This is the blog/travel journal for Chris & Joanne Reilly from Glasgow, Scotland. After quitting our jobs and selling our house, we plan to travel around the globe for the next year.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Cuzco Inca Party Town

Well as we explained in the last update we eventually made it out of La Paz and Bolivia on Saturday the 28th May. We really enjoyed La Paz even with all the trouble but we where getting a bit impatient and wanted to move on. So after getting across the border we caught site of our tour bus for the first time. When I say caught site of it isn´t really that difficult as it´s a massive bright yellow square box. On the bus there´s plenty of space for the 18 of us on the tour, some of the seats even have a table. (We´ve been told it is actually a truck and it´s called Jock!).

This was the first time we really met all the group as some were suffering from altitude sickness in La Paz. Due to the hold up in La Paz we had to miss the first few days of our trip in Peru, we were supposed to stay in Puno and then go to the floating islands on Lake Titicaca but we headed straight to Cuzco. On the bus Joanne and I were facing Rhys & John two 19 year old public school boys from Bristol, Rhys is Welsh and John is Irish but you wouldn´t know by their accents. Both of them have known each other for years and are travelling before heading back to start Uni in August. They were both amazed how old we where and both have been calling Joanne Mum or Mummy since the first bus trip, this has developed into most of the other guys calling Joanne Mum. Most of the people on the trip seem to be in their early 20´s with a few exceptions, but we´re not the oldest as we have a Norwegian guy called Oyvan who´s 42 who studied at Glasgow Uni for 4 years in the early nineties.

It was dark when we arrived in Cuzco, but even though most of us didn´t have any sleep the night before we decided to meet up in an hour and go out for dinner and a few drinks. We ended up in a Restaurant just off the main square (Plaza de Arms - nearly every town in Peru has a Plaza de Arms). Well it wasn´t your usual meal that night, both of us decided to go for some local food. Joanne went for an Alpaca steak (an Alpaca is closely related to a Llama, but is more sought after for it´s fur which is sold everywhere in Peru and Bolivia). I went for the house speciallity and local delicacy Guinea Pig, out of the whole crowd (21 including the two guides and driver) I was only one to order it. Well the guinea pig arrived whole on my plate complete with teeth and a cheeky smile, the skin was a bit tough but the meat was really nice and reminded me of lamb. All the crowd where really interested and quite a few people had a try. Joanne never really liked her alpaca as she thought it had a funny taste but quite a few other people really enjoyed it. In the local Cathedral there is a massive painting of the Last Supper and the main food on the table is guinea pig and they are all drinking the local wine.

After the meal we headed to an Irish bar called Paddys which was mobbed and full of gringos, it wasn´t a particular bad pub but I can´t really be bothered being in a pub in South America that looks like it could be Kilmarnock Road or the Merchant City in Glasgow. Every time you go across or around the Plaza de Arms you are pesterd by people trying to get you into the pubs, clubs, restaurants, cinemas or trying to sell you finger puppets. The finger puppet sellers where the worst, usually young teenage girls with puppets on their fingers knitted in the shape of Llamas, Condors or other assorted South American animals. First thing they ask is would you like to buy a finger puppet and when you reply no they then ask why not, they then ask where your from and try to shake your hand hoping that the puppets will come off in your and that you will buy them.

We then went to another pub overlooking the plaza called Nortons Rats, which I prefered to Paddys. This was a good chance to get to meet some more of the people on the trip. After a few dinks we then headed to a club called Mama Africa´s (we ended up here in more than a few occasions over the next week) and stayed for a few drinks before heading back to the hotel before we fell asleep on our feet. Most of the Clubs in Cuzco are free and you will probably be given at least one or two free drink coupons on entry (usually cheap rum and coke) but still it saves you a few pounds, beers in the clubs usually cost about 80p per bottle.

The next morning we met Mark our tour guide (6ft 5 Bald ex-Professional Rugby player - always useful to have round when the service wasn´t up to scratch) for an orientation walk around the beautiful town of Cuzco (which we were seeing for the first time in daylight) and we were shown some amazing Inca brickwork which had survived countless earthquakes in the area. The stones were all hand carved to fit tightly beside each other.

That night we all headed to a cheap chicken reastuarnt in which you could get Chicken, Chips and Salad for 7 Sols which is about 1.10p, this was the only thing on the menu but everybody really enjoyed it. The group where also by this time turning into Inca Kola addicts, nearly everyone had a bottle with their dinner. For those not aware of Inca Cola, well it tastes just like Irn Bru but is a yellow colour and it´s as much as national drink for Peru as Irn Bru is for Scotland. Every shop in Peru either sells Inca Cola or Inca Cola t-shirts. After dinner we had a few drinks in another pub before heading to another club this time called Mama America´s. This club was ok for awhile but apart from the people in our group everybody else in the club was Israeli, and quite soon afterwards the music was all hebrew versions of chart music from the last few years. We decide to head back to the same club from the night before and we stayed there until about 4:30 in the morning.

