Titicaca and the Amazon

I'm not sure what I can say about Lake Titicaca other than it's big, it's high and it's beautiful.
We stayed on the Bolivian side in Copacabana and went for a day trip to Isla del Sol where we enjoyed the beautiful vistas and the Inca ruins. Unfortunately the trip was slightly marred by a case of Bolivia belly but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
After Titicaca we headed to Rurrenabaque which is the stopover town for those wanting to do tours of the Amazon Basin. The safest way to get there is on a slightly too small for comfort propeller plane from La Paz... However the 40 minute journey passed snow capped mountains and the incredibly lush Yacuma river was well worth all the nail biting.
We opted for a sadly short tour of the pampas (wetlands) for 2 days and 1 night - we set off at 9am on the bumpiest 3 hour jeep journey to get to the rivers edge where we meet our awesome guide, Taz. Taz managed to save face for all the (too many!) unfriendly Bolivians we had met with his openness and seemingly endless patience with ever arriving packs of ignorant and irritating tourists (some of which we had the pleasure of dealing with in our group). We hopped on a boat and he took us along the river to our jungle camp, stopping along the way whenever he spotted any wildlife. Unfortunately we didn't see as much as we could have had we stayed longer but to be honest the awesome setting alone would have made the tour worthwhile. The calm river's surface reflects every piece of sky, flora and fauna giving you an incredible double landscape broken only by the wake of the small boats. At night it seemed as though we were navigating along the sky, with the stars twinkling as brightly from the river as they were from space and I found that nothing quite matches the feeling of being sat on a wooden balcony with a bottle of wine and the night sky spread both above and below you.
We were still quite spoilt for wildlife, spotting monkeys, birds, dolphins, alligators, caimans, lizards and turtles. One particularly curious dolphin swam right up to my feet and took a dive in front of me to show off his tail.
Our second day in the pampas consisted of following Taz into thigh deep alligator infested waters in search of anacondas... We didn't manage to find any as it is difficult in the wet season but we did find a shed load of mosquitoes which happily feasted on our legs, arms and arses and consequently caused levels of itchiness that prevented us from feeling any form of comfort for the next couple of days... At least we didn't run into any green mambas which Taz happily informed us have a venomous bite that could kill you in less than 2 minutes. Of course he could save your life by instantly amputating the affected limb, so I did feel a somewhat small comfort wading behind him hacking away at tree branches with his machete...
We survived relatively unscathed, and although we may have lost a couple of pints of blood to the helicopters they call bugs, I would highly recommend the experience to anyone.

Key info, Copacabana:
How we got here and away: 4 hour bus ride from and to La Paz (including an interesting boat trip across the lake where the bus followed us on a dodgy looking barge).
Where we stayed: Hotel Utami - decent bedroom and ok bathrooms, good location.

Key info, Rurrenabaque:
How we got here and away: 40 minute plane ride from and to La Paz with TAM airlines.
Where we stayed: Hostal Curichal - cheap, decent room with a fan, cold showers (though it was bloody hot anyway), helpful staff and the location was fine.
Jungle tour: Fluvial Tours - Great guide, good food and sturdy jungle accommodation.
www.fluvialtoursbolivia.com

U

Sucre and La Paz

The picturesque, white-washed city of Sucre was a welcome discovery after the dusty, fume-filled streets of Potosí. Sucre, originally named La Plata, was the capital of Bolivia in colonial times. It is here where 'Alto Peru' declared independence from the Spanish after years of bloody wars and the city still has an obvious sense of pride in the part it played in history, recognising itself as the place where the new republic of Bolivia was born. In Tarabuco there is a very graphic monument in tribute to the indigenous warriors who fought in these wars. The statue depicts a warrior stood over the body of a Spanish soldier whose heart he holds in his hand and whose blood pours out of his mouth... Apparently eating the heart of your enemy was the done thing when celebrating a victory.
Tarabuco is a small indigenous market town a couple of hours from Sucre. While we were there, they were celebrating Pulljay, which is their most important festival. The locals wear there finest traditional gear, complete with tiny cymbals on their feet and dance around the town. In a field nearby they construct a giant tower where they place offerings. Again, not quite Rio Carnaval, but it was interesting to watch and the market stalls provided a good opportunity to stock up on souvenirs.
On our last night in Sucre we met a couple of Bolivian men who had sat on our table and surprisingly started chatting to us. I say surprisingly because so far we had found most Bolivians to be very closed and almost unfriendly - and although we have met some locals who have been very friendly and helpful, on more than one occasion eye contact was out of the question and being told the price of something in a shop seemed like the biggest of favours.
When I asked them about this they said that some of the indigenous Bolivians were anti-gringo. Due to their bloody colonial past, some still believe that Westerners are here to take advantage of them rather than to spend their money and boost the economy via tourism. In fact, since Bolivia elected its first indigenous president, the country has suffered economically, with trade links to the US being completely severed... Apart from in the case of cocaine. Bolivia is now the World's largest exporter of cocaine and the government is seemingly deeply involved in the trade, with the head of Bolivia's police, who always stated publicly that he was anti-drugs, being caught in the United States facilitating deals. Note that most of the things I say on this blog are regurgitated from conversations I have had with locals so apologies if you spot inaccuracies in anything I write... So if you do read anything on here that you'd like to bring up at a dinner party I suggest you Google it first to ensure accuracy!

