Out of Bolivia, into Peru....
Good day to you,
I hope this message finds you well. Lynn and I are both fine although we've been a little under the weather recently with colds, sore throats and really painful stomach aches which haven't exactly produced the usual diarrhoea but have given us the smelliest rear-ends ever to have fouled this earth. Lynn's especially - talk about making your eyes water! Hopefully all that's behind us now though ("Always was!" I hear you shout) as today we've crossed the border into our 5th country - Peru.
My last report finished on a rather sour note with the news that my camera had been stolen. It's been nearly 3 weeks since that unfortunate incident and the 1st week after was spent almost exclusively in trying to deal with a bus company that eventually decided the event never happened, a police service that has about as much interest in solving crimes as your average goat and an insurance company that assumed we'd finished our 2 week holiday to the Mediterranean and now we were back home in England would have no problems supplying them with everything they required such as all our flight tickets, our insurance policy and every original receipt etc. Numerous lengthy phone calls and emails later we finally managed to all agree that it wasn't wise for us to send them all our flight tickets since we would then be stranded in South America without a means to move on. Equally, on second thoughts, we should probably keep our Insurance documents as they're still valid and we may need them again on our trip (though hopefully not) and yes they finally believed us when we tell them that we REALLY didn't bring every original receipt on holiday with us but left them at home which they also concede was probably what they would have done too. Thankfully, I did however have the foresight to photocopy some of my more important receipts (such as the one for my camera) and bring them away with me which they have decided will be acceptable proof of purchase. Last Monday (12th June) at long last we eventually had the 14 pages of documents, claim forms, statements, incident reports, Police reports and receipts to send off to the insurance company back in England. The Bolivian Postal Service has a reputation for corruption only equalled by that of the Bolivian Police Force so we decided to fork out nearly 20 quid and get them sent with DHL Express Couriers instead. The last thing we need now is to lose our original Police Report and claim documents in the post after all the hassles it took to get the things in the first place!
Most of this time-consuming stuff was done in Uyuni and Potosi and whilst we were sorting it out we did precious little else. After a few days in Potosi we headed to La Paz (Saturday 3rd June) and finshed the rest of the correspondence and collating of documents there. We looked everywhere in the city in the hope of getting a new camera but couldn't find anything worth buying. We even went to La Paz's notoriously dodgy 'black market' district where all sorts of electronic goods can be purchased 'as seen' together with 'ask no questions' prices. If it was a TV or a mobile phone we had wanted we'd have been laughing (atleast until it fell apart a week later) but digital cameras were cheap and cheerful point-&-click jobs that you'd maybe buy a child as a 'my first camera' birthday present. It didn't really matter as we didn't want to buy a camera from this sort of place anyway, we were just curious to look as we'd exhausted everywhere else in the city.
So anyway, I've had enough of writing about and dwelling on this incident and I'm sure you've had enough reading about it too. With this in mind I shall put the matter to one side and do as many of you have urged and get on with enjoying my holiday. In the meantime, I'll try not to mention the word 'camera' again I finally get a new one. No promises though!
So, on with the show: We arrived in La Paz on Saturday 3rd June. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia and is also the highest capital in the world. It sits in an enormous crater surrounded by white-capped mountains. The very centre of the city, Plaza Murillo, is the lowest point in the crater at 3,636m above sea level. The rest of the city spreads outwards, climbing the crater walls to over 4,000m above sea level by the time it reaches the top. Consequently, everywhere in La Paz is either uphill or downhill and if you get lost, head down and you'll find the centre to start again.
We stayed in a place called Hotel Arcabucero - the usual method was applied in choosing it. Read the guidebook, argue about where to stay but ultimately go with Rich's decision as it means a quiet life and then listen to him tell you about how he's got a knack for picking good places!
Hotel Arcabucero was, needless to say, a lovely place picked by me. It's an old colonial residence, only 9 rooms and full of charm and character. It is located close to the 'local handicrafts market' and the intriguing 'witches market'. Taking a stroll through the 'witches market' you are likely to find yourself looking at all manner of trinkets and charms and potions any one of which can apparently cure you of illness, bless you with good luck, put a curse on your enemies, ward off evil or imrprove your sex life. Many of the items were harmless enough. Stones, carved idols or necklaces or some other such tat. Some of the items though were rather more disgusting and you were first made aware of them by the revolting smell that grabbed a hold of your nostril hairs and shook them about. If you've looked at the photos on my blogsite then you'll know that I am of course referring to the dried-out, unborn llama foetuses that are to be bought, taken home and then buried in the garden by the front door to your house. After this you can then apparently rest easy by the fire, safe in the knowledge that no evil spirits will enter your house.
