Over the border into Chile

Day three of the Salar we were woken up at 5am to go see the geysers.  Apparently they are best viewed super early in the morning before the landscape has heated up.  We were now entering the Atacama desert, the red and white mountains and volcanoes, and gigantic sandunes were another completely different change of scenery.  The geysers spurt up from underground, are really loud and reach temperatures of 200 degrees.  As with everything unsafe in Bolivia though you are free to wander through the spurting water and potentially unstable ground.  Then we were off to some natural hot springs in the middle of the desert.  Changing into a bathing suit at 4000m in the freezing cold and then climbing into hot springs after 3 days spent in a jeep is awesome.  Until you have to get out of the pool though …

The final stop on our tour was laguna verde.  There were no flamingos here but the laguna is a bright green colour, and the surrounding red mountains and sand dunes of the Atacam desert make it a beautiful sight.  At 10:30 that morning we reached our transfer to Chile and I had to say goodbye to my tour mates and Danish friend who I´ve been traveling with the past 2 weeks, which was kind of sad.  I then took a bus across into Chile, on the bus the driver informed us that taking drugs across the border was illegal (of course) so if we had any on us we should consume it then …

You could tell that we had left Bolivia because the bus was nice and clean, the roads paved, and the driver paid attention to traffic signs.  It felt odd to feel safe again on a bus.

The Final Frontier

The second day of our Salar tour begain with leaving the salt flats, which also meant leaving the nice flat landscape for a ridiculously bumpy ride in our jeep through the desert in southern Bolivia.  Day 2 was spent with a lot of driving to get to our next stop.  I somehow managed to take a nap while being thrown around the land rover, I have no idea how I fell asleep while being tossed around like that.  At one point we reached a tiny town, and our guide desribed it to us as being ´the final frontier´.  From there until Chile we really would be in the middle of nowhere.  Eventually we came to our first stop, a lagoon filled with flamingos!  Seeing flamingos in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia was another completely bizarre sight.  Not just a couple, but flocks of them all over the lagoon.  Then we went through some landscape that had been carved out by the various volcanoes in the area, one of which we could see smoking!  Looking at the rocks made me think of how much all my climber friends would love the place.  There were no end of bouldering possibilities.  It definitely was like nothing I had ever seen before.

We went past a couple of other lakes, also filled with flamingos of course.  Then reached laguna Colorado, our accomodation for the evening.  The laguna is filled with algae that make it a bright red colour, and is surrounded by minerals making the shores as white as the salt flats.  That evening was definitely my coldest in Bolivia.  At 4000 metres in the middle of the desert with ridiculously strong winds, sleeping in mud huts was absolutely freezing.  My toes didn´t thaw out until half way through the next day.

The Salar de Uyuni

I have arrived in Chile safe and sound after a 3 day jeep tour through the Salar de Uyuni and into the Atacama desert in Chile.  The scenery was incredible, the jeep very bumpy and the weather mucho frio! (very cold in espanol).  The trip started by meeting up with my Danish friend in Uyuni, a tiny town in Bolivia that serves as a jumping off point for jeep tours.  Other than that there is nothing else in Uyuni, it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, little did I know how much more in the middle of nowhere the tour was going to take us.  When I got off the bus in Uyuni at 8 in the evening I was accosted by several tour operators, there are over 65 agencies in Uyuni all offering essentially the same thing so competition is fierce and choosing a good tour is a bit of a guessing game.  One lady offered to drive me to my hostel for free though, and spoke english, so after a long bus ride I was happy to go with anything that made my life a bit easer.

The next day we were off to the salt flats!  It is a landscape completely different from anything else in the world.  Miles and miles of blinding white flatness all around you dotted by the odd jeep racing across.  It felt like an otherwordly landscape, little did I know that the entire tour was full of sights that could only be described as bizarre.  We went to an island in the middle of the salt falts, which was covered in cacti.  I spent awhile there attempting wierd perspective shots.  The blinding whiteness of the salt flats makes it possible to take some really neat photos.