From the historic capital we moved on to the current capital. La Paz leaves a striking image when you first arrive from the roads surrounding the valley that it engulfs. Buildings consume the hillsides like overgrown moss and the impressive snowy Mount Illamani in the backdrop makes the mass of brown bricks take on a unique beauty. The city itself is on the ugly side of the scale when not viewed as a whole, but there are interesting nooks and crannies with cute cafes and shops selling all the artisanal souvenirs you could ever want or need. Needless to say the shopaholic in me broke loose and I may have bought more than I can carry... If you happen to be in Bolivia right now and see a European girl selling stuff out of her backpack, that will probably be me...
Not many exciting pictures this time as we've been spoiled with stunning landscapes the past couple of weeks and the imagery of the cities have become somewhat underwhelming. Lake Titicaca and the Amazon jungle are coming up next though so I'll be trigger happy once more!

Key info, Sucre
How we got here: 4 hour bus from Potosí.
Hostel: KulturCafe Berlin - Hard to say anything helpful about this one as the owners had double booked our beds so they let us stay in their own spare room - which was great! The bar was a good place to hang out and the location was central.

Key info, La Paz
How we got here: 14 hour bus cama from Sucre.
Hotel: Hotel Fuentes - Ensuite twin room with awesome hot showers - right in the middle of the nicer tourist area with 10,000 shops at your doorstep.

Uyuni and Potosí

The stark contrast between the southern South American countries and Bolivia was immediately noticeable when we reached the Bolivian border crossing ,which was literally a hut in the middle of nowhere.
Asphalt roads turned to dirt tracks and it quickly became evident why a 4x4 is needed to travel up through the National Park to Uyuni. On the first day of our tour we visited some stunning lagoons and a thermal bath and we stayed the night in a surprisingly comfortable refuge in the middle of the desert. Our Bolivian driver, the lovely Lesmes, prepared our meals. He was 21 and had been a driver on that route for 1 year which he told us was a great job in Bolivia... It quickly became clear why.
When we reached the Salar de Uyuni - The biggest salt flat in the World, it felt like landing on an alien planet with expanses of white as far as the slightly blinded eye could see. The workers on the salt flat work 12 hour days piling wet salt into pyramids to allow them to dry for extraction. The work is monotonous, tiring and punishing with the scorching sun being reflected at every angle. As tourists however we were lucky enough to be able to appreciate and enjoy the salt flat for its surreal beauty and a visit to the salt museum where the walls, tables, chairs and sculptures are made entirely of salt, was a worthwhile curiosity. It's hard to describe the varied landscapes of the national park so I've posted quite a few photos to give the general idea, from the flamingo filled coloured lagoons to the lifeless rock formations shaped by the harsh (and bloody cold!) winds. Uyuni itself is nothing to write home about. It's certainly not a beautiful town by any stretch of the imagination and the surrounding area was a wasteland scattered with tons of rubbish. It did however give us the chance to try a llama steak at one of the restaurants and I can confirm that llamas have a cute to tasty ratio of 1:1... It tastes a lot like beef but I am told it is healthier as the meat is leaner.
After Uyuni we took the bus to Potosí, which is a sprawling mining city of 570,000 people - it is the highest city in the World at a literally dizzying 4100m above sea level. Thankfully Cata and I managed to escape severe altitude sickness but the toll that it took on our breathing was very evident. Tying a shoelace alone was more than enough to rob me of my breath, so naturally the first thing we did is sign up for a mining tour... Because nothing gets you to adjust better to the thin air than crawling down a mine shaft and climbing up steep tunnels and ladders in the middle of a dust filled mountain... The first 5 minutes of the tour were frankly horrifying as I tried to block the claustrophobic thoughts from my mind, but once I managed to take a few deep breaths and take control of my panic I felt more or less fine. We spent 2 hours crawling through the mines and got an opportunity to speak to a few of the workers while we were there. Some of them have worked in the mines for over 20 years in toxic and hellish conditions where temperatures can climb up to 40 degrees Celsius. The miners believe that they are in the domain of the devil, 'Tío', and so they build idols where they leave gifts of alcohol and tobacco. The alcohol they drink, 'Whisky Boliviano', is 96% proof and we shared a couple of swigs (mixed with orange soda!) with them, pouring two drops on to the ground before every mouthful - one for the devil, Tío and one for Mother Earth, Pachamama. Most of the Bolivians we met spoke Quechua as well as Spanish so we thanked them with a 'pachis' (Not sure of the spelling but it means thank you in Quechua) and gifts of alcohol and coca leaves that we had bought before heading in. I know I said This post would be less educational - but I lied. Potosí's history is a tragic one. The mountain which has been mined for over 500 years has been depleted of the pure silver that was once found there and the miners of today work in their underground hell for up to 24 hours a day as what they earn is relative to what they extract (they themselves sell the minerals on) and the silver left in the mines is now all unpure and not worth all that much considering the work that goes into it. The mines are a dangerous place to work and, once we had come out of them (!), we were told that accidents are incredibly common and if a miner gets caught in a rock fall the spot in which he falls instantly becomes his grave. It is not surprising then that the miners are very superstitious and amongst their beliefs is that negativity attracts accidents so if they are having personal problems they will often not even enter the mines for fear of causing an accident - it is also why tourists have to put on a brave face when visiting the mines but thankfully their good sense of humour makes it easy to smile during visits.
In colonial times the Spanish would force the indigenous Incas and also African slaves to work the mines for its pure silver and the number of those who died is in the millions. Now a days it is recognised as genocide and likened to ethnic cleansing; It is said that the red hue of the mountain comes from the blood of the many whose lives it has claimed.
There is a sad irony in Bolivia as the South American country that is richest in minerals but with a very noticeably poor economy. The poverty here, where people seem to work so incredibly hard, is almost tangible and though my bank account is far happier for the cheap cost of living, my conscience has suffered some what for the comforts that we are lucky enough to enjoy.

