lehcarc
Rachel Clarke Joined: November 18th 2008
Logged in: April 6th 2011
Logged in: April 6th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Bag lady going from Bolivia to Brazil
So we are in a taxi on the way to get our Brazil entry stamps and the taxi driver went down a street, slammed on his breaks, hurriedly reversed and went down a different street. He goes police and flashbacks of Peru came back to me and I thought not again, but we got there without further problems. The immigration guy went to stamp on my observations page and I said, kinda loudly cos it panicked me, NO and he looked at me and I said not that page. So he flipped though my passport looking for a blank page and said jokinly you're passport is too full! Such a proud moment. We had met up with a brother and sister on the train who were also going to Rio and when we went to buy ... read more
Saltena
Thurs 12th - Went out looking for something for breakfast and found a different kind of salteña, was soo yummy. I have just read in my guide book, while checking the spelling for salteña, that the best salteñas are found in Sucre so score. Sadly they only sell them in the mornings. Sucre is also known as La Ciudad Blanca de Las Americas (the White City of the Americas). Went and got some fruit from the market and had a totally awesome breakfast. We got a bus out to buy our bus ticket onto Santa Cruz and decided to walk back. Got some good street meat from a lady beside the bus station with boiled corn bits, potato and spicy salsa. While we were walking we came across a phone inside the belly of a dinosaur. ... read more
Uyuni
Tues 10th we took a morning bus from Uyuni to Potosi which was about 5-6 hours. Only two companies offer a 10am bus to Potosi, the others are all night buses. Was a bit tight some of the way, right on the edge of a cliff. Just as was wondering what would happen if a car was coming the other way the bus in front of us had a tractor come round a corner, and the tractor had to back up to let us go by. Bus broke once and we had to wait to let it cool down, was nicer than in the middle of the night cos could sit in the sun. The bus didn't stop at the bus station as you would expect, but at the bus office nowhere near the bus station. ... read more
Monument to the Railway workers
Friday 6th of Feb we arrived into Uyuni to start our salt flat tour the next day. This time the person from the tour company was there to meet us and walk us to the office to give us our chat. She reccomended a hotel around the corner which was 30Bs a night without a private bathroom, which normally is fine. However, when I went to use the shared bathroom there was no loo roll so I went down to the old lady on reception and asked for some. Turns out you have to provide your own and only get toilet paper if you have paid for a private bathroom!! That did not rate with us so we asked for our money back and went to two others, one where you had to pay 8Bs for ... read more
Reflecting in the Amazon
Sat 31st we had our flight from La Paz to Rurrenabaque for our Pampas Amazon tour the next day. The landing strip was a dirt track that from through the pilot´s window looked verrry short but did the job. When we arrived there was meant to be someone from the company meet us at the airport but there was no one insight we got on what we thought was a free bus, but wasn´t, and got to the plane company office in town and there was someone to meet us and drive us to the tour office which was the next block over! We had an arguement with the guy in the office about the transfer and he said he would call the lady we booked through and speak to his boss. We had been in ... read more
View from the hotel room
Mon 26th - arrived into Copacabana from Peru and the bus stopped outside a really fancy looking hotel that we figured would be really expensive, but turns out was cheaper than the hostel we´d been staying at in La Paz! So I went inside and booked us a room while Lorna manned the bags coming off the bus. We were on the second floor and when the hotel man opened the door to our room the view was amazing! It looked right onto Lake Titicaca and the sun was just starting to set and the room was sunny and was great! And the shower had hot water so we were sold! While we sorted ourselves out we watched the sun set over the lake and then went to get something to eat, which I ended up ... read more
Pig head
Monday 19th January we had a flight from Lima to Cusco at 5:40am. We were originally going to just bus it but I read on someone´s blog that the bus took about 18hours on a good day and that during the rainy season the road can become unpassable!! The flight only took about an hour and only cost £35 since we booked it in like May last year. Was speaking to someone who was wanting to book a flight but was going to be over £200 since was only a week in advance! Had no problems with flight, fell asleep not long after take off and woke up just before landing. (Turns out the next day all the flights in the morning were cancelled due to fog and only some in the afternoon went). The tour ... read more
Ecuador to Peru border crossing
Previously on Rachel´s blog: (Wednesdy 14th Jan) We had got up at 5am to do the Devil´s Nose train ride (approx 5 hours) starting in Riobamba, Ecuador. We then got on a 5 hour bus from Alausi to Cuenca then another 6 hour bus to Loja (the bus from Cuenca to Loja broke down and we had to wait an hour for the next bus), then an 8 hour bus which left at midnight onto Piura in Peru, which included a border crossing. Somewhere along that journey the bus also broke but as it was ungodly hour of the morning I just went back to sleep while Lorna was busy stuffing all her money and bank cards into her shoes cos she thought we were being held up! We arrived at the border, which was a ... read more
Middle of the world monument
(Am writing this having just finished the 4 day Inca trail this afternoon so have a brain that has kinda shut down but got a 2 hour wait until the train back to Cusco so thought should make the most of my spare time and at least start south america) January 6th we flew from Costa Rica to Quito, Ecuador to start the next nearly 3 months of our South America chapter. Our flight was quite early so we had booked a taxi to take us to the airport bus which was much cheaper than a taxi directly to the airport. But when the taxi arrived turns out the hostel had booked it to the airport and not told us the airport bus doesn´t run at 5am! So we could have stayed in bed an extra ... read more
Leon Cathedral
On 31st December we caught the bus from Tegucigalpa in Honduras to Leon in Nicaragua so had a border crossing ahead of us - great way to end the year! We got on the bus prepared for another spanish dubbed movie when The Mask came on.... in English! Lorna got very excited as is her second favourite movie. Now what many of you may not know is there was a second mask movie made called Son of the Mask, which was nearly as bad as the S Club movie we watched on the Mexican bus. Very close to call though. But we still watched it cos it was in English but there is a good reason it isn´t well known. The border crossing was nothing really, because of the agreement. Just have to pay $10 to ... read more