Next day we wandered lazily around Cuzco and checked out a few of the Churches and Museums, that night we had also had quite an easy time of it as we where doing a trip of the Sacred Valley early the next morning before heading onto the Inca Trail.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

La Paz Part Dos

Saturday 21st May - after our strange bus journey from Copacabana to La Paz we were deposited just outside the centre and the bus driver told us that there was no way we could get a taxi. It didn´t look that far to walk so off we trudged with our rucksacks.

We quite quickly realised that something was amiss. The streets were all blocked off and there were a large number of raised benches. Then we saw a huge procession walking down the streets. We were on one side of it and needed to be at the other to get to our hotel. I still wasn´t feeling well and after an hour thought about just sitting down in the middle of the street. Then genius Reilly (yeah that´s Chris... his vacant look is all just an act) struck....there was an underground pass. We walked through this and up the steep hills only to be stopped at a pass going through the procession. We persuaded the security guard to let us walk alongside the procession....gringos walking beside these colourful costumes and masks. Eventually we got into the hotel. After dumping our bags we went straight back out.

The procession was an annual event on behalf of Lord Pado. The costumes and masks were unbelievable and lots of different colours walked past. Several people shook our hands and welcomed us to the main event in Bolivia. We wandered along and there was a lot of singing, dancing and drinking going on. We had something to eat and wandered back about 10.00pm the processions were still going strong although the people involved were starting to look a bit worse for wear. Every so often firecrackers would go off in the air.

On Sunday my birthday (we won´t mention the football)...we wandered around the witches market where Chris bought me some jewellery. We knew that it was going to be a quiet occasion as most of the folks we had met up with were going their separate ways. So we headed out at night (after receiving a few phonecalls...thanks again it was good to hear from you) to Mongos.

We decided to have a good night out and Chris managed to buy some candles and Winnie the Pooh hats. What was even more surprising was that he managed to ask the waiters to put the candles in some tiramusu and bring them out (a big feat for our Sir). After dinner out came the Tiramusu. I looked at the candles....something wasn`t right....they had them round the wrong way 53. That explains why the waiter said I looked really good for my age.....we passed the party hats around the pub and were invited to join a group of people for a drink....it turns out that this group was just finishing their tour with Budget Expeditions (who we where due to join up with on the following Wednesday) and that our tour leader was there. We ended going out to a really bizarre club with three others called the ´Love club´ which was a chinese restaurant during the day and a disco come Kareoke bar at night. I managed to get a free birthday drink which was set on fire and had to drink in one go through a straw....I think that really did me in! We arrived back at the hotel at 4.30am and had to wake someone up to get in.

Monday was a bit of a wasted day (I think I might have still been drunk) and the last couple of days we have spent trying to catch up on the internet. Although that has probably been a saving grace as there have been several large strikes here and yesterday we think we walked through some remenants of tear gas. As we walked along the main street near the cathedral some young boys threw something at the police and we had to quickly get out of the street as the police responded by firing in the air....so we are being ultra cautious and looking down and up streets at the moment before walking down them.

The strikes continued which meant we couldn´t start our tour on the Thursday....so we had to spend another couple of days in La Paz. We also witnessed several canisters of tear gas being lobbed off of the top of buildings onto a passing crowd of protestors who dared to go near the government buildings. We quickly moved away.

We watched the European Cup Final in a small pizza place near our hotel, the place was full of really loud Israeli guys supporting AC Milan. At half time these guys where full of themselves and where starting to be really annoying, so in the second half when Liverpool started to knocking a few goals in the place was greeted with Chris sole voice cheering the goals. When the game went to penalties the rest of the place was silent except for Chris laughing every time the Liverpool goalie saved one or a Liverpool player scored. When the final whistle went Chris just walked out without saying anything with all the Isralie guys looking cresfallen after their earlier anitcs at half-time. I did say to Chris at Half-time that the game wasn´t over and that they where being a bit presumptious.

On the Wednesday night we met the rest of our tour group for the first time, we all went for a meal together and then a few of us stayed out for drinks. The strikes were getting a lot worse and each day the crowds where getting much bigger and the police seemed to be ready for some serious action with large waterguns on top of tanks and every policeman with full riot gear and gas canisters at the ready. We where also told by out tour leader that they might not be able to get us out of La Paz until the following week, which would have meant that we might miss the Inka trail. As you could imagine this put a downer on the the whole group, we met up with a few of the group for the next few nights for dinner.

On the Friday at 6pm we had a meeting with out tour leader (Mark) who said that he still had no solution for getting us out of La Paz, so we all planned to meet up for dinner at 8:30. As we met for at 8:30 Mark had just been given word that we might be able to leave at 3:30 the following morning, so we decided just to stay in the pub until 2 and go back and pack then. After a slight delay we eventually managed to leave La Paz on Saturday morning....at 4.00am we were all bundled into three minibuses and snuck out of town early to avoid protestors and road blocks. The buses had to drive over the remnants of the bricks left behind from the roadblocks. We were also stopped at one point by one man who said we couldn´t go through but the driver drove through quickly.