"Would I like to buy one?". This was a question my curiosity was greeted with on a few occasions. Ok, let's suppose for the moment that I would like to buy one of these revolting, smelly carcases.... "Tell me old crow - How, in the name of Satan's arsehole do you think I am going to explain to airport security staff the presence of a dried-out, unborn llama foetus sitting in the bottom of my hand-luggage? Come on, tell me that. Shall I go for "It's a small in-flight snack just incase I was peckish" or shall I just tell them the truth? "Well Sir, I have all these evil spirits hanging around the front of my house and this here dried-out, unborn llama foetus, well they don't like the smell of it you see. Yes Sir, I know, you don't like the smell of it either. You're not an evil spirit, are you? Oi, give it back. Why are you arresting me?".... Bloody witches! Anyway, I've bought several so if you want one?
Just round the corner from our hotel was also the interesting 'Museum of Coca' tracing the history of the coca leaf from it's use in Inca society in ceremonies; it's use by natives of the Andes to dispel hunger and tiredness and alleviate altitude sickness; it's discovery as an anaesthetic and subsequent replacement in Western medicine of the traditional hammer-on-the-head routine before operations; it's use as the main ingredient in Coca-Cola and it's current outlaw in today's society due to the modern trend of turning it into a drug called 'Cocaine'. It was very interesting. Incidentally, coca itself isn't addictive and it is still used by the inhabitants of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina in it's natural state to dispel hunger and tiredness and alleviate altitude sickness. I quite like coca tea and have it most mornings with breakfast and find that it does help with the altitude incase you wondered.
On Wednesday 7th June I mountain biked down a road renowned for being and quite rightly called "The World's Most Dangerous Road". Lynn cycled the first bit of "The World's Most Dangerous Road" (W.M.D.R. from now on) but I'll let her tell the story on her blogsite (see Links). The W.M.D.R. reportedly has a fatal accident once every 2 weeks and since 99% of the vehicles are coaches or lorries then that adds up to alot of deaths per annum! The road is unpaved, rocky, rutted, very VERY dusty and has a sheer drop off to one side all of the way down. I say "down" because it starts at 4,750m and finishes 40 miles later at 1,100m above sea level. The road is only wide enough for one vehicle most of the time. One and a cyclist at a push! It is also very busy as it is the main, sorry 'only', road between La Paz in Bolivia and trade in Brazil. There are a couple of drugs checkpoints on the road (checking for the chemicals to turn coca into cocaine rather than the drug itself) as the low lying regions we're heading towards are a major coca growing region otherwise it's a head-down, hold-on-tight, brakes? pah! adrenalin rush from top to bottom. Atleast for me it was, Lynn might argue otherwise! I actually make the journey sound very kamikazee but to be honest, the company we cycled with was VERY professional (again, see Links for their website) and is called Gravity-Assisted Mountain Biking. They report only 2 major cycling accidents ever on the road - one by another company where an Israeli guy didn't stop and cycled straight over the cliff and last year when a French girl's handlebar was clipped by a truck passing the other way which sent her sprawling over the edge. Luckily, the drop wasn't far here and she escaped with just a broken collar bone and cuts and bruises.}
We ended the cycle ride in a small town called Coroico (to the northeast of La Paz if you're looking in your atlases!) and stayed for a couple of days to enjoy the tropical climate. The only downside to the 48 hours in the tropical surroundings was... yeah you guessed it - we're covered in bloody bites again!. Not mosquitoes but sandflies and they LOVE insect repellent. That's my conclusion anyway since I very near bathed in the stuff whilst we were there and still got bitten about a million times!
Last Wednesday (14th June) Lynn and I set off on a 3 day tour of Lake Titicaca and it's surroundings, starting from La Paz and finishing today in Puno, Peru. We went on a private tour (ie just the two of us, a guide and a driver) and went "posh" class. It cost us just under 200 quid each for the 3 days which is very slightly over our budget but it's nice to have a bit of luxury every now and then, isn't it? Again, see Links for the company's (Crillon Tours) website.
