Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires 8 & 9 April 2013


Another night bus looms.

...A 17 hour night bus!!

After our experience in Bolivia we are all a little apprehensive. But Mark and Jeremy had spent ages scooping out the best one and this one looked pretty flash. Not the dream of full cama (seats recline to flat!) cos it was crazy expensive, but coache cama whatever that might be, apparently somewhere between semi cama and full cama! Anticipation is running high! Apparently Bolivia was where they send the normal buses from the rest of south America to die so that might have explained our previous experiences!
This bus was magnificent, super comfy wide seats that reclined heaps and had leg rests!! They even gave us food! Tho the breakfast comprised of crackers and biscuits so not really amazing! Plus the road was smooth and tho the bus engine was noisy there was no crazy music so we all got a reasonable amount of sleep. Phew!!

 
 We arrived into Buenos Aires at about 1 pm and made our way to the hotel. The taxi driver ranted to Mark in Spanish the whole way, a very opinionated chap!!
By this time we are all starving so we venture out to check out the city and find food. Menu of the day (gnocchi and ravioli) at the Revolutionary cafe on the edge of a nice plaza was just what we needed.
Meredith headed back to the hotel for a siesta and the rest of us wandered down the main street towards the Casa Rossada.  We lay on the grass in the park for a while them headed over the bridge to the docklands area. This is a really cool area which was previous neglected old dock areas and has been revitalised to make it into a modern restaurant and residential area. It was so beautiful to sit and have a beer by the side of the canal. And watch the sun set over the Woman's Bridge.

We then wandered back to the hotel for a fierce game of Settlers over a bottle of local red before venturing out for a meat fest!! Meat of all types is pretty big here so we had to check out a parilla - grill restaurant.
It was almost a fiasco when Jez accidentally didn't order a giant steak and got a salad! Mark saved it by using the fantastic Spanish phrase "mi amigo est moy stupido" !!!

Day 2
We wandered around the Recoletta area of town, its the rich area and was really flash. For me its really interesting to see all of the high rise apartment buildings yet it looks so lovely and is such a nice area.

There are so many beautiful parks and plazas here its really a lovely city to wander around. We popped into the art gallery for a bit too.
Lunch was Milaneses - essentially schnitzel with toppings, and sometimes in a sandwich, described by the waiter as pizza of meat!
Then we visited the Recoletta Cemetery. This isn't just any normal cemetery, its more like a city of giant tombs. These things are huge!! Everyone who is anyone in Buenos Aires or Argentina is buried there. Must are family vaults so there are several coffins inside or stairs down to a crypt plus an alter. Many have been restored but some are clearly neglected. I think those those ones were the most creepy, doors hanging off the hinges, some of the coffins broken open! Actually pretty sad too. We, of course, visited the grave of Evita who is still pretty big here. Hers was the one with the most flowers on it.

We took another wander along the docklands area and back past the Casa Rossada before catching the rush hour sub te back to the hotel.
Although we had wanted to check out a tango show or some place interesting for dinner, tonight was our last night all together so plans  were laid for wine and more games of settlers. This morphed into more wine, more settlers and pizza. An excellent and entertaining night!!! Feel sorry for anyone who might have had the rooms next door cos there was much hilarity  :-)
We were all very sad to part in the morning, the original trio back to Santiago and home to reality and lucky Mark staying in Argentina and travelling the world for the rest of the year. We had such an awesome time together and travelling as a group of four was so much fun.

Foz de Iguazu

Saturday and Sunday (6/7 April 2013)
We were at iguassu falls today and yesterday. I don't think that my creative writing and thesaurus skills are quite up to describing it. Its huge and incredible and loud and wet and just fully awesome. Actually in the literal sense if the word!
Really it felt like every time we came around a corner there were more water falls!! We were ooing and ahhing like crazy people!! Yesterday we visited the Brazil side which has a really good overview of the scale of the falls, today we went to the Argentina side where we got right up close to them all (and very wet)!!
Some facts which might give you an idea of scale...
The total edge of the waterfall is 2.7 km long! The falls vary from 60 to 82 m high. There are about 150 to 300 waterfalls in total depending on the water level. About half of the river's flow falls into a long and narrow chasm called the Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo in Spanish orGarganta do Diabo in Portuguese). The Devil's Throat is U-shaped, 82 metres high, 150 m wide, and 700 m long.
Its all pretty epic!!! On the Argentina side there are heaps of viewing platforms right up to or on top of the waterfalls. Plus an island in the middle to take a boat to to get another angle!
Here are a few pictures which hopefully describe it better than I can!! Jeremy has got really good at taking panoramas on his phone.
Just now we are waiting to catch a 17 hour bus to Buenos Aires overnight tonight!
Love Gem and Jez