We were too early for the border control and sat on the bus until 8am before we could pass through the Bolivian control and then the Peruvian side....by about 9.30am we were on our way.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Lake Titicacacacacacacaaaaa

Monday 16th May we had to be outside our hotel at 5:45 am to catch a bus to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca (we were leaving early to try and avoid the roadbloacks due to a general strike that day in La Paz), but the bus didn´t turn up. The bus company phoned our hotel to say they had been there...but they hadn´t and told us to get a taxi to the bus station (we said only if they paid for the taxi which they did).

After about 20 minutes on the bus we reached the outskirts of La Paz and were stopped at a roadblock, they wouldn´t let us past. Other mini buses were stopped, the drivers were taken out with four men each holding them and another man would whip them with a belt in the street, before letting them through. I´m not sure if this was for the benfit of our full bus of Gringos or this was the usual procedure to get through the blockade. I´m not sure if our driver was scared or there was no way they would let a bus full of Gringos through but he didn´t get out and decided to head back and go another way. The only problem was that most people on the bus where going to Lima in Peru and there was no way it could go to Copacabana on the other route. So we had to get to the border and see if we could get a bus in the Peru side to take us a different route to Copacabana. There was about 12 of us in the same situation and we managed to get a mini bus to take us, the only problem was now that we had to got through 4 border crossings and get a stamp for each crossing (we are quickly running out of pages in our passport - but we should make it).

I decided instead of getting a nice Hotel in La Paz for my birthday that we would splash out on one in Copacabana. We managed to get a lovely cabin in La Cupula Hostel overlooking the bay, a cabin sounds quite poor but it has been done up in wood and stone and has a full glass front giving beautiful views of Lake Titicaca. We stayed there for 3 nights.

Copacabana seems to be a bit of a reggae town what with all it´s trinket selling hippies sporting skanky dreads and rastafarian tattoos, all the pubs and reasturants played various forms of Jamaican music. As Chris will have no doubt have told you in the past or maybe sometime in the future for every majestically crafted King Tubby echobass oddyessy or twisted Scratch Perry creation you have the hiedous other world of Cod Reggae inhabited by countless whinging lightweights with limp off beat rhythms. One cafe was even heard to blast out Brummie legends UB40 classic hit - Rat in the Kitchen, good advertising or what.

The idea was that on Tuesday we would do a 15km walk...well on Monday night Chris decided to go downstairs to the loo. He didn´t put the light on (despite me saying several times) and all I heard was a huge crash. I jumped out of bed, put the light on and found Chris sprawled across the foot of the stairs. I thought - please no he hasn't broken anything. At the last step he thought he was actually on the floor and managed to go over on his left foot hurting both his calf and bruising some toes in the process.

The next day he hobbled about a bit until I tactfully suggested we went back to the cabin to chill out (that was the end of the long walk...some guys will do anything to get out of things). We sat and chilled outside in the sunshine and every so often we would here a bugle for the Bolivian navy.....the strange thing is they don't have any sea to practice on - so they use the lake instead.

That evening I went up the top of the hill next to the cabin with Von (a South African whom we met travelling to Copacabana). She did 4 weeks voluntary work in the Amazon looking after wild animals (in particular puma´s) which were previously kept as domestic pets. We watched the sunset behind a huge dark cloud before heading back down the path in the moonlight....we forgot to take our torches.

All three of us went out for a meal to a rather non descript restaurant with awful food and a severe lack of service, there was even a dreadful singer playing really bad Bob Marley covers who came round the tables looking for tips after every few songs. Chris is also convinced the food in here was what caused his dodgy stomach for the next few days.

On Wednesday we met up with Von again purely by accident in the Cafe Bistro which had great coffee and fantastic French Toast. In the afternoon I let Chris persuade me to watch the UEFA cup final in the pub....well our room had no tv and we couldn´t use the one in the hotel....I managed to catch up a bit with my diary.

Both of us walked up....slowly to the top of the hill to see the sunset and that evening we went to the restaurant in the hotel. We both had trout and Chris's sauce was lovely. It wasn't too long before Chris said to me 'My stomach has been gurguling for the last few hours can we go back to the cabin'. Well I will say no more - the boy was ill.

The next day we were leaving for Isla De Sol (Island of the Sun - The Inca´s believed this is where the Sun was born). Chris didn't eat any breakfast and was pampered by the owner of the Cafe Bistro who kept bringing him huge mugs of cinnamon tea. She even made him some up in an empty water bottle for him to take on the boat. On the boat he kept his head down for the whole journey.

When we arrived on the island we had to walk up a really steep hill. There were loads of young kids offering to carry our bags but honestly they were about 7 years old....I struggled carrying my 20kg bag up for over 50 mins.....I don't know how they would have managed. Chris really looked awful so he waited at the bottom and after my climb up I went back down to get him. I met him at the top of stairs (it took me 15 mins to get up these) and took his bag up the rest of the way. The next day he didn´t even remember climbing the stairs.

