Cusco, Peru

The bus trip from Copacabana was rather uneventful. I crossed the Bolivia-Peru border without any incident and now have another stamp in the passport. Sarah and I met a British girl named Tessa on the bus and when we arrived in Cusco we all shared a taxi to Plaza de Armes.

My first experience (that I know of) trying to be scammed in South America:

At the bus station the taxi driver agreed to take us to the plaza for 5 soles, but when we got there he said it was 5 each. We explained to him that we were only going to pay 5 soles total, then he started bargining, " okay, eight" he said. At that point we were sure he was scamming us and it wasn´t just a miscommunication. I said "five" a few more time, gave him a five coin and got out of the cab. We grabbed our bags from the trunk while the driver looked on, disappointed he couldn´t squeeze a few more soles out of the selfish gringos. I would have been okay with paying extra, I just don´t like to be scammed.

So after that we were standing in the plaza at around 9pm and did´t know where we are going to sleep that night. After consulting the trusty Lonely Planet we head uphill to the Loki hostel. We were a block away when we got to the bottom of a very steep street. The girls decided to wait at the bottom of the hill and I would check if the hostel had any rooms. I thought I would double time it up the stairs but forgot about the large backpack on my back and the fact that Cusco is at 3300m, needless to say I was completely out of breath in about 10 steps. Luckily after that climb they had space, we checked in, went for dinner at one of Cusco´s best restaurants Jack´s cafe, came back to Loki for a few drinks and then went to bed.

The next day Sarah arranged to meet up with her friend Laura so we all waited on the steps of the cathedral at exactly 12pm. We waited until 12:30pm when we decided she wasn´t coming. We found out later that she had a touch of Typhoid and therefore had a vaild excuse for not showing up as she was in hospital. She is okay now with some rest and a little help from Louis Pasteur, but that sort of thing isn´t uncommon here. After waiting in vain we had some lunch at the Irish Bar which is where I decided to have food involving avocado everyday in Peru, mainly because it is one of my favorite foods but also because it is so pleantiful and cheap here. As we were wandering aimlessly around Cusco playing with the idea of doing something productive I spotted some friends from home, Kia and her friend Kristin, across the street. Kia and Kristin had just arrived in Peru and were at the beginning of their trip so they didn´t have the same feeling of indifference regarding cultural sights as we all did. I decided to borrow some of their fresh cultural enthusiasm and join them for a whirlwind tour of the major sites of Cusco all included in one ticket. Luckily the ticket was half price for students and I was able to prove my student status with a quick flash of my Care Card (sometimes the language barrier can work for you). Back to Jack´s for dinner again that night because it was just that good.

The next day I met Kia and Kristin for breakfast at a cafe on the square. I was trying to decide whether to do a 4 day trek to Machu Picchu or do take the easy and leisurely train ride there. Kia and Kristin had booked a two day trip from home so decided to join them instead of doing a trek because it is always nice to travel with some familiar faces. We spent most of the day arranging the trip and the girls booked a flight for their return trip. That night, after I found some ice cream that solved all my problems and South America got even smaller. On the mysterious streets of Cusco I ran into Graham and his girlfriend Megan. Graham is a friend from home, an exroommate, exclassmate, future accountant and my new roommate come September. I´m not sure of the probability of running into the two groups of people you know are travelling on the same continent within 24 hours of each other, but I´m sure it´s quite slim. We all went for dinner that night at a place called "Fallen Angel" with excellent steaks and tables made from old clawfoot bathtubs filled with fish.

MACHU PICCHU, WAYNA PICCHU and AGUAS CALIENTE Next Post.

Back from Machu Picchu and into the train station at 10:00pm. I saw Laura (recovering from the Typhoid) on the train and we made our way back to good old Loki where I was able to get a room for the night.

The next day I went for breakfast, updated my blog and did my cultural event for the day: Saqsaywaman, or as it is known by most travellers - Sexy Woman. This is only about 2km walk from the Cusco, but is mostly uphill and the incline and the altitude makes you feel you are very out of shape. Dinner that night with Kia and Kristin at Jack´s (of course), before they jumped on a bus to La Paz. I was able to lighten my bag by giving them some cold weather gear I had bought for the salt flats as they were considering making the trip themselves.