Key info, Uyuni:
How we got here - 3 day 4x4 tour from San Pedro through the national park with highly recommended company, World White Travel.
Accommodation: Arranged as part of the tour. A refuge in the middle of nowhere and our second night in the questionable Hotel Inti which had the best possible artwork (see the muscular indigenous couple below).

Key info, Potosí:
How we got here - 4 hour bus from Uyuni
Hostel - La Casona. Nice first impressions until you realise that the building is literally falling apart and there is a construction site right outside your room.
Highlight: the mining tour arranged by our hostel. Not for the faint hearted and definitely not for the claustrophobic. During the tour, we lost 3 people of our group of 9 to the outside World but the persistence of the others was well worth it in the end. (Having said all that, we did the Spanish speaking tour and were told that the English speaking tour was not great due to the limited English of the tour guide and the miners.)

San Pedro de Atacama

The bus ride from Salta to San Pedro did not disappoint, each turn revealing a landscape as alien as the previous one; From the colourful Van Gogh landscapes of Humahuaca to the eerie desert mountainscapes of the Argentine/Chilean border worthy of Dali. I found myself half expecting a melting pocket watch to float up out of the horizon or an elephant on stilts to wander across the occasional salt flats we crossed... Instead, we got lots of llamas which I was more than happy to settle for, cute buggers.
In London, where I live, the sky during the day is grey and at night it turns to a pitch black (if you're lucky enough to avoid light pollution)... San Pedro by contrast boasts the bluest of skies which are further enhanced by the arid browns of the desert, and at night the inky sky is split by the splatter of white specks that are our own Milky Way galaxy. We took an astronomy tour where we learned that in Greek mythology it is said that this streak of misty light was created when Hera breast fed Hercules and her milk was spilled across the heavens. In fact, the word Galaxy derives from the Greek word Galaxias meaning milky. Now, you can't say this isn't educational! And now that we're done with astronomy and mythology I'll move on to a bit of geology... Many tens of millions of years ago, the mountainous area around San Pedro was made up of ice which melted when the volcanos in the region erupted. The melted ice formed a HUGE lake with salts from the volcanic rock which over time evaporated to form the salt flats that are seen today... Water trapped underground forces itself to the surface in certain places to create the amazing lagoons that we visited during our stay. We first went to a salt water lagoon which is 800 metres deep... Which is pretty damn deep for what looks like a puddle in the vast desert! The water is so salty from 10 million years of evaporation, that you can't even swim, but floating was far more fun anyway! After that we visited a beautiful fresh water lagoon which is made in the same way but the water flowing underground doesn't pass by the volcanic salts. After drying off our last stop was a crystalline salt lake where we impersonated messiahs on the thin layers of water and drank a glass of local pisco sour during sunset... Followed by a glass of Chilean red wine to warm our bones!
Anyways, I found all the above quite interesting so I thought I'd share it (plus if I don't write it somewhere I will forget it myself!) - apologies if I've bored you. I promise I'll return from our 3 day 4x4 trip to Uyuni with less education and more entertainment... For those of you who prefer pictures, I've put plenty below!