When we arrived at the hotel Chris headed straight to bed - after I forced some re-hydration satchets down him.

I sat in the lounge area chatting to a couple from Athens (Tania and Paris who were both journalists). I persuaded Chris to get out of bed for a while and he joined us for dinner. Paris was really into football and you would be surprised how long two men could talk about this (bearing in mind how ill Chris was supposed to be). But the night wore on and we talked about many other things.

The next day we were supposed to do another trek (about 4 hours) but there was no way I could ask Chris to do this. After breakfast Chris just about collapsed again and then later on I really started to feel ropey. Stage 2 we both came down with the same thing.

Isla de Sol looked a great island for exploring but due to our illness we never did it any justice at all. Our room was really warm at night and the hotel was great.
The second night there were 7 of us for dinner (two Irish, two Australians and One French) but I really couldn´t face it.

We carried our bags back down the next day (funnily enough Chris didn´t offer to carry mine down!! Only kidding he did!) to get the boat back to Copacabana.

There we took the bus back to La Paz. At one point the bus stopped and we had to get off and get a ferry across the water. The boat was taken on another ferry....to be honest I thought the boat would have sunk with us never mind the bus.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Living it Up in La Paz

La Paz has a population of 1.5 million who seem to be have been dropped from a high into a bowl like canyon at 3660m above sea level. With hundreds of thousands of tiny houses clinging to the side of steep chasm and the majestic snow capped tripple peaked Illamni commanding the background, it truly is a breathtaking (quite literally) place.

Once in La Paz we eventually managed to get accommodation in a hostel but decided to stay just one night as I didn´t think it was fair to share an outside toilet with others whilst I suffered from a dodgy stomach (and it was also really cold at night). So we hunted around for another place and decided to move into the Hotel Continental the next day.

We wandered around the city for a while and both of us commenting to each other how much we liked the buzz and feel of the place. One of the first things we noticed was the thousands of small mini buses which ferry people about the city. These buses have an onboard salesman shouting out the bus´s route, it usually went a bit like this..... NitshilPriesthill!!!! CraigbankGowanBank!!!!!HousehillmuirHousehillwood!!!! OldPollokNewPollok!!!!! come get on, only two more spaces!!!!! or La Paz´s equivalents all shouted out rapidly and repeatedly ad nauseum.

The place also reminded us a little of one of our favourite cities Saigon with everything available to buy on the pavements but this time the locals are decked out bowler hats and not conical ones. We walked about the witches market where they sell llama fetuses (apparently they bury them underneath new buildings to bring good luck), some were quite small and dried out like skeltons and others where 3 to 4 feet tall with fur on them. Many other weird and wacky things that supposedly give you luck for various things were available in this market.

Another thing that struck me was that Che Guevara´s legacy is a lot stronger here than it was in Argentina, In Argentina you where more likely to see Maradonna, Evita or Carlos Gardel (tango legend) monikers on postcards, posters and t-shirts than old Ernesto. In La Paz Che´s iconic image is everywhere from graffiti to jewellery, maybe this is a guilt thing due to them largely ignoring him when he tried to rouse the country into revolution before he was captured and killed in Bolivia in 1967.

On our second day we moved to Hotel Continetal, the hills in La Paz are extremely steep and when you a have your big rucksack it is a bit of a killer. We where quite lucky as our new hotel had an inside toilet and tv!! luxury. The hotel is situated in party street where they have loads of shops selling all you would need for a kids party with millions of huge foam characters, loads of confetti & streamers and masks galore.

In the afternoon we decided to take a break from the hussle and bussle and went to the musical museum, yeah sounds great but you are allowed to play quite a few of the instruments and like big kids we spent sometime banging and trying to get tunes out of some drums, organs, bottles and brass instruments. I dug into my distant past Euphonium playing days and managed to get a tune out of the various brass instruments lying around, Joanne quickly quipped this was due to me being full of hot air.

The food in La Paz seems to be of a slightly higher standard than Tupiza (which wouldn´t be hard) and we have had some nice meals. We went to a bar called Mongo's which is probably the most western type bar, it has Log fires and dull lighting, the food was also great!. We would end up here on quite a few occasions over the next few weeks.

On the Sunday we wandered about the markets on the main street and had a look round the museum for contemporary arts. On our way back to the hotel a large group of people appeared in fancy costumes and started dancing around. We soon realised this was being filmed for a movie and we manged to get some great photos of the performers.

It was early to bed as we had to be up at 4:30 to get on the bus so we could beat the roadblocks (or so we thought)!!

Monday, May 16, 2005

Jeep at Half the Price

9am (8th May) Sunday Morning and we start a 4 day jeep tour of Salar de Uyuni (the world´s largest salt flat at 12,000 sq km and sits at a lofty 3653m) and many other attractions in the south west of Bolivia. We are to share the jeep with 4 other gringos and the driver and cook. Our compadres for the trip are Sue and Sharon (two friends from Cambridge Uni who come from Manchester and Cornwall), Keith from Plymouth (who we briefly met in Pucon at The Monkey Puzzle Hostel) and Januk from North of Paris.