The next day I finally decided on my next destination, Arequipa. I booked a bus ticket, then killed time in Cusco by eating one last time at Jack´s and wandering around. I went back to the hostel and picked up my bag, had a sandwich and few beers while thinking about how much I was going to miss Cusco.

Copacabana

Copacabana was a refreshing change from La Paz as it is on a lake large enough to remind me of the ocean which I miss and haven't seen in 5 weeks. It was also nice because the air here didn't make you think you were sucking on a car tailpipe. We arrived on Saturday and which was just at the end of some sort of festival. I couldn't really figure out what it was, but it did involve blessing any sort of motor vehicle. There was a huge line of cars dressed up waiting to be blessed by a priest with holy water and in other parts of the town they were breaking bottles of liquor on the bumper similar to the way the christen ships. With the way they drive and the conditions of the roads in Bolivia I would have my car in that line as it couldn't hurt.



The next day we decided to take a walk along the shore of Lake Titicaca to the Virgin in the Cave. After walking through was could only be described as a garbage dump on the outside of town, which didn't make sense as they burn all their garbage in town, we started walking through some beautiful country side. After a while we finally got to the Virgin in the Cave, which was a Virgin Mary statue in an semi-cave in the side of a rock cliff. Similar to the festival in town there were people spraying the rocks with liquor and chipping of pieces of the rock to take with them. Nothing like pouring some liquor out for their homeboy Jesus for a little luck in the upcoming year.

We got back to the room and had a little rest after the walk only to be woken by a small fire right behind our room. Apparently it was intentional as they were burning garbage including all sorts of plastic, clothes and bascially anything else. I'm not saying this is wrong, just different, but it I did worry about the whole place catching on fire so we did the only sensible thing and went to dinner.

Monday we took the 12 hr bus to Cusco and unfortunately had to take it in the day as there were no night buses.

La Paz

After the tour of the salt flats we arrived in Uyuni, which we had heard wasn´t anything special and it turned out everyone was right. We arranged the first bus out of there to La Paz and then we were left with 6 hours to kill in the fabulous and exotic Uyuni. We occupied most of our time with a favorite passtime of most people...eating. Not surprising the highlight of Uyuni turned out to be was Minuteman Pizza, which was hard to find but well worth the search for the great pizza and wine. Although the pizza was great I think anything would have tasted good at that point and I still regret not getting the BBQ'ed llama pizza.

After a 12 hour night bus we arrived in La Paz. I know a lot of people like La Paz, but I did not. I found it crowded, polluted and too busy, not to mention the fact that it was raining that day. The Coca Museum was quite interesting and focused on explaining how the Coca leaf was part of the Bolivian's culture and in no way resembled one it's more well known byproducts - cocaine. After the museum I just wanted the first bus out of La Paz. We stayed a night at the Brewhouse Adventure Hostel which had a microbrewery on site and included a free beer with each night's stay. This hostel was great and I would recommend it to anyone going to La Paz. The next morning we took a four hour bus to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. I found La Paz so uninteresting I did not take any pictures.

An interesting part of the journey from La Paz to Copacabana was when we crossed a narrow section of Lake Titicaca and the bus had to take a different ferry than us.

Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats of Bolivia)

Monday morning after the giant bank line and with cash in hand we were ready to set out on our voyage of the salt flats.

Day One:

We set out from Tupiza into the desert of Bolivia climbing to approximately 4000m above sea level. This was mainly a travel day, but we stopped to see a few sights such as fields of llamas. That night we stayed in a tiny village where most of the buildings were made of adobe. Our accommodation was a house with no heat and at that altitude in the winter it is pretty cold so we warmed ourselves the old fashion way, with soup and scotch.

Day Two:

This day we had an early start of 4:30am. After having a breakfast of bread, tea and dulce de leche(caramel) we hit the road. At about 5:30 we stopped at a ghost town that had been used for mining silver or gold. I think this would have been really interesting, but as it was still dark we couldn't really see anything. Shortly after we reached our maximum altitude of the trip at over 5000m and stopped briefly for some coca tea. The Coca leaf, which has been part of the culture of the South American people for centuries, is known to help with altitude sickness, reduces hunger and increases resistance to the cold. People usually have this is tea or hold a large wad of half chewed leaves in their cheek for hours at a time. The leaves do help with the altitude, but taste a little like you are sucking on tea leaves and also make your mouth go a little numb. The Lonely Planet advises you try to resist the urge to slap your face and say `I can´t feel anything!!', an urge I couldn´t resist. Later in the day we visited the Green Lagoon, swam in some hot springs and explored a group of Gysers where they let you get surprisingly close. Having little or no sense I took advantage of this (see picture). This night was supposed to be the coldest of them all, but I found it surpisingly mild. This was probably because I was sleeping in most of my clothes in a sleeping bag with three blankets.