Rio de Janeiro - The Marvellous City

2-5 April

Rio had a rocky start...

The other drama that had happened in Bolivia at the same time as the robarro saga was that one of our flights to Rio had been cancelled. To make matters worse its Easter weekend and nothing is open. Meredith managed to get on the phone to an English speaking rep at LAN airways to rearrange our crazy day of connections to get us from Santa Cruz to Rio, it ended up working out better with an earlier arrival time into Rio. Good thing that!! Because Mark had booked separately he was on completely different flights and got a sleep in in Santa Cruz.

We had booked into a hostel in Rio because accommodation was expensive (and everywhere is crazy expensive after two weeks in Bolivia which is super cheap!!) But...when we arrived in the middle of the most mad thunder storm the hostel had screwed up the booking and wasn't expecting us to arrive until next month!!! Bugger!! The dude at the desk (who was drinking beer) rang around a few places to try find us some place to stay. After we rejected the 4000 real a night must-have-been-very-flash hotel, another of the guests suggested a nice family run place down the road. Luckily they had space!! The rain was showing no sign of letting up so we braved it and walked three blocks. The lady at Maragaridas spoke no English but seemed to understand that these three very wet backpackers dripping on her doorstep were the ones that the other place had called about. We piled into the room and unpeeled all our wet gear and hung it all everywhere. Next challenge was to try to explain that actually our amigo was also coming later to so we needed another bed and towel etc! We had tried to explain the same to the hostel so they'd send Mark down when he arrived at 1 am. fingers crossed!
Meanwhile Mark had only just made it to Buenos Aires airport having been delayed for several hours due to crazy rain there so we managed to touch base on Facebook!! Yay for social media!
You'll remember I said Mark wasn't feeling well and he still wasn't so the next bit really sucked! When he got to the first hostel it was a different dude on the desk who obviously hadn't read the notes so he checked Mark in and got him a bed. a couple of hours later at about 4 am he woke Mark up and kicked him out into the street in the pouring rain to walk down to Margaridas. Fortunately they knew who he was and sent him up to us. When we woke up in the morning Mark had appeared and was dead to the world, still fully clothed, asleep on his bed!
Needless to say it was a slow start to the day.  We didn't really get going until mid afternoon!! The Ipanema area we're staying in is really nice, although the weather was still a bit rubbish we checked out the beach, had a really yummy lunch, and wandered along the board walk down to Copacabana.
The beach is amazing, there are kiosks all along selling drinks and food plus football pitches and heaps of other stuff. As dusk came all the lights came on along the beach - so pretty. We wandered back towards Ipanema and found somewhere for dinner, looked like a pub but the food was quite flash. Gem ordered a paella which came in a hot pan, much to her discomfort the waiter insisted on serving it onto her plate every time she ate the last serving. It became a bit of a game trying to sneakily serve myself!! A bit random but very yummy. Jeremy continued his trend of giant steaks!
As we hadn't yet seen the famous Cristo Redentor statue, we walked down to the lagoon to try see but it was covered by cloud, all we got was occasional glimpses of his robe.
Yummy gelato then time for bed.

Rio day 2
Best day in Rio ever today. We got up early to clear skies finally and headed up to see the Cristo Redentor, Christ the Redeemer statue. We got to catch a train up the hill through the 'florist' (forest as described by the lady at our hotel) to the top. The views are so spectacular all over the city. Looking down over Ipanema where we're staying all the tree lined streets divide up the suburb like green channels. The Christ looks down over the city blessing it with outstretched arms. He is huge! There were tonnes of tourists everywhere at the platform on top of the mountain all taking pictures with their arms out! There is also a small chapel at the base of the statue.
Jez took heaps of panorama pics of course then we headed down and since now the sun was properly shining, out to the beach. Yes!!