Day 1: Leave La Paz and stay at The Inca Utama Hotel and Spa on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Visit a couple of interesting museums on local culture and history. Visit a living 'Eco-village' where people are paid to show tourists how they traditionally do things in these 'ere parts. Things like farming, fishing, textiles, boat-building from the totora reeds that grow on the lake (very interesting!), weaving, looking after livestock like llamas etc. and visiting an observatory to star-gaze (amongst the many stars we also saw Saturn and could clearly see it's rings and also Jupiter and 5 of it's 7 moons).
Day 2: Take a hydrofoil (boat on skis) across Lake Titicaca to a 'floating island' constructed of totora reeds where people live, fish and make & sell handicrafts for tourists. We bought a few things, yes! After this was 'Isla de la Luna' (Island of the Moon) and then 'Isla del Sol' (Island of the Sun) which together are thought to be the birthplace of the Inca dynasty. We spent our second night on Isla del Sol in a lovely hotel which a former residence of the Bolivian president's daughter before Crillon Tours bought it and turned it into a hotel. Also, apparently, Roman Abramovich stayed here on holiday a few years ago. Don't tell me I'm not full of interesting facts! The hotel is nicely located next to the island's small church except that on the day we stayed it was also the day of some religious festival that mean't a full day of trumpets and drums and lots of beer for the revellers. Great, a party! you might think but after 7 hours of their one tune and the fact that they got more and more drunk between each new attempt at playing it mean't that by the time we saw them all staggering out of the church grounds at about 8pm the tune was gone completely and they were just blowing and banging at random. The hotel staff were cringing along with the rest of us before long as the tune got less and less identifiable!
Day 3: Leave Isla del Sol and just about limp to the port town of Copacabana on the Bolivian mainland in our little wooden motorboat due to having water in the petrol tank. We tour Copacabana which is a p retty little town then get a private car to the border. Exit Bolivia. Enter Peru. Drive to Puno, find nice hotel, dump bags, find Internet Cafe, write next travel report. Finish it. The End!
That's it. Another long one too, I'm sorry. We're going to stay in Puno a couple of days and then head to Arequipa. I hope you enjoyed the pictures I posted on my blogsite. Don't expect anymore for a while as I haven't got a camera nowadays. Damn! I wasn't supposed to mention that again!
Toodle Pip!
Rich
I hope this message finds you well. Lynn and I are both fine although we've been a little under the weather recently with colds, sore throats and really painful stomach aches which haven't exactly produced the usual diarrhoea but have given us the smelliest rear-ends ever to have fouled this earth. Lynn's especially - talk about making your eyes water! Hopefully all that's behind us now though ("Always was!" I hear you shout) as today we've crossed the border into our 5th country - Peru.
My last report finished on a rather sour note with the news that my camera had been stolen. It's been nearly 3 weeks since that unfortunate incident and the 1st week after was spent almost exclusively in trying to deal with a bus company that eventually decided the event never happened, a police service that has about as much interest in solving crimes as your average goat and an insurance company that assumed we'd finished our 2 week holiday to the Mediterranean and now we were back home in England would have no problems supplying them with everything they required such as all our flight tickets, our insurance policy and every original receipt etc. Numerous lengthy phone calls and emails later we finally managed to all agree that it wasn't wise for us to send them all our flight tickets since we would then be stranded in South America without a means to move on. Equally, on second thoughts, we should probably keep our Insurance documents as they're still valid and we may need them again on our trip (though hopefully not) and yes they finally believed us when we tell them that we REALLY didn't bring every original receipt on holiday with us but left them at home which they also concede was probably what they would have done too. Thankfully, I did however have the foresight to photocopy some of my more important receipts (such as the one for my camera) and bring them away with me which they have decided will be acceptable proof of purchase. Last Monday (12th June) at long last we eventually had the 14 pages of documents, claim forms, statements, incident reports, Police reports and receipts to send off to the insurance company back in England. The Bolivian Postal Service has a reputation for corruption only equalled by that of the Bolivian Police Force so we decided to fork out nearly 20 quid and get them sent with DHL Express Couriers instead. The last thing we need now is to lose our original Police Report and claim documents in the post after all the hassles it took to get the things in the first place!