Day Three:

This day were were able to sleep in until 5am and had a lesuirely breakfast of exactly the same thing as the day before and tea the previous two days. Who knew you could get sick of caramel and bread? I had to switch to peach jam and bread. Today we visited more desert and then had lunch next to the railway which went straight through the salt flats. We arrived at a hotel made entirely of salt where we were to stay for the night and had the first showers of the trip. I played some two on two soccer which was very difficult at this altitude and we were all out of breath quite quickly.

Day Four:

The last day of the tour, we woke up early again to see the sun rise over the salt flats which was worth the early start. Then we drove to the an island in the middle of the salt flats covered in cactii, some 10m high and over 1000 years old. We then drove to the middle of the salt flats which were vast and pure white as far as the eye could see. As there is no spacial perspective, it was perfect for some trick photography. The Israeli guys were fully prepared for this, creating some pretty hilarious illusions, unfortunately my camera was almost out of batteries.

Tupiza, Bolivia

Tupiza, Bolivia: One of the hardest places to get money I have ever been to. Our group of six arrived on a Saturday with few Bolivianos (the currency in Bolivia) after exchanging the Argentean Pesos we had left. Unfortunately this town has no ATM and banks are not open on the weekends. Luckily the hostel we were staying at had no problem lending us money and the exchange went something like this:

Me: Since the banks are closed I would need to borrow some money.
Hostel: Sure how much would you like?
Me: 300 Bolivianos
Hostel: Okay
The lady gives me the money
Me: Did you want to write that down, and i´ll sign something?
Hostel:Umm.... sure.
The lady writes down "Mike- 300 Bs"
Me: Do you need my passport?
Hostel: umm.... okay.
Takes my passport and puts it in the drawer.
Me: Okay thanks.

In retrospect I don´t know why I was persistant in making sure they corrected this internal control nightmare.

We all decided to spend an extra day in Tupiza to book a tour of the salt flats, acclimatize to the altitude, buy the last of our required cold weather gear and to rest. Sunday our group of 6 joined up with a group of 4 Israeli guys and booked 2 jeeps for a 4 day 3 night tour of the salt flats. That night we went back to a pizza place we enjoyed the night before and Daniel ordered one of the more interesting dishes on the menu "Male Itch". I encouraged this, mainly to find out what it was, as I have always thought this was something you should avoid in public.

Through the weekend it all the travellers were talking about the of cash in the town, so Monday morning there was giant line of tourists at each of the two banks to get cash advances. It seems like someone could make a lot of money simply by putting an ATM in town.

Playing an Israeli version of Uno called Taki wearing my new scarf which also happened to be the only one I could find.



















Crossing the Argentian/Bolivian Border

Salta

Time to update the blog I guess. So I made it to Salta from Cordoba after a quick 12 hr bus ride, which wasn´t that bad because it was overnight and I booked a Cama seat which is basically like a first class airplane seat. On the trip they even served us a meal which was basically a few sandwiches and desserts shrink wrapped on a styrofoam tray. I took a few bites of a few of the assorted sandwiches and desserts and then put the tray on the empty seat beside me and the highlight of the trip was when someone sat in the tray and I woke up to them swearing and then they apologized to me.

I checked in a hostel in Salta and looked for a plug adapter for my digital camera charger while my bed was being prepared. I having no luck finding this device, but a lot of fun trying to explain what it was to the spanish speaking hardware store clerks. I then took a much needed nap then had a shower and went to explore the town properly. Salta itself is a pretty nice city, but it is mainly used as a base camp for the dozens of tours in the surrounding area which was evident in the number of tour companies on the main tourist strip. I was approached many times and I realized i´m still not blending in as an Argentinean local as I hoped. When I got back to the hostel I booked a tour of Cachi and a wine tour of Cafayte, both of which are close to Salta.