The jeep was a bit tight for the 8 of us and after about an hour in the back seat my knee was playing up and I had too move into the central seats. Almost as soon as we left Tupiza we started to climb and before long we where almost up to 4000m. We stopped soon afterwards to take some photos of the the mountains Quebrada del Palala and some cacti which were over 3000 years old. Our next stop was for lunch and to have a very close look at about a thirty llamas which where wandering next to the road grazing. The Llamas where all wearing small pom pom things behind their ears, I think this was used for identification rather than any weird Bolivian cheerleading ritual. The Llamas didn´t seem to bother with us when we got close, but one did spit at Sue and Sharon. We where then treated to our first taste of the food from our own private cook Damasia, her food was a great improvement on the rubbish that was served up to us in Tupiza. Over the four days the food was always good and we also got to try some intresting things and Damasia was always very cheery. Our driver Alberto was fine at driving the Jeep but his choice of music on the first day left a lot to be desired, after a short burst of the usual south american nonsense we where then subjected to about two hours of Japanae folk music. Sharon tried to cover the speakers with her legs and fleece to dull the high pitched torture that is probably used in Guantanamo Bay to break the inmates.

We stopped off at a small town called San Pablo De Lipez where a few inquisitive kids came out to see the gringos and to get their photos taken, as with most kids these days they instantly wanted to see the reuslts in the back of the digital cameras. The town was at 4200m and it seemed like a really grim and cold palce to live, as with all the small towns and villages we passed there was a gravel football pitch which doesn´t look as if it ever saw grass.

This was also when both Joanne and myself had a problem with the Altitude (People have often said I had an attitide problem back home, but I´m not sure if their spelling was quite right because I haven´t been one much for heights). First I noticed the headaches and dizzy feeling (Yeah I can hear you sniggering at the back saying how would I know the difference). After getting our rucksacks off the top of the jeep I had to sit down for 10 minutes where I felt really drunk as if I had just drunk about 10 pints of Stella, the most annoying thing was that I hadn´t had a drink in the past few days never mind a decent pint of Stella.

Januk from then on would regularly supply me with coca leaves to chew, I´m not sure if this helped with the Altitude sickenss but it made the trip go a bit smoother. The cook also made us flasks of mate each day, another supposedly antidote to altitude sickness.

Our place of rest for the first night was a bleak stone building with 6 beds, no heating, one electric bulb and a small room for having dinner in the village of San Antonio De Lipez. Januk disappeared for a while before coming back to tell us that he was star gazing and that he hadn´t seen this many stars since the time he went to the Oscars (I think that is what he said but my understanding of his English wasn´t too great). So the rest of us headed out (Joanne picked up a blanket) and true enough the sky was covered in stars and it was difficult to recognise any of the usual constellations, but you could clearly see the Milky Way and numerous shooting stars. Back in the room it was absolutely freezing but they did supply us with about 1000 blankets so it wasn´t too bad.

Next morning was an early rise (6 am) where we saw several lakes before we got stuck crossing a river bed. For a few minutes or so it looked like the guys would have had to get out and push the jeep out of knee deep icy water....but fortunately Sue and Sharon threw themselves to the other side of the vehicle which allowed the jeep to free itself.

We also passed an eerie deserted gold mining town which the locals believed to have been cursed. The story goes "The mine was ran by a mean guy (aka the devil). There were very few women in the town and each had to marry 7 men. Any daughters were exchanged with other villages for bricks and mortar. Complaints were made to the Priest in Potosi about the owner's behaviour and the situation of women. A priest came but was cursed by accepting a gold gift from the owner. Another priest came and told the owner to take a bible to the top of the mountain and wait for sunrise. The owner fell asleep and when he woke up the bible had turned to stone. Shortly after this people started falling ill and dying and people started to leave the village which made the mine go out of business. From then on the any gold from the mine was supposedly cursed and brought bad luck on the owner."

Our lunch time stop was at some thermals where we had a dip in the shallow pool. We stopped off at a lake which produced soda crystals for washing which looked like snow washing up on the beach. This was close to the Dalí desert which took it´s name from the Spanish surrealist painter due to the weird rock formations scattered about the desert. Next stop was the sulphur smelling geysers at Sol De Mañana at 5000m where steam was pouring out of holes in the earth and pools of mud were spurting.

That night we had another stay in a cold hostel with no heating but once again we where saved by the abundance of heavy blankets. Januk and Sue taught us some card games and we played until the room got too cold, Januk also practiced his Scottish pronunciations by mimicking Joanne´s stick and twist while we had a few games of pontoon.

After another early rise it wasn´t long before we saw thousands of pink flamingos bathe in the reflective ligh of Lake Colorada. When one twitchy flamingo flew off it usually started a domino effect until all the birds around it had followed the first to where it had landed, this seemed to happen quite regular. We stayed here for about half an hour and Joanne must have taken about 200 photos. Our next stop was to the National Park where we saw some more bizzare rock formations and one in particular that looks like a giant broccoli (Arbol De Piedra) that you see all the time in posters, postcards and books in Bolivia. We then stopped for a bit when Alfredo the diver spotted some vizcachas (small rabbit/rodent type things related to chinchillas), after peeling some cucumbers Alfredo tried to entice them down and soon we were feeding quite a few.