Mark and Meredith have been hanging out for acai berry smoothies since they are sold everywhere here so we had those for lunch with sandwiches tho they turned out to be sorbet. Super yum!
Ipanema beach was just so lovely, today we were able to see all the mountains around and look back at the Christo Redentor also. The sea was refreshing and had a very strong undertow do we didn't swim for too long but just relaxed on the golden sand which is just like brown sugar.
Jez and Meredith bought hats to match Mark's Cuban drug lord one! Looking good!!

After roasting ourselves for a while and checking out the locals in their speedos and tiny bikinis, the next outing was to the Pao de Acucar (sugarloaf) for sunset. This was an excellent plan, there were no crowds or queues and the view of the city as the sun set and the lights all came on was absolutely spectacular! Rio is so beautiful, its easy to see why they call it the Marvellous City. And all with Cristo Redentor lit up on the mountain in the background. So many mountains sticking up all over the city and the beaches along the side.  Plus there are two cable car/gondolas to take to get to the top which was cool in its self.

Dinner tonight resulted in all you can eat pizza, not just Pizza Hutt style tho, this was flash, they kept bringing new flavours to the table until we were fit to burst, then it was time for dessert pizzas too. Mark almost feel off his chair when he tasted the white chocolate and m&m one. Ohh. Yup it was good.
We scoped out the night markets along Copacabana and all got new Haviana jandals and a few souvenirs and postcards.

Another lazy morning for our final day since we were all in a bit of a pizza coma from last night. Tho, the breakfasts at Margaridas were amazing, fresh rolls with ham and cheese and scrambled eggs and fresh fruit and cake! Yup cake! Cake and/or cake bread are very popular breakfast foods in this part of the world!!
In the hour or so before our flight out Meredith and I went and got pedicures to have nice toes with our new jandals, and the boys went back to the beach and had more smoothies  :-)
Rio de Janeiro was amazing, such a super cool city. I'd love to come back and spend more time here.
Love Gem and Jez

The last of Bolivia

After the robarro saga, a couple more crazy bus and taxi rides and arriving at around 11 pm we decided to splash out and stay in the most flash place in Sucre that the lonely planet had to offer. Such bliss, it hardly even felt like Bolivia anymore.

In the morning Sucre felt even more like paradise, sunshine but not burning, air that is possible to breath, (its much lower altitude), no dust, ahhh. Well for some of us anyway, Mark was really sick so we stocked him up with half a dozen power aid and left him to sleep. It would be another few days before he was really feeling better.

Sucre is a university town and it felt like it, the first thing we saw when we went for a wander was people in zebra costumes directing traffic at the zebra crossing!!

Jeremy didn't mention that the robarro had also taken such useful things as all our camera and phone chargers! So we checked out some shops to try replace the stuff we needed.
Saltinas for morning tea, Bolivian empanadas, which were really yummy, then chilled in the pleasant temperature sun in the courtyard of the hotel.

Hotel lunch resulted in giant ravioli for Gem and Meredith and beef medallions for Jez. Yummy!!

Next flight to Santa Cruz on a wee plane to save us another 20 hour bus ride through the mountains on Bolivian buses.best decision ever!! Looking out the window at the Andes descending into tropical jungle was a much nicer way to experience it than by bus on the tiny winding roads we could see!!

Again arriving into Santa Cruz didn't feel like the Bolivia we knew (and loved? Or knew and hated...maybe that's too strong).
It was tropical firstly, and seemed really developed, almost like somewhere in Asia but without all the motorbikes!! Definitely not a dusty backwater like Uyuni!!

We arrived late and had a very early start (3 am) so we went down to the pool associated with the hotel at the local rec centre. The cafe was run by a Korean family so we had real yummy cup noodles for dinner!