Then we were off to our accomodation for the evening – a salt hotel!  The walls, beds, tables, everything was made out of blocks of salt.  Even the floor was covered in grains of salt.  Another bizarre experience.  That night we played a hilarious game of anagrams in English, Danish, German and Spanish to accomodate everybody.

Stuck in Sucre

Every bus I take in Bolivia turns out to be an adventure.  Some travellers here say that getting around the country is half the fun, which I guess depends on your definition of fun.  The bus from Coroico back to La Paz was about the size of a mini-van, with 14 people crammed into it.  I was sitting at the very back, with no escape routes whatsoever if something went wrong.  Even the windows had bars on them.  Although the only thing that could go wrong would be for the bus to plunge down the cliff beside it, at which point being able to get out wouldn´t really matter.  Still, it makes you a bit worried when your fellow passengers are crossing themselves religiously before the bus ride … then on the way from La Paz to Sucre we went through a narcotics checkpoint where they basically dismantled most people´s bags in search of drugs.  Not to mention that half the people on the bus were trying to sell various items, and would periodically get up and give their sales pitches.

I made it to Sucre though, except now I am sick again so I can´t do much.  Eating here can really be a challenge.  You can stick to the ´gringo´ food places, but they are often overpriced and unoriginal, or you can take your chances with local cuisine.  Unfortunately local cuisine has gotten the best of me again so I´m stuck at the hostel for a day or two now.

The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

There´s an area outside of La Paz called The Yungas, which is on the verge of being in the jungle.  While La Paz is dry, cold and above 4000m, The Yungas is wet, full of oxygen and at around 1100m.  To get from La Paz to the Yungas you take The Worlds Most Dangerous Road.  Aptly named as it has the most number of accidents on it per year, with an average of something like 20 bus accidents I think.  Really it makes the sea to sky look like a picnic.  A year ago they built a new road, but the old one is till open and the popular gringo tourist thing to do is to moutain bike down this road, so thats what a did a couple of days ago!  They gear you up with fancy mountain bikes and protective gear, none of which will actually help you if you happen to fall over the 100foot drop on your left hand side while biking down the road.  While you´re biking along it doesnt seem that bad, until you catch a glimpse of the cliff beside you and you´re reminded of why the road has its name.  Our guide told us plenty of horror stories to scare the crap out of us, of people almost falling off the edge, or flipping over their bikes and losing their teeth.  And told us that the main cause of accidents on the road is testosterone exceeding ability … it was a pretty fun day allround.  To bike downhill 3000m is really neat, you start in this cold dry barren area, and by the end of it there are tropical birds and flowers all around.  We also ended at a wildlife rescue center where we got to play with the monkeys!

Then my Danish friend and I spend 2 nights in a tiny town in the Yungas named Coroico, lounging by the pool enjoying the views and jungle sounds.  The best part was that for the first time in a couple of weeks I was able to take a full breath of air, oh the wonders of oxygen!  Tomorrow I am leaving La Paz and heading to Sucre for a few days, and then on to the Salar de Uyuni, perhaps Bolivia´s best tourist attraction.

‘You can buy ANYTHING in La Paz’

It’s true … on my first day in South America one of my hostel roomies made this comment to me, and today I wandered around the unbelievable markets here. Stalls and stalls of clothing, stuffed animals, makeup, batteries, car seats, pasta, shoes, vegetables, toilet seats, hammers, nails, soccer gear … the list goes on and on. If you could think of it, they were selling it in some tiny stall by the side of the street somewhere. The same goes for lots of different types of food. I’ve been warned not to eat street food though because its usually unsanitary, and after Lima I don’t want to get sick again. I also came apon a small protest today, a few people in front of some government building and a huge police presence. I didn’t hang around long because I had been warned to avoid protests around the city. Then when I was a few blocks away you could hear what sounded like warning gunshots. Nobody else around seemed to think anything of it, I guess protests are a regular thing in La Paz and the locals dont really even notice anymore.