At lunch we stopped next to more flamingos but they were soon driven away when a few jeeps of other tourists started playing really loud music after they had taken their photos. This left our group slighlty peeved to say the least, but the less we say about this is probably for the best before we go down a long path I don´t really want too.

We then drove past the salt plains as the sun was starting to set and this looked amazing before arriving at our Salt Hotel. Yes, that is right our hotel was made out of Salt Bricks including the bed and bedside table. We all thought that it would be white....but in fact the bricks were a light grey colour. Sue testified that it was defiinitely made of salt as she had licked the wall in her room.

Here we were able to have a hot shower (the first shower for us since starting the tour) and boy was that good. We then ate dinner and had our first drink since starting the tour which consisted of one can of beer each....well it was a wild night. We played cards this time Joanne taught everyone how to play Scabby Queen (I lost in the first game) and Sharon taught us another card game. We were asked by an Israeli guy to sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew for his friend....he wrote down the words but unfortunately the tune wasn't to 'Happy Birthday' as we know it but at least they gave us some of their sweets and biscuits.

The next big dilema was whether or not to get up to see the sunrise....at a 4.30 am start we all decided that it would be worthwhile. Despite me trying to rally everyone up for an all nighter and no sleep - around 10pm we headed to bed.

Yes we did get out of our kip early and had to pack our bags via a reading light (thanks Brenda) and candle as our bouth our torch batteries ran out at the same time the night before. After breakfast we drove out to see the sun rise across the Salt Plains of Uyuni. It was amazing and when we got out to take pictures it was freezing and the salt looked like a huge snow field topped with ice.

We then drove to the Isla Del Pescado an island in the centre of the salt plain which had thousands of cacti growing on it. We arrived at 7.30 and had a couple of hours to explore so we wandered up to the top of the island where we sat in complete silence soaking up the magical and surreal view. The salt plains went on as far as the eye could see into the horizon and sometimes looked like a lake or a desert as the sun hit the ground at different times. We sat there for quite a while before heading down for our second breakfast (our cook was worried that we werent being fed enough!). We ate fried sweet bread and drank 'Api' a local drink made from maize, lemon and cinnamon which was delicious and really warmed us up.

After this we went towards Uyuni and stopped off to be shown by Alfredo holes in the plains with water which were made by underground gases finding their way out. We saw some salt crystals which had perfect square and rectangular formations. We ate our lunch and said out thanks to Alfredo and Damasia before being dropped off in Uyuni to book our bus to La Paz.

Uyuni only had one main attraction which was the train graveyard....so five of us in a taxi and out we went. Whole trains were left on the tracks to rust. It had an eerie feel to it and we all couldn't resist climbing our way up onto the wrecked trains.

Headed back for a pizza which was fabulous before getting on the luxury bus to La Paz (well it was a luxury to have called it a bus). Fortunately Joanne managed to get a sleeping bag out (unfortunately we should have got both of them out). My stomach gurguled for the whole of the rocking, freezing, uncomofortable trip to La Paz. The windows kept opening by themselves (despite the driver taping the windows up with sellotape) due to the lack of suspension and the lack of surface on the roads! Luckily we arrived in La Paz safe and sound but totally freezing at 7am.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Tupizá in a Pod

Headed out of Salta on the bus and were stopped several times by numerous road blocks or strikes. The bus conductor tried to bribe them by passing bottles of tea, coffee or water out....sometimes this was enough for them to let us pass but other times the bus had to turn around and detour. We have no idea what the strikes were about but similar type road blocks have gained the locals concessions in Boliva recently.

Landed in La Quicá and made our way to the Argentinian border control. There were hundreds of Bolivians carrying huge sacks of food, cement and whatever else over the borders...some of these were little old ladies who looked as though their legs were about to give way. Through the control we went and this time we had a guard who had a bit of a sense of humour asking if I was 24 and was I sure this was me on my passport. We think he was trying to improve his English but he didn`t chat Chris up quite the same.

Then quickly through the Bolivian border control into Villazon. We waited for a few hours (this time remembering the change in time) and got on a bus to Tupiza. We watched as parcels, packages and huge poles were loaded on top of the bus and were worried that our rucsacks might follow....fortunately this wasn´t the case. I couldn´t believe it when we were asked to pay to leave the bus terminal....it had no toilets and very little anything else!! The bus was packed and several people also had huge parcels stored away under their and our seats.

We arrived in Tupiza and wanted to find the Hotel Torre which was recommended (by Larissa) and several young boys (one in particular with a toy gun) said they would show us the way....well we gave them a few coins for their efforts.

The hotel was really nice and the owners were friendly....we decided to go on a 3 hour horse tour the next day....well you know how gringo Chris wanted to be a proper gaucho!!