Key info:
How we got here: A breathtaking 10 hours on the bus.
Hostel: Hostelling International - A cute mud building with straw roof on the main street in San Pedro. Squeaky 3 storey bunk beds which require death defying stunts to get into... Comfortable and cheap enough though so no real complaints!
Highlights: The amazing Laguna Cejar tour and the quaint, sleepy, dusty town of San Pedro itself.

Mendoza and Salta

Our time in Mendoza happened to coincide with the the 'Vendimia' festival which marks the start of the wine season when the grapes are ready for harvesting. The celebrations seem to consist of a street parade and glorified beauty pageant where 'reinas' from each wine region are driven around on floats blaring loud music which is all interesting enough but it certainly wasn't Rio Carnaval. Aptly enough our first activity during our 3 night stay was a bike wine tasting tour. Keeping in mind that I haven't sat on a bike for at least 6 years I have no idea why I thought it would be such a fantastic idea to ride from bodega to bodega whilst knocking back the Malbec wine but we had a great day wobbling around the vineyards. Our group stopped for an al fresco lunch at a beautiful restaurant which had tables in the shade of some trees and though the food took over an hour to arrive it hardly matters when you are out in a countryside where the smell of wine permeates the air... Plus our legs were glad for the rest.
Having whet our appetite for exercise and adventure we also booked a sunset horse riding and a trekking/abseiling/thermal pools tour. The horse riding was brilliant and the beautiful dusty mountainous landscape made it really worthwhile. This was followed by an 'asado' which is a typical Argentine barbecue. Our beef and chorizo was well accompanied with plenty of the local Malbec and an eccentric Frenchman playing the accordion and singing.
Our final full day was spent trekking up the side of a (steep!) mountain only to be hung over a few cliffs with nothing but a piece of rope and a really sexy helmet and harness which made me feel less Lara Croft and more Dora the Explorer. There's nothing quite like hanging over the edge of a 45 metre precipice to get you to forget about your appearance and wonder instead why the hell you'd have signed up to this voluntarily... Once we were all sat in the natural thermal pools and my heart rate had returned to normal it all seemed quite fun and I'd definitely sign up all over again. We ended our stay by meeting up with some folks we'd met on the tour and toasted our survival to some lovely Malbec (naturally) cocktails.
The journey to Salta was a painfully long 20 hour bus trip through the desert. The fact that each dead animal carcass we drove past created excitement should give you an idea of how arid and uninteresting (save half an hour's worth of novelty factor) the landscape was. Our patience was rewarded however when we woke up in the morning to stunning green mountains and a flurry of life in beautiful Salta (or 'Salta la linda' as it is know locally). We booked a gorgeous hostel in the middle of the countryside and recovered from the journey by the poolside. The next day we went for a full day of horse riding with an asado for lunch which was even better than the one in Mendoza. Our gaucho guide, Felix, taught us to gallop which is quite possibly one of the most liberating feelings in the world and definitely had me feeling less Yosemite Sam and more Indiana Jones. Yesterday we went to visit 'la montaña de siete colores' and the stunning and surreal landscapes of Quebrada de Humahuaca where the colours of the cactus sprinkled mountains range from mint greens and yellow ochres to dusty reds and mauves and give you the sense that you've fallen into a Van Gogh or eaten the wrong (or right, depending on you habits) sort of mushrooms.
We treated ourselves to a feast of meat, pasta and provoleta for our last dinner in Argentina on International Women's Day and now we are heading to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile on a 'short' and apparently beautiful bus ride of only 10 hours.




Key info, Mendoza
How we got here: 15ish hour bus ride
Hostel: Hostel Internacional - Comfortable enough and we got discounts on our tours and accommodation by emailing them directly.

Key info, Salta
How we got here: 20 hour bus ride from Mendoza through oblivion
Hostel: Loki Hostel - A bit of a pain to get to but more than worth it for the beautiful surroundings. Don't bother if you are highly averse to beetles (not the band), mosquitos, grasshoppers, toads, dogs or nature in general.
Ranch for horse riding: Sayta in Chicoana. Run by lovely, friendly people who prepared us the best lunch I've possibly ever had.

