flesh - telephone and e-mail will have to do for now mate....
Sunday we went across into Argentina to Mendoza for a couple of days to do some wine tasting. Much more our style to spend the day quaffing wine, with gourmet food and atmosphere. A much better experience than Australia or New Zealand, where you get a thimble full of wine during tasting and pretty impersonal service. The Mendoza wineries, give you a private tour of the facility including the cellars, and then sit you down in front of about 8 full glasses of different wine, accompanied with cheese, olives etc for some proper tasting. Quality - although trying to cycle back after that made sticking to the right hand side of the road a tad difficult. Am already planning a delivery of crates of red wine back to the UK......for our first housewarming party.
Speaking of deliveries......news that our belongings have made it back to the UK filtered through today.....panic over....lets just hope its all in one piece and they don`t deliver it this weekend!
And that is about it for this edition. The vomit count is now at Bec 6 - Iain 0 (sounds like an Man Utd v Arsenal score), the Pizza count (10 I think), we have spent about 42 hours in total on buses (41 of which were due to them being late), 1 night in a hostel and about 4 days writing this story....over and out.
One final bit - congrats to Winky on the engagement....ABOUT TIME!!!! Lots of love - Iain and Bec.
Departing Peru and Bolivia
Having well and truely done Inca Ruins to death in Cusco we headed off to the town of Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca - the highest navigable lake in the world according to the Lonely Planet and our base for a couple of days before heading into Bolivia.
The thing to do here is to visit the Uros floating islands - basically a community living on floating reed islands. Really quaint, including a trip on a straw boat, but it`s only when you realise that whilst their house might be made out of reeds, the satelite dish and TV tucked round the side gives away how touristy it has become.
From there we headed further into the lake to Taquille Island, for some lunch, to see another communities way of life and another Bec moment.
We have been having a competition through South America. The vomit count. As we write this I won´t tell you what we are up to, but lets just say that Bec had number three on the island, as we walked, sneakily by the side of the path, which some of the local animals decided would be great lunch!!! Some kids took a liking to Bec as we walked back to the boat - really they just wanted to be in the photo to get paid......
That night we witnessed a South American festival - quite tame really....lots of dancing and singing in the streets, and people letting off fireworks, using a cigarette and launching them from their bare hands.....crazy......we headed to the hotel for cover (it wouldn´t be the last time!).
And so onwards the next day to La Paz - another nightmare bus journey in true Peru style. A 7am bus left at 12pm and broke down within 5 minutes! Arriving into La Paz at 9pm we headed straight to the flat we had booked only to find the street in total darkness, the place shut up and not a sole around.....and it started to rain!!!! First stop - a 5 star hotel (these were Bolivian stars mind you).
Would love to say beautiful things about our first three days in La Paz - but to be truthful we spent them pretty much locked up inside the hotel. Yes it was festival time again - this time a three day festival - which basically involved locals parading the streets with water bombs, water guns, spay foam etc etc. It was literally a war zone and with every tourist at the top of the hit list it was not somewhere to spend lazily wandering the streets. On a venture out on day three I lost it when two five year olds, egged on by vicious parents, persuaded their evil children to cross the busy road and spray me with everything they had - I retaliated but definitely came off worse.
Thank god for the free internet at the hotel - so three days spent surfing and starting the wedding preparations. Not sure what was worse.......colour schemes, invitation styles, cakes or what would have happened had we braved the outdoors.
Overall Bolivia is a tough place to negotiate, trying to book a salt lake tour was a nightmare....with prices ranging from US$100 to US$800 for what appeared the same trip.....not even the tried and tested solution of throwing money at the situation would work. Take waiting for train tickets....went in, took a number, sat there for half an hour with 30 other people....nothing. When a fellow traveller finally got someone to come to the counter it transpired you couldn´t book tickets for the Friday train until Thursday....."what is everyone else buying?" she asked (given that the only train was Friday!) - god knows......
Some good things about Bolivia........
The festival ended! So we went on a walking tour with La Paz on foot, a truely informative walk from the slums of El Alto to the heart of the city where we learned a huge amount about Bolivian culture, politics and food....
That night, our last before heading to the salt lakes, we went to the minatures market - basically a tradition once a year in Bolivia is to buy in minature what you wish to buy / get in the coming year - and we mean everything from minature houses, buses, degrees, plane tickets, shops etc. You could even stop and get married.....after all the wedding planning this was seriously considered as a cheaper option!
Chris you´ll be pleased to know we opted for the minature wad of Euro notes (a Million) so hopefully the tab will stop growing! And so a bus and train journey later we headed to the South of Bolivia to Uyuni to visit the salt lakes.