The town wasn´t that big and the following day we wandered around the markets seeing lots of older women in the traditional costume of meringue ankle length skirts with bowler hats (two sizes too small) sat precariously on top of their heads and large colourful blankets tied around their backs usually with a small child, animal or parcels inside. We saw many interesting sights one of the pictures shows the funniest - Vinny shampoo, anybody who knows Vinny will realise how ironic this is or maybe after using some of this stuff you will end up like it´s namesake.

Then we headed out for the horse ride of our lives. The first main job was to actually get up on the horse....well Chris had long legs - no problem as for me I was punted up and over. Then off we went up through the town and then round a hill outside the town. We trotted along a path which took us past amazing red sandstone rocks, boulders and hills and a dried up river bed. This area was called Colorado maybe showing a lack of imagination by the local namers but I could see what they meant. This is also the area where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent their last days and many of the tour operators offered two day trips to follow in their footsteps or should that be horseshoes.

We managed to avoid the dogs which constantly ran at the horses barking wildly. The sun was shining, the horses were plodding and we were having a ball. That was until we rounded a bend and without warning the guide geed his horse into a gallop and then ours followed. After a minute or so I was all for it but then I heard Chris yell ?'WHOAH' but his horse wasn´t for stopping....he was bouncing all over the place and so was the camera....He eventually got the horse to slow down and stop. I wish I had the camera at that point as his face looked even more petrified than mine on the cable car ride. After that we managed to keep the horses on a quick walking pace. We rested the horses for 30 mins and then headed back via a different route with the local children either shooting 'Hola' and waving or just standing back staring and pointing at the mad gringo´s on the horses. We finished our ride 30 mins earlier than planned but my knees and some other parts I didn´t know I had were starting to ache so that wasn´t a problem. Chris was fine until he got off the horse. I enjoyed this one (much better than in Greece) but Chris´s parting comments were 'Well I´ve been on a horse now, I don't need to do it again!´

We were well warned before heading to Bolivia that the standard of food left a lot to be desired and our first two nights in Tupizá definitely bore this out with one very average meal and one downright rubbish!!

If anybody is ever heading to Tupizá we wholeheartedly recommend the Hotel Torre for it´s decent rooms, great breakfasts and extremely helpful and warm hearted staff, just ask the local urchins for directions (watch out for the kid with the gun).

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Salta the Earth

Hooray a great bus journey from Mendoza to Salta....hot food, wine, DVD´s and even a game of bingo (I kid you not and Joanne had only one number to get that bottle of wine too!).

First impressions are that Salta is much busier and bigger than Mendoza. We managed to get a hostel with double room and TV, so we watched the Liverpool v Chelsea champions League game while we chilled out before heading round the town. We had arranged to maybe meet up for a drink with a couple we met at the bus station in Mendoza and who where also staying in our hostel. After following directions from the Lonely Planet book the bar was now a hairdressers, this has happened a few times on our trip but overall the book has been a great help so far. Finding the Hairdressers was maybe an omen as Joanne had been huffing and puffing over the last few weeks about getting her hair cut and coloured and she finally decided to go for it the next day.

The next day we headed to Cerro San Bernardo, a hill overlooking the city, this seems to be a common theme for us on our trip so far. There was a cable car up but after Joanne´s experience in Santiago we decide to walk up. There was 1070 steps to the top but it was a nice day and didn´t take too long, we met a girl from Switzerland and spoke to her on the way up. At the top there was a small cafe and some statues, so after a couple of empanadas (Cornish Pastie type things found all over South America with many varied fillings.... warning note in Santiago they have olives with the stone still inside)and a coke we headed back down into town. Joanne headed nervously to the Hairdressers while I went to watch the PSV vs Miland CL Semi Final back at the hostel where I gave her all my moral support.

Joanne came back with a smile, more of relief than total happiness. She was very happy with the colour but she said it only took about them 5 minutes to cut her hair. It looked fine to me, and I wasn´t going to say anything different anyway.

We met up with couple who we missed the night before (Matt and Emma) and went for dinner to the La Chueca restaurant and had a nice meal. Both Joanne and myself had stew (Beef & Lentil for Joanne and Goat for me) as we had been getting a bit fed up of Steak which had been the main choice apart from Pasta and Pizza for the last few stops on our trip. After a few bottles of Wine it was back to the hostel as Matt and Emma where leaving at 6 in the morning on their way to Igazu.

Next day we headed to San Lorenzo a small village 15km outside Salta, on arriving we found out quite quicky how small. After a quick scan round we decided to have lunch in the only place open, luckily the food was excellent. We wandered about for a bit without really seeing anything and got the bus back to Salta. Back in Salta I decided to go for a haircut in a small place near the hostel. My haircut took about 30 minutes, this wasn´t due to exceptional hair growth in the southern hemisphere but more to do with the barber´s age. Things where going alright if a bit slow until he pulled out the open razor and started waving it about the back of my kneck, after a quick change of underwear and some afershave it was all over.