Overall Bolivia has been a crazy experience. I think that's about the only way to describe it. The buses were rubbish, we were unlucky enough to get robarro'd (tho that worked out ok in the end), the altitude was hard work, we got stuck in a strike action, generally everything seemed really backwards, oh and the toilets were gross and never had toilet paper!. But despite all that, and maybe with the hindsight of a few days recovery now, it was pretty cool. The places we got to see were beautiful, amazing landscapes, especially the salar and the moonscapes of the desert, plus the worlds highest navigable lake, incan culture, Copacabana and Sucre were cool towns too. And really all those challenging crazy times are what this kind of travel is all about. I'm so glad we went!  :-)

Love Gem and Jez

Robarro!!!!

Robarro!! - Jez

After being out in the salt flats for three days, we were pretty keen to get out of Uyuni. So we had a quick pizza dinner and got ready to catch a bus out to Potosi. As we hadn't been to an airport in a while, I just had my passport tucked into my backpack. We were keeping a close eye on our bags whilst waiting for the bus since the bus terminal was actually just a dusty street.

When the bus arrived we stowed out big packs up on the roof and hopped on the bus. The seats were pretty cramped, so as normal I chucked my backpack into the overhead compartment and got into my seat. This turned out to be a mistake as soon after sitting down the man sitting behind me began telling me (in Spanish) that a gourdo (fat) negra (black) man had just stolen and run off with my bag. The thief was already long gone but we scoured around the dusty bus street anyway but saw no sign of him.

And thus began the saga of the missing passport.

We all got off the bus and collected the rest of our luggage before it left town. We needed a home base to make some new plans, so we checked into the closest hotel. After securing out belongings in the rooms we went off to the police station. Luckily Mark had enough Spanish to explain what happened to the police, and we learnt that the Spanish for insurance was seguro. The police weren't overly helpful and managed to get my name and the date wrong on the initial police report. But once that was corrected we walked away with an officially stamped police report.

Next we went into a small shop that had internet and a couple of phone booths. It was run by this crazy lady who very firmly insisted that we couldn't use any USB and that Gemma couldn't use my computer station while I was on the phone. And finally the phone cut out in the middle of my call to my insurance company. So needless to say we left and went to a better, internet cafe.

The next place was normal, so while the others checked Facebook, I got on the phone and talked to the NZ embassy in Santiago. After spending the better part of an hour on the phone, it turns out that the best plan is to go to the British embassy in La Paz and get them to issue me a temporary document that will allow me to leave Bolivia and fly to Santiago. Once there, the NZ embassy can issue me an Emergency Travel Document. Although most countries accept this as the same as a passport, Brazil and Argentina do not. And these were the only countries left on our trip - not ideal.

We briefly considered some alternative plans like splitting the party up or spending more time exploring Chile, but decided to sleep on it and reassess in the morning. We had already lost a day by starting in Uyuni another night, so we needed skip Potosi and get to Sucre if the others (with passports) were going to catch their flights.

Next morning we had a futile search around the bus street and the surrounding blocks to see if the robaro had dumped either my bag or passport. There are piles of rubbish in the centre of each intersection that act as dirty roundabouts, but none of them had my bag hidden in it.

We had given up all hope and went to book new bus tickets out of Uyuni. Mark went in to a couple of shops to scope out prices, and when he asked the bus company where we got robbed, there was a surprise waiting for us - my passport! The robber had no use for a New Zealand passport and had kindly handed it in. No backpack, but with my passport in hand we could continue on our trip. Happy days!

Love Jez

Salar de Uyuni

From la paz we caught an overnight bus to Uyuni where the salt flats tours leave from. 
Mark had picked us up tickets from the bus station on his way through to Copacabana from the only window which was open.they had shown him some pictures of a flash bus with proper semi cama (reclining) seats so he booked. The thing we have learnt in Bolivia is that they are happy to lie to your face. "is this bus semi cama?"  "is thus bus direct?" Will the bread be toasted?" "will there be boats?" "Si", "Si", "Si" but actually no! The bus was the shittest bus ever! (and we never got toasted bread at any point in Bolivia!). Luckily we had what were probably the best seats in the bus but Meredith and Mark had the front seat and so were subjected to full view of the death defying collection of unpaved potholes which they call the la paz to Uyuni road.