Buenos Aires

Very rarely does a place you've never visited match up to the image you make up in your mind. I had a romantic image of Buenos Aires with music and dancing on the streets, juicy steaks and sumptuous wines; Not only did the city live up to that image but it enhanced it... My imagination didn't give Buenos Aires quite enough credit.

On the night that we arrived, we took part in a free tango lesson arranged by our hostel and from the moment our instructors taught us to 'caminar' to the vintage sounds of violins and accordions the whole class was hooked. They kindly suggested a 'milonga' that we could attend at a tango venue called La Catedral. A milonga is a pre-arranged gathering that somehow seems to have been trapped in time, providing a supply of live tango music, a bar and a dance floor - then it is up to the men to invite the women to dance... And my goodness can these people dance! It's not the cold, surgical tango that you see on tv... It is intimate and relaxed and it is made to look so easy that even Cata and I had a go when we caught the eyes of two fine Argentineans... Of course I could leave out the fact that my man, Pedro, was well into his 80s and that I stepped on his feet quite a few times but to be honest I think that that only adds to the charm. Anyway, I'm sure that Pedro was a fine catch in his prime!
I was disappointed that I didn't think to have a photo taken with the man with whom I 'danced' my first tango - but as chance would have it, the next day we stumbled across an outdoor milonga in our area and there he was. He spotted me in the crowd and invited me to dance once more and so I got the chance to take my photo... Take note that I haven't posted the photos of me actually attempting to tango as I genuinely look like a lame duck and it would really ruin the anecdote... Instead I've posted a lovely photo of Pedro and I stood still, and a nice photo of the talented folks dancing at the milonga.

As well as introducing us to the basics of tango, our dance class also lead us to cross paths with an amazing American woman with whom we spent the evening... Katelyn from California was 62 going on 23 and on a 2 month holiday away from her husband. She (and Tina Turner...) have crystallised my faith that youth is just a state of mind and I'd like to thank her for that.

San Telmo, the area that we stayed in, is peppered with antique shops, vintage looking cafes and restaurants and quirky clothes shops. On Sunday there was a large market all the way along Avenida Defensa near our hostel. The shopaholic in me couldn't resist the urge to buy a brown leather bomber jacket which I've just about managed to crush into my backpack.

When we were at Iguassu Falls we noticed that practically every Argentinean there was lugging around a giant thermos flask which we later found out was te mate. Naturally curious to see what this fuss was about, Cata and I ordered one at one of the many quaint little cafes and swiftly came to the conclusion that it can't taste unlike licking an ashtray... An acquired taste methinks though I am told that if you drown it in enough sugar and lemon peel it starts to taste nicer... I can't say we are tempted to give it another chance though (cute as though the little pots and straws you drink it out of are - photo below).

Tea tasting aside, we had some amazing meals as you can imagine - fat juicy steaks and burgers washed down with full bodied red wines. One place we went to, La Poesia, had a piano player and at one point a woman walked in off the street to break into song and unleash a voice that made every hair on my body stand on end - after a couple of songs she walked around with a hat to collect some well deserved tips. Unfortunately it is difficult to capture the essence of Buenos Aires with only words and photos as the city is saturated in beautiful melodies.

On a still beautiful but more morbid note, we visited the cemetery in Recoleta which is famous for it's miniature city of mausoleums and ornate statues, one if which is the final resting place of Eva 'Evita' Peron... And of course no visit to Buenos Aires is complete without muddling your way through the tourist hoardes to take those lovely token snaps of the colourful houses on Caminito in La Boca.

I could go on and on but I think that covers the highlights! The only other thing I'll mention that never failed to put a smile on my face was the sight of the many dog walkers moving along in a tide of wagging tails.
On the bus to Mendoza now where we've arranged a few active tours to help us burn off all that beef and booze...


Key info, Buenos Aires:
How we got here: 15ish hour bus from Puerto de Iguassu
Hostel: Ostinatto, San Telmo - Large chilled out hostel with slightly worn mattresses but good atmosphere and great location. The free tango and yoga classes were a highlight.
www.ostinatto.com

Venues:
La Catedral: Brilliant tango venue where they hold classes and milongas every day/night. Looks like an abandoned warehouse decorated with lots of vintage clutter - great vibe and felt very authentic.
www.lacatedralclub.com
La Poesia: Another brilliant find right on our street, Chile, in San Telmo.
http://www.welcomesantelmo.com/san-telmo-guide/5m3xncdtgz/La-Poesia