Our last night in Salta (and in Argentina) was spent in Casa Du Guëmes restaurant recommended by Matt and Emma, not for it´s food but for it´s entertainment. Once seated and your order is taken then things start to liven up on stage, first up was a guy with an accoustic guitar who sang some melancholy songs which most people in the place ignored until politely clapping at the end. Next up was a large guy with an accoustic guitar and a low booming voice and a small round chap with an assortment of pan pipes and they serenaded the diners with an assortment of well known South American ditties. It started getting interesting when the owner took over the microphone, after joining in with the previous band he then gave us long rambling monologues and songs about the history of his family and the building. When he sang he got the waiter to flash the lights and put the spotlight on him to show who was boss, we managed to escape before signing up to his private army and his plans to reclaim the city for his family name. Back at the Hostel we watched the UK election (only problem was that the only English speaking news channel was CNN).

We had to be up at 5 the next morning so we could catch a bus to the Bolivian border. So we now sadly leave Argentina and hope one day to return. We have had so many highlights it feels a shame to highlight a few but here goes anyway. The Igazu Falls, Moreno Glacier and the streets of Buenos Aires should be on anybody´s to do list.

Next stop Bolivia......

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Mendoza Madness

After our exciting time in El Calafate we headed north (on a nightmare of a bus journey). On the very first bus we stopped for half an hour when a girl in her late twenties was taken off the bus in the middle of nowhere and arrested by the police. They searched her bags and gave her a thorough frisking before slapping on the cuffs right in front of everybody on the bus.

We then had a four hour wait in the depressing town of Rio Gallegos where we had stayed a few days earlier on the way to El Calafate, there wasn´t much to do so we headed to an internet cafe for a few hours. Back on the bus and it was the bus from hell literally as the heat was unbearable, I couldn´t put my feet on the floor as I would have been burnt to a crisp.

To split the journey we decided to stop off on the way in a place called Puerto Madryn. This place has a wildlife sanctuary near to it with sea lions, elephant seals, and for a couple of months orca (whales) are sometimes seen.

The prices for the tours seemed a bit steep and we were also told by one company that there was likely to be a strike the next day which would stop all tours going out. So we decided to skip the tours because we might not see anything and just stayed one night before heading onto Mendoza.

Another long bus journey later with the second half being another nightmare we ended up in Mendoza and found our hostel a couple of minutes from the bus station.

We went for a little wander about and were told of a good place to go for dinner....well as we hadn´t eaten anything other than bread rolls & ham for 24 hours we decided to give it ago. If you are ever in Mendoza visit Las Tinajas on Lavalle. We weren´t too sure as it was a buffet (bad experience in Montevideo) but when we walked by at 10.30pm it was jumping. The food was excellent and there was something for everyone,and on our second visit on the Sunday night they had a great Tijuana Brass band. Everything was extremely fresh and the variety did not stop at Argentinian food...there was individual chefs making you up stir frys, pasta, you name it they had it....With a bottle of red wine we had a ball and again rolled home stuffed to the gunnels.

On Friday we decided to head towards a park and walked through the city. When I say walked it was more of a skip and jump from Reilly ´junior´ as he stomped his way along trying to crunch every fallen leaf in sight (and there were quite a few of them). We sat by the lake and then headed up a hill towards a view point....well there was a neat statue celebrating the Argentinian independece there but you couldn´t see the city and the mountains looked like someone had painted them in the background. We headed back down the hill and through the park singing along to our music as we set up our MP3 and speakers on the back of Chris´ backpack, we did get some funny looks from passers by (not sure if it was my singing or Chris´s).

On Saturday we met up with a couple of Americans...Cath and Dave who were going to go to the wineries...well since we aren´t that fond of wine we declined............ to stay in the city and took up their offer of going with them. First stop was Museum La Rural which is also a modern day winery....After the tour we tasted some wine...well since the grapes were young this wine was sold to religious groups (need I say anymore!!). This was the wine we got to taste and it was a little acidic....we then decided on another bottle to share between us....that was much nicer.

Off to find the second winery which was a little disappointing....more folk had come in and we weren´t able to do the tour....but we had a couple of sips of aged wine. We then got a bus back which detoured all around Mendoza.

On Sunday we tried to find the Antiques market but we never did so we headed back to the park, had lunch by the lake and lazed about in the warm sunshine. I was then cajolled and persuaded by my said husband to try and find a way into a football stadium which had something to do with some guy called Archie something or other who scored a goal for Scotland against some other team during the Argentinian World Cup in nineteen canteen. There was no security (in sight) so we had to climb a few fences and barbed wire to get in, once inside it was just a big empty stadium with rugby posts instead of football goals. Chris tried to get down on to the pitch but there was a big moat around it, he kept going on about it being probably the most famous Scottish goal ever. We managed to get back out before we got arrested or anybody shooting at us.

Mendoza is a whole lot cheaper than Chile and the south of Argentina, most days we had a luch for the two of us for about a 1 pound and dinner was always under a tenner (sometimes under a fiver) and that would include at least a bottle of wine.