At first we thought we might be able to spread out across a few seats but it appears that the system is to load on the gringos at the main bus station, then at another location to load in as many locals with all their stuff as will possibly fit into every last space. There were people sleeping in the aisles and everything. Not only was it crazy there was mad Spanish music coming from somewhere as well as a movie and its noise playing at full blare!!

We did manage to get a wee but of sleep, there was a 2am toilet stop in the middle if a desert somewhere. Every make on the bus got off and peed in the desert, all of our group was asleep so I ventured into the tiny seedy cafe to try find a banos, most quick pee ever cos I didn't understand the explanation in Spanish of how long we were stopping for and didn't want the bus to leave without me without anyone knowing I was gone. Weird thing about Bolivia, maybe its some cost saving measure but there is no loo paper provided anywhere! And the loos are gross!! I needn't have rushed, the driver got off and ordered a full meal so the 10 min stop ended up being about an hour!!

Eventually we arrived in Uyuni.  Tired and a bit dopey we piled off the bus to be accosted by tour operators trying to convince us that theirs is the best way to see the salt flats. Eventually we gathered our wits and allowed one to offer us a lift (with our packs) to his office where he would explain it all then we could go compare other companies. Any chance not to have to carry our packs is good  and his spiel about the tour was very slick including an English speaking guide. We had also been recommend another company so we checked them out but we less impressed. Sorted.

Breakfast, then chilled out on the dusty street like hippies for a while before we got on the way. Six people in each Jeep, all our packs loaded in top with the supplies for 3 days in the middle of nowhere and we were off.

The first stop was the grave of trains, all the rusted locomotives and carriages from the hay day of Uyuni's railway. Obviously being Bolivia there is no health and safety so we could climb all over them and pretend to be train robbers or James Bond. Awesome!!

We visited a small village at the edge of the salar where they process the saltto see how its done then we were out in the salt flat proper.
Its very hard to describe, white flat salt as far as the horizon in every direction, some far off mountains are viable. The mirage makes all the distances impossible to tell.black dots resolve into other Jeeps then disappear. The salt is dried into hexagon shapes.

Apparently in the middle the salt crust is up to ten meters thick of salt and in places you can break through the first layer to the water underneath to grab out the fresh salt crystals. they are so beautiful, huge cubes of salt.
We stopped a number of times to look at the salt and to take crazy perspective pictures. Us holding reach other on our hands out Cushing each other underfoot.the possibilities are pretty endless! Lunch was alpaca steaks and was had in a hotel built of salt, even the chairs and tables were salt blocks.

In the afternoon we continued to drive across the salar, visiting Isla de los Pescados, the fish island where crazy cacti grow and there are amazing views over the salar. Jeremy had become the panorama king, slightly obsessed with the panorama function on his phone so is taking a million of these whether we stop.

The evening of our trip was a bit of an experience. There were two Jeeps in our tour, we were in the following Jeep.after the final stop on the salt for last pictures we headed off again to apparently drop our stuff at the hostel and return to the salt for sunset.we stopped at the first hostel and the drivers got out and conferred then we were off again. this happened again at the next place during which time the sun is beginning to set and we're starting to wonder what's going on. Our driver only speaks Spanish.this time the lead Jeep gets way ahead of us and vanishes, the driver starts to drive like a crazy person in an effort to catch up. Sunset comes and goes. Now its dark and we have no idea what's going on. Finally we find the other Jeep, there is some arm waving by the drivers and we're off up a hill. at the top is an empty salt hostel with the owners scrambling to get beds made and the generator going for us. Turns out they don't book the accommodation ahead, just rock up and hope, hence the mad dash to get ahead of the other groups! The place was amazing, everything, including the beds was made from salt and it was so warm inside after the freezing night air. remember we are still at 3600m here.

After missing the sunset lay night we braved the chilly pre dawn to be rewarded with a beautiful sunrise over salt and surrounding hills (mountains?). Today we let the salt and drove through a whole range of scenery and landscapes and saw so many different places and sights. Multi coloured lakes with flamingos; invented the flamingo (aka penguin) pose; mars or moon like rocky deserts; so many different rock formations; caves with stalactites; caves with mummies; a volcano smoking in Chile; more rocks; more lakes; more flamingos! It was a massive day.