We had opted (as usual) for the private tour, and it was with relief when we were met off the train at 10pm by our guide, 4x4 vehicle and driver for the 200m transfer (yes that´s metres!) to our hotel. Oh well - you get what you pay for!
You have to realise that our options here were limited. Squash with 6 other travellers into an old 4x4 for three days, with a Spanish speaking guide (we can now order beer, buy bus tickets and ask where the toilet is but not much else) staying in basic (and this puts this meaning to a whole new level) accomodation where sleeping bags were a necessity, otherwise you freeze to death and eat food which will more than likely make you sick. With the vomit count at Bec 4 - Iain 0, Bec persuaded me we had only one option (nor did we have a sleeping bag!!!).
And so the next morning we set off for our three day salt lake tour, in the comfort of our modern 4x4, with ample supplies of water, coke etc.....This being wet season, limited the distance we could drive across the flats but I don`t think the photos do it justice....truely amazing.
The trip was spent, visiting salt hotels (made entirely out of salt) where I brushed up on my pool skills, geysers and volcanic areas (that in New Zealand we were fenced off from....but not in Bolivia!)....
...and staying in pretty good accomodations considering these were remote communities.
On our final day, literally a days drive from anywhere, we picked up a flat tyre.....
....which thankfully was changed pretty quickly, and we stopped on route to the Bolivia / Chile border to relax in some hot springs and to admire the pink flamingos.
Not sure this border control would have stopped anything.....
...however they had just enough ink for half an exit stamp, our Chilian transfer somehow turned up on time, and before long we were travelling on tarmac roads to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile (seriously after three bumpy days off-road it was amazing to experience the sensation of tarmac under wheels again as we crossed into Chile - and a good example of this differences between these two countries....given the tarmac stops a short distance from the border....probably so the Bolivians don`t steal it!).
I know....I know this is turning into a bit of an epic....sorry for those of you that started reading this when you got into work this morning and its already lunchtime!
Northern Chile
We spent a couple of really enjoyable days in San Pedro de Atacama in Northern Chile. After the first panic of arriving and having nowhere to stay...and realising that this was peak season in Chile (Peru and Bolivia had been low season.....in fact its always low season in Bolivia!) and most places were full, we promised ourselves that from now on we would be more organised and pre-book some of our Chile accomodation to avoid the stress...and having to stay in a hostel!
San Pedro didn`t have a cash machine, or in fact it did but they were broken and you had to wade through a small mountain of white receipt slips to even work that out, so we headed to nearby Calama to stock up on cash, a book a plane ticket to Santiago. Here again we had two options - a three hour flight or 24 hour bus journey....this was not a difficult decision to make!
Rushing back to San Pedro (with Bec moaning that I was trying to fit too much in) we just made the evening tour of the Moon Valley for sunset - another spectacular landscape and sunset was stunning.
And so about a week ago we flew to Santiago, with a slight hic-up when our transfer didn`t materialise at the airport, but it was good to be back into familar surroundings. Even better was being able to catch Man Utd thrash Arsenal in the FA Cup - after three years in Australia have been missing my football and the opportunity to rub Carter`s nose in it in the flesh - telephone and e-mail will have to do for now mate....
Sunday we went across into Argentina to Mendoza for a couple of days to do some wine tasting. Much more our style to spend the day quaffing wine, with gourmet food and atmosphere. A much better experience than Australia or New Zealand, where you get a thimble full of wine during tasting and pretty impersonal service. The Mendoza wineries, give you a private tour of the facility including the cellars, and then sit you down in front of about 8 full glasses of different wine, accompanied with cheese, olives etc for some proper tasting. Quality - although trying to cycle back after that made sticking to the right hand side of the road a tad difficult. Am already planning a delivery of crates of red wine back to the UK......for our first housewarming party.
Speaking of deliveries......news that our belongings have made it back to the UK filtered through today.....panic over....lets just hope its all in one piece and they don`t deliver it this weekend!
And that is about it for this edition. The vomit count is now at Bec 6 - Iain 0 (sounds like an Man Utd v Arsenal score), the Pizza count (10 I think), we have spent about 42 hours in total on buses (41 of which were due to them being late), 1 night in a hostel and about 4 days writing this story....over and out.
One final bit - congrats to Winky on the engagement....ABOUT TIME!!!! Lots of love - Iain and Bec.
BecandIain - 22. Feb, 04:01
Hi!
It's great to hear from you. The salt lake photos look stunning. Would love to see that. Not sure about the festivals though, wouldn't endear me to the locals.
News from Padders - looks like we'll stay here till Feb 09, maybe longer as P is staying on his current project. I'm spending too much time falling asleep/ watching TV instead of revising! And the wedding plans... erm are a work in progress. Lots of love!
xxx