Most of this time-consuming stuff was done in Uyuni and Potosi and whilst we were sorting it out we did precious little else. After a few days in Potosi we headed to La Paz (Saturday 3rd June) and finshed the rest of the correspondence and collating of documents there. We looked everywhere in the city in the hope of getting a new camera but couldn't find anything worth buying. We even went to La Paz's notoriously dodgy 'black market' district where all sorts of electronic goods can be purchased 'as seen' together with 'ask no questions' prices. If it was a TV or a mobile phone we had wanted we'd have been laughing (atleast until it fell apart a week later) but digital cameras were cheap and cheerful point-&-click jobs that you'd maybe buy a child as a 'my first camera' birthday present. It didn't really matter as we didn't want to buy a camera from this sort of place anyway, we were just curious to look as we'd exhausted everywhere else in the city.
So anyway, I've had enough of writing about and dwelling on this incident and I'm sure you've had enough reading about it too. With this in mind I shall put the matter to one side and do as many of you have urged and get on with enjoying my holiday. In the meantime, I'll try not to mention the word 'camera' again I finally get a new one. No promises though!
So, on with the show: We arrived in La Paz on Saturday 3rd June. La Paz is the capital of Bolivia and is also the highest capital in the world. It sits in an enormous crater surrounded by white-capped mountains. The very centre of the city, Plaza Murillo, is the lowest point in the crater at 3,636m above sea level. The rest of the city spreads outwards, climbing the crater walls to over 4,000m above sea level by the time it reaches the top. Consequently, everywhere in La Paz is either uphill or downhill and if you get lost, head down and you'll find the centre to start again.
We stayed in a place called Hotel Arcabucero - the usual method was applied in choosing it. Read the guidebook, argue about where to stay but ultimately go with Rich's decision as it means a quiet life and then listen to him tell you about how he's got a knack for picking good places!
Hotel Arcabucero was, needless to say, a lovely place picked by me. It's an old colonial residence, only 9 rooms and full of charm and character. It is located close to the 'local handicrafts market' and the intriguing 'witches market'. Taking a stroll through the 'witches market' you are likely to find yourself looking at all manner of trinkets and charms and potions any one of which can apparently cure you of illness, bless you with good luck, put a curse on your enemies, ward off evil or imrprove your sex life. Many of the items were harmless enough. Stones, carved idols or necklaces or some other such tat. Some of the items though were rather more disgusting and you were first made aware of them by the revolting smell that grabbed a hold of your nostril hairs and shook them about. If you've looked at the photos on my blogsite then you'll know that I am of course referring to the dried-out, unborn llama foetuses that are to be bought, taken home and then buried in the garden by the front door to your house. After this you can then apparently rest easy by the fire, safe in the knowledge that no evil spirits will enter your house.
"Would I like to buy one?". This was a question my curiosity was greeted with on a few occasions. Ok, let's suppose for the moment that I would like to buy one of these revolting, smelly carcases.... "Tell me old crow - How, in the name of Satan's arsehole do you think I am going to explain to airport security staff the presence of a dried-out, unborn llama foetus sitting in the bottom of my hand-luggage? Come on, tell me that. Shall I go for "It's a small in-flight snack just incase I was peckish" or shall I just tell them the truth? "Well Sir, I have all these evil spirits hanging around the front of my house and this here dried-out, unborn llama foetus, well they don't like the smell of it you see. Yes Sir, I know, you don't like the smell of it either. You're not an evil spirit, are you? Oi, give it back. Why are you arresting me?".... Bloody witches! Anyway, I've bought several so if you want one?
Just round the corner from our hotel was also the interesting 'Museum of Coca' tracing the history of the coca leaf from it's use in Inca society in ceremonies; it's use by natives of the Andes to dispel hunger and tiredness and alleviate altitude sickness; it's discovery as an anaesthetic and subsequent replacement in Western medicine of the traditional hammer-on-the-head routine before operations; it's use as the main ingredient in Coca-Cola and it's current outlaw in today's society due to the modern trend of turning it into a drug called 'Cocaine'. It was very interesting. Incidentally, coca itself isn't addictive and it is still used by the inhabitants of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina in it's natural state to dispel hunger and tiredness and alleviate altitude sickness. I quite like coca tea and have it most mornings with breakfast and find that it does help with the altitude incase you wondered.