That night we stayed in a basic hostel near the shore of lake Colorado. We treked out across the rocky landscape to try catch another sunset but the sun was too fast for us so all we got was frozen faces. Nice walk tho.

Day three of the tour started at 4 am to drive to see the geysers at dawn. Seriously impressive to watch the sun come up through the steam. They've obviously never heard of health and safety cos we were able to walk up close and peer right into the bubbling mud. a very impressive way to start the day followed closely by dulce de leche on pancakes and a two hour soak in hot springs on the edge of another lake. Oh yeah!! So glad the guide had convinced us out of visiting another lake in favour of more hot springs time. It was still  below freezing outside so getting changed into our togs was interesting!!

More lakes, more rocks and a different soundtrack of Spanish rap music on the way back to Uyuni.

Overall it was a pretty fantastic trip and we saw some awesome stuff. The tour company we used was reasonable and I would probably recommend them: safety seemed fine (had to change a flat tire on the last day), guide was informative (so glad we paid extra for English speaking), food started good and got progressively worse.

Back to Uyuni and we grabbed dinner before or next adventure began.

Love
Gem and Jez

Welcome to Bolivia we're having a bus strike!

Tuesday (26 March)
Its been an interesting day so far, we started in Puno, Peru this morning all up early ready to catch our bus to Copacabana in Bolivia. Both Towns are on lake Titicaca, the worlds highest navigable lake at around 3800m .we had decided to explore the lake from the Bolivian side as we wanted to visit isle de sol, the birth place of the sun according to the incas rather than Uros, the floating reed islands which we'd heard was a bit too touristy.

So in accordance with our plan we all got on the bus to Copacabana in Bolivia at the bus station in Puno they mentioned that the bus was going an alternative route to la paz because of some strikes but Copacabana was fine so we set off on our merry way. The journey along the lake is pretty nice its a huge lake and we saw lots of llamas and alpacas grazing by the roadside.
Things started to get a bit unusual when we got to the Peru/Bolivia border, cleared all the immigration in Peru got our police stamp, walked 50m though the arch way to Bolivia and did Bolivian immigration also. Then we waited...and waited.we started to wonder g how they know when everyone on the bus has cleared immigration and when we'd start off again.then the bus man comes over and says there is a blockade and the bus can't go any further. Hmmm ok...

So everyone piles into collectivo mini buses thinking they can get us to Copacabana, its only 8km. But it drops us at a row of rocks across the road and can go no further.everyone has to walk the rest of the way.

So we walked!! We passed several more road blocks including a whole tree cut down across road!! Eventually we made it tired and hot into Copacabana. Its a really cute town.unfortunately we had missed the ferry to isla del sol for the afternoon.

The next challenge was to met up with Mark.our original plan had been to meet in the main square in front of the Basilica at around midday and if not to check back on the hour. Since it was now about just about 2 pm we waited till the next hour and made a plan to go have some lunch and check back next hour. Success, Jeremy returns with Mark, despite all having to walk from the border and having only the vaguest of plans for meeting up in a foreign place w did it!! Now we are four!

Having a fresh face gives us a new burst of energy so Meredith and Gem set out to find us a hotel for the night while the boys guard the bags and Mark has a well earned juice. side note, freshly squeezed juice of all sorts of tropical flavours its really big here and is on every menu. So yummy!!
Further success we find a hotel for about $20 each! After a siesta and watching the stunning sunset over a few beers we ventured out for dinner. Another interesting experience, we chose Mexican thinking w couldn't go too far wrong... For about the first half hour atleast we didn't see any grown ups only a 6 or 7 year old kid who gave us menus and the order pad to write our own order down! Luckily they also had games so epic Jenga ensued and a game of hearts before the drinks and food arrived.

Wednesday
At breakfast about 20 plans were made and discarded for what to do for the day, do we take the boat to the isla del sol, do we stay the night there (our original plan) or just do a day trip. As we learned more about the blockade situation.
We decided to go for the night, then in the boat Mark chatted in Spanish to the boat driver some more we changed the plans a few more times and decided to come back in the afternoon. Slowest boat ever probably never went above 5 knots.