Then this evening I went to watch a South America soccer game! I’ve never been to an international soccer match before, it was Bolivia vs. Ecuador, and a really fun evening. The stadium of course was full of crazy Bolivian fans, then there were about 20 Ecuadorians who withstood the crowds cat calls and throwing things at them. The energy in the stadium was pretty crazy, the players and referees were led on and off the field by police escorts, and the stadium was filled with police as well as fans.

Isla del Sol

I spent the last 2 days trekking around on Isla del Sol, an island in lake Titicaca. The lake looks like the ocean, its so huge! I really enjoyed being by the water, since thats the last water Ill see until I get to Buenos Aires in a couple of months. And the surrounding area is very Mediterranean-esque, except MUCH cheaper. Bolivia really is dirt cheap, a hotel room with a view, breakfast and dinner was less than $10. The island was full of small villages, and lots of donkeys, llamas and sheep running around. I started in the north end of the island, walked along white sand beaches then up onto a ridge where there were lots of old ruins and incredible views. The 4 hour trail led to the south end of the island where there were lots of hotels to choose from, as well as several young sort of helpful children trying to convince me to go to their respective hotel. I enjoyed the quiet and solitude after Cusco, which was definitely a much crazier place. The second day was spent wandering around, then taking a boat ride back to Copacabana for the evening. While wandering in the ruins I met a Danish guy and we went for dinner at one of the best Italian restaurants I have ever been to! I never thought I would eat such good lasagna in a tiny town in Bolivia. It was even somewhat local because the lasagna was made with local trout from the lake.

I was a bit sad to leave Copacabana today, small towns are really nice because you dont have to worry about safety, and they are easy to navigate as well. Now I’m in La Paz the capital of Bolivia, which is definitely a crazy South American city. Its a bit like Lima again, except less smog, and is very busy with people and cars, and vendors selling anything you could possibly imagine. Getting here was also another experience with organized chaos. I bought my ticket from the hotel desk, and then began to walk to the bus. Then the hotel guy told me I had to wait. So I waited 10 minutes at which point he picked up my bags and said ‘ok, now we can go’ and took me to the bus himself! Why I couldnt have just gone before I dont know. Then when crossing part of lake Titicaca the bus went on a really sketchy looking barge and the rest of us were taken across on a tiny little boat, watching the bus hoping that the barge didn’t sink to the bottom of the lake with all my possessions. Travelling in Bolivia will definitely be more of a challenge than Peru. Things can be cancelled on a whim and the country is prone to civil uprisings, of which there have been more of lately. While talking to some tour operators today they warned me to watch out for random demonstrations around the city. Apparently road blocks can also spring up, preventing any travel in and out of some cities. So I will have to leave lots of time for travelling around Bolivia.

Bolivia border crossing

I had read a lot about how a traveller in Bolivia should expect delays for no apparent reason, and that getting around would be a bit more of a challenge then in Peru, and I definitely had a taste of this today. Last night at 10pm I boarded my ´direct´ bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. Then at 7am this morning the bus was stopped by a massive traffic accident where two trucks had collided, spilt all the rice they were carrying and were blocking the road! It was quite the scene with everybody from nearby villages coming to look at the accident, and all the giant tour buses trying to get by on the sketchy road. After a 3 hour delay we made it through. Then a bit later in the middle of nowhere we are told that those of us going to Copacabana need to get off the bus and transfer to a small local bus. So much for my direct ticket. So we transfer buses, all the while the driver chatting to us in Spanish, none of which myself and the two Germans I was with understood. Then 15 minutes later, again in the middle of nowhere we are dropped by the side of the road and the driver points to an immigration sign up the road. We managed to get our Peru exit stamps, then walk down the road to cross the border into Bolivia where we got our entry stamps. While waiting in line for our entry stamps a taxi driver comes up to us who is apparently supposed to take us into Copacabana. Travel in South America is a highly organized form of disorganization, if that makes sense.