On Wednesday 7th June I mountain biked down a road renowned for being and quite rightly called "The World's Most Dangerous Road". Lynn cycled the first bit of "The World's Most Dangerous Road" (W.M.D.R. from now on) but I'll let her tell the story on her blogsite (see Links). The W.M.D.R. reportedly has a fatal accident once every 2 weeks and since 99% of the vehicles are coaches or lorries then that adds up to alot of deaths per annum! The road is unpaved, rocky, rutted, very VERY dusty and has a sheer drop off to one side all of the way down. I say "down" because it starts at 4,750m and finishes 40 miles later at 1,100m above sea level. The road is only wide enough for one vehicle most of the time. One and a cyclist at a push! It is also very busy as it is the main, sorry 'only', road between La Paz in Bolivia and trade in Brazil. There are a couple of drugs checkpoints on the road (checking for the chemicals to turn coca into cocaine rather than the drug itself) as the low lying regions we're heading towards are a major coca growing region otherwise it's a head-down, hold-on-tight, brakes? pah! adrenalin rush from top to bottom. Atleast for me it was, Lynn might argue otherwise! I actually make the journey sound very kamikazee but to be honest, the company we cycled with was VERY professional (again, see Links for their website) and is called Gravity-Assisted Mountain Biking. They report only 2 major cycling accidents ever on the road - one by another company where an Israeli guy didn't stop and cycled straight over the cliff and last year when a French girl's handlebar was clipped by a truck passing the other way which sent her sprawling over the edge. Luckily, the drop wasn't far here and she escaped with just a broken collar bone and cuts and bruises.}
We ended the cycle ride in a small town called Coroico (to the northeast of La Paz if you're looking in your atlases!) and stayed for a couple of days to enjoy the tropical climate. The only downside to the 48 hours in the tropical surroundings was... yeah you guessed it - we're covered in bloody bites again!. Not mosquitoes but sandflies and they LOVE insect repellent. That's my conclusion anyway since I very near bathed in the stuff whilst we were there and still got bitten about a million times!
Last Wednesday (14th June) Lynn and I set off on a 3 day tour of Lake Titicaca and it's surroundings, starting from La Paz and finishing today in Puno, Peru. We went on a private tour (ie just the two of us, a guide and a driver) and went "posh" class. It cost us just under 200 quid each for the 3 days which is very slightly over our budget but it's nice to have a bit of luxury every now and then, isn't it? Again, see Links for the company's (Crillon Tours) website.
Day 1: Leave La Paz and stay at The Inca Utama Hotel and Spa on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Visit a couple of interesting museums on local culture and history. Visit a living 'Eco-village' where people are paid to show tourists how they traditionally do things in these 'ere parts. Things like farming, fishing, textiles, boat-building from the totora reeds that grow on the lake (very interesting!), weaving, looking after livestock like llamas etc. and visiting an observatory to star-gaze (amongst the many stars we also saw Saturn and could clearly see it's rings and also Jupiter and 5 of it's 7 moons).
Day 2: Take a hydrofoil (boat on skis) across Lake Titicaca to a 'floating island' constructed of totora reeds where people live, fish and make & sell handicrafts for tourists. We bought a few things, yes! After this was 'Isla de la Luna' (Island of the Moon) and then 'Isla del Sol' (Island of the Sun) which together are thought to be the birthplace of the Inca dynasty. We spent our second night on Isla del Sol in a lovely hotel which a former residence of the Bolivian president's daughter before Crillon Tours bought it and turned it into a hotel. Also, apparently, Roman Abramovich stayed here on holiday a few years ago. Don't tell me I'm not full of interesting facts! The hotel is nicely located next to the island's small church except that on the day we stayed it was also the day of some religious festival that mean't a full day of trumpets and drums and lots of beer for the revellers. Great, a party! you might think but after 7 hours of their one tune and the fact that they got more and more drunk between each new attempt at playing it mean't that by the time we saw them all staggering out of the church grounds at about 8pm the tune was gone completely and they were just blowing and banging at random. The hotel staff were cringing along with the rest of us before long as the tune got less and less identifiable!
Day 3: Leave Isla del Sol and just about limp to the port town of Copacabana on the Bolivian mainland in our little wooden motorboat due to having water in the petrol tank. We tour Copacabana which is a p retty little town then get a private car to the border. Exit Bolivia. Enter Peru. Drive to Puno, find nice hotel, dump bags, find Internet Cafe, write next travel report. Finish it. The End!
That's it. Another long one too, I'm sorry. We're going to stay in Puno a couple of days and then head to Arequipa. I hope you enjoyed the pictures I posted on my blogsite. Don't expect anymore for a while as I haven't got a camera nowadays. Damn! I wasn't supposed to mention that again!
Toodle Pip!
Rich
Comments