The trip was amazing. The island is very barren and dry with beautiful beaches and amazing vistas across the lake.we got dropped in the north and hiked to the puma rock the site of the birth of the sun and the beginning of the inca creation legend. there were also ruins of an inca or maybe pre inca settlement which were cool and had an amazing view. Also there was snow on the ground!! It was really hot but at 3800m asl really the weather can do anything!!

Next we caught the boat down to the south of the island to check the inca staircase and inca spring.very cool such a huge flow of water coming out of the rock.pretty breathless at the top of the stairs tho! Altitude is hard!

Mark had somewhat arranged with the boat driver that he could take us around the blockade by water to the border whet we'd b4 able to get a bus to la paz to continue our journey. When when we went back to chat with him in the evening no sigh of him. So we hiked up the hill above Copacabana and took in another amazing sunset over the lake. really its an idyllic spot.

Thursday
The plan this morning was to find a boat driver to take us and some other gringos we had tagged in with to the border. Unfortunately Mark came back with bad news, the village has spoken (!), no boats are to take gringos to the boarder. No boats are even going to the island today. Thank goodness we had decided to come back! Ok so what about a taxi could we get dropped to the first blockade? Apparently also no the village has spoken about that too. Its walk or stay.since we have a bus booked tonight to take us to the salt flats and we're running out of time having already spent more time here than planned its really a choice of walk or walk.

Some other tourists told us one of the bus companies was walking all together to the border (8km, at altitude, with packs) then the bus would be waiting there. We boosted to get our stuff ready and joined the convoy of backpackers trudging along to the border. it was a very long way and our packs seemed to get heavier by the meter but we finally made it. Went through the Bolivia immigration, went through the Peru immigration, got tonnes of passport stamps. Then waited, and waited. Finally a bus came as promised and we we're on or way to la paz.

Since this is the alternative route after about an hour we arrive at the next Peru/Bolivia border and have to go through double immigration again. This time there is a massive queue but we nailed it and eventually finally we have arrived in la paz. The only bit of la paz we'll be seeing is the bus station. But the view of the city from the road coming in was spectacular, the city is set in a valley with high (very high la paz is at 4000) snow capped mountains in the background, and its huge!

Now we've had hamburgers and are stocking up on snacks for the next leg of our journey. The overnight bus to Uyuni to get a tour of the salt flats.

Stay tuned  :-)

Love Gem and Jez

Pictures...in a random order sorry  :-)

Foot path on Isla del Sol
Isla del Sol
Road block on the way in
Gringos walking out of Copacabana
Bolivia border crossing
Sunset from Copacabana
Copacabana town
Isla del Sol
Puma rock

An eventful week!

Bolivia has been a very eventful country to be travelling in. It has definitely been the most intrepid and challenging leg of our journey so far!
There are three stories really so I'm going to post then separately over the next couple of days.
*Copacabana & the isla del sol
*Uyuni salt flats  trip
*Uyuni passport theft and recovery! (Yup!)

I also haven't even posted about the Amazon jungle trip yet (it was amazing by the way, we swam with piranhas) so will do that too.

Love Gem

Hola mis amigos- el camino inca

The inca trail was an unforgettable experience. Much too much to write about now on my phone so for the full story you'll have to wait till we're back. Here is a brief story and some photos of Machu picchu for the moment.
Day one was a gradual up hill for about 6 hours after an early start and breakfast in Olyamtatambo. we met our group and got into the swing of using walking poles. Day two was the hardest day steep up hill for the whole day reaching the pass at 4215m above sea level! Luckily we were able to take plenty of rests.
Day three was the longest at 15km, but plenty of ruins to stop look at , two more passes and a beautiful Quechua ceremony on the mountain top.unfortunately it rained most of the day so we were very wet when we got to camp. Day four saw us arrive at the sun gate to Machu Picchu after a 3.50 am start . The mists slowly cleared a we descended and the enormous ruins opened up before us. Its to hard to describe just how amazing it all was.
A very challenging and rewarding experience. I'm so glad we did it!

Today we're off to the Amazon!

Love Gem and Jez.