So 14 hours after leaving Cusco I arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia. A tiny lakeside town that you can walk the width of in 20 minutes or so. Mainly it is a jumping off point for trips to Isla del Sol, the supposed birthplace of the Incas, where I am going tomorrow. Its an alright town, with amazing views of lake Titicaca, and I am really looking forward to hiking on Isla del Sol.

Race to the Sun Gate! (Inca Trail day four)

Day four of the Inca Trail we woke up the earliest, at 4am to pack up and quickly eat breakfast.  There are about 200 hikers who then line up in front of the last checkpoint on the trail, all waiting for 530am when the trail opens.  We were the second group in line, which was awesome because it means you get to have a few minutes at the sun gate before the hords of people behind you get there.  I have never ever hiked that fast in my life before.  If we could have run, we would have, but our giant packs prevented that.  So we pretty much speed walked for 45 minutes, racing the rising sun to the Inca sun gate.  Then apon reaching it climbed our last set of stairs, and were treated with incredible views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains.  I was the 6th person there, and our group had about 15 minutes before the other groups caught up, which was almost mystical with the mist risting from the valleys below all aroun Machu Picchu, and the sun starting to break through.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

When our guide caught up with us we descended down to Machu Picchu where the tourists were already arriving by bus.  Then a good half hour was spent taking the typical Machu Picchu pictures from up above the ruins.  By that point I had seen a lot of Inca ruins, but nothing is even close to the scale of Machu Picchu.  Its one of those places that you see a lot of photos of beforehand, and then when you actually see it for yourself it is still just as impressive.  We had a tour of the different temples and ceremonial places in the ruins, and then 4 out of our group decided to climb the mountain you see in all the pictures – Wayna Picchu.  Now after 4 days on the Inca Trail we were pretty exhausted, but the ´once in a lifetime experience´ thing made us climb it.  And when we reached the top we were really happy we had, you get a 360 degree view of the surrounding valleys, which to me were almost as impressive as Machu Picchu itself.  I have definitely never seen mountains like that before.

On the way down I decided to spend some time exploring the ruins myself while everybody else went back into the town.  Even though there are 2500 tourists that visit Machu Picchu a day I still managed to wander through it sometimes completely by myself.  Finally the group met up for well deserved pizza and beer before taking the backpacker train back to Cusco.

Hiking the Inca Trail, seeing the ruins along the way, and finally Machu Picchu will definitely be a highlight of my trip.  But it was also a bit of a mixed experience for me due to the working conditions of the porters that make it possible to hike the trail.  Hopefully in the future things will continue to change so that tourists have more respect for these men that make it possible for them to do the trek.

Ruins Galore (Inca Trail day three)

The third day of the Inca Trail is often described as unforgettable, and it certainly was.  Up until this day you do not walk on the original trail, but a path that is close to it.  However, on the third day you actually begin to walk on the original Inca Trail.  The stone path winds through the mountains and the jungle, coming across several ruins along the way.  Sometimes where is a steep drop to one side and a cliff on your other side.  Occasionally you have to navigate through old Incan tunnels in the mountainside.  To hike through the jungle and suddenly see some Incan ruins hidden away in the next valley, and then a couple of hours later actually get to wander through them is an unforgettable experience.  This was definitely my favorite day of the 4, even more so than the last day when the group reached Machu Picchu.  There was something about hiking by myself along a centuries old path while listening to jungle sounds that was a truly unique experience.  Parts of the trail also reminded me of the mountains at home, the valleys along the way sometimes looked a lot like home.

The last part of this day is a bit brutal because you descend 2500 steps to the final campsite at Winay Wayna.  This was very hard on the knees, although you feel silly going so slowly when the porters are practically running down the steps.  How they dont fall on those steep descents I dont understand.