The next day I explored Salta, including a gondola ride up into the surronding hills, a visit to a museum dedicated to a group of mummified people found at high altitude in the Andes and some warm clothes shopping for the upcoming tour of the salt flats. That night I attened an all you can eat asado (argentinean BBQ) that one of the affiliated hostels was putting on.

The tour of Cachi was good we stopped to see a lot of cactii and some interesting rock formations along the way. We actually only spend 40 min in Cachi which was okay because there wasn´t a lot to do there, but it was an interesting town. On the tour I met two israeli guys and an english couple and it turned out we were all heading for Tupiza, Bolivia the same day so after the tour we when the bus station and booked some tickets for a few days later.

The next day I went on the wine tour to Cafayate. The scenery along the way was very similar to the previous day´s tour with the exception of a few impressive gorges we were able to explore. We only toured two wineries, but the two we saw were quite nice and a little mid day wine sampling always makes the day go smoother.

The next morning we woke up at the absurd hour of six and headed made our way to the bus station for the 7am bus on our way to Bolivia. You can´t actually get a bus from Salta to Tupiza, as there is a border between them. So we arrived at the border and walked across into the Bolivian town on Villamonte. We traded in our remaining pesos for bolivianos and then searched, without any luck, for an ATM. We then hoped on a bus headed to Tupiza. This bus was quite the experience as it was approximately 40 years only, standing room only and driving quite swiftly down a very bumpy dirt road. We all felt like we had truly arrived in Bolivia.

Cordoba

I am currently in Cordoba and have been since last Wendnesday. I spend a little longer here because I didn´t want to celebrate my birthday on a bus, and because Cordoba has a great nightlife on the weekends because it is a student town.

Wendnesday I took a quick walk around on a free tour put on by the hostel. Thursday better aquainted myself with Cordoba and visited a few museums. Friday I decided to go on a hike into the Andes which was great. It was a two hour drive from Cordoba, one hour of which was on a dirt road. When we finally arrived and stepped out of the comfortable and warm van, we were hit by a fierce wind and it was much colder than I expected. Although it was only 1800 meters I definitely notice the lack of oxygen, considering most of the places in Bolivia and Peru are above 3000 meters, this is something I will have to get used to. We hiked for about a hour and a half then did some rock climbing. The wall was only 25 meters, but was a nice little climb. One of my favorite parts was when a Dutch girl fell (don´t worry, we were all properly harnessed and belayed), and she screamed some sort of curse in 3 different languages, Dutch, English and Spanish, in that order. On the way down the guide made sure we didn´t wake the sleeping cow around the next corner, which turned out to be a half decomposed cow so, a little Argentinian humor.

Friday night I went out with some people from the hostel. We played 21, a fun drinking game which was new to me. Of course we didn´t both to go until about 1:30 which turned out to be a little early. We didn´t find the bar that was recommended to us, but found one that was suitable, the criteria being the fact they served liquor. The drink of the evening for most of us was Vodka y Speed (similar to redbull). These were served in a 1 liter plastic cup with ice, a can of speed and the rest of vodka I think I only made it through one that night. The next night I started my birthday celebration and I found one of my roommates, a girl from texas, and I shared the same birthday. We hit a club, with a live band and the rest of the night was a blur. Sunday night I went to see Batman (again) with my fellow birthday friend and two girl from London doing a med school practicum in Cordoba. After the movie we went to a restaurant and everyone looked at us like we were the first tourists to step into the joint. I had a giant Argentnian steak which was extra delicious as always. Then a live band started and somehow they found out it was our birthdays, I think one of the British girls was guilty of passing along this intel. Everyone in the restaurant then sung happy birthday and we all sort of just sat there. A man sitting in at the table next to me held my arm up and people suggested that I stand on a chair, I politely declinded with my superb spanish by saying 'no gracias' and shaking my head. At the end of the meal they delived some birthday flan which was quite good.

Tonight I am hopping on a 12 hour bus to Salta, which won´t be that bad because bus travel in Argentina is quite comfortable. I have am booked on a 'Cama', which means the seats recline all the way for optimal sleeping. I am assured this is not the case in Bolivia and Peru.