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Published: February 7th 2006
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Reed Islands
Approaching the locals Hola from Argentina!
Well my last blog ended in peru and since then again, we´ve packed in a fair bit of travelling!. From cusco we had quite a drive down to a place called puno. Miserable weather and even worse in Puno. Have to say Puno not the nicest of places we´ve been but its the place where you do trips to the floating reed islands on lake titicaca. So the next morning we went out on our boat trip to visit the locals on the islands. It was really interesting to see how they live and how they make the islands, i think each island has a life of about 25 years then they have to replace it as it starts to rot and smell. Though they´re constantly making new parts as it get ratherr damp particulary in the wet season. It was a bit disheartening to find they each had they´re own tv in their huts powered by solar power. I must admit it was all rather touristy as once youd gone to one little island and seen it all it was off to the next to get shown more tacky souviners made of reed which you feel obliged
21st Century!
Solar powered tv for the locals to buy. Then on the way to the next island you pass the next conveyor of tourists on their way to do the same. However the people there were extemely welcoming and friendly and happy to show you how they live. Unfortunatley one member of our group slipped through the reeds and was in the water up to her thighs, which was pretty scary for her at the time, i think she thought she was under. Luckily she laughed about it later!!.
That afternoon we left for Copacabana which meant a border crossing to Bolivia. Weather cleared and had some lovely views of lake titicaca. So Peru finished and off to Bolivia for 10 days.
When we got to copacabana weather was gorgeous so we took a pedlo out on the lake. Got shouted at by the navy guy as we went too far out and i think we were passing over the boundaries so it was a quick pedal back to shore. Unfortunately the next day the weather changed and the wet season lived up to its name and it didnt stop raining, so instead of going out to the isle de sol (bit pointless in rain) as planned,
Lake titicaca
This was our view of the lake on our lunch stop we got back on Cindy and headed to La Paz a day early!. Short drive and arrived with enough time to do a city tour that afternoon and visited the moon valley which was unexpectedly really good, (unexpected as i´d not read anything about it and didnt know it existed) Huge kinda sand rock formations that form because the weather and rain causes big crevices in the lands so get these huge kinda sticky up rocks-like stalagtites (or is it mites??!!!) You´ll have to see the photo i guess.
La Paz is a interesting place, being the highest capital city in the world at over 3000m with the poorer people living at the top migrating out to a place called el Alto as they´ve ran out of space in La Paz, and the rich living at the depths of the valley. had a little bit of a goodbye to 3 more people that left the trip, so then there were 6!! Plus rosy and jay of course (the group leaders)
Had a couple of days to chill and explore La Paz including the weird witches markets which sell all sorts of concoctions and potions, interesting!
From la paz it was
Cindy crossing the water
2 seconds later jay did his usual and stripped naked and stood on top of Cindy! Silly bugger-think he scarred the minds of the children on our ferry watching! Funny tho! off to Potosi, the mining town where they used to mine all the silver so used to be a really rich city, however the silver ran out and its now mainly tin they mine for so it is now quite a run down place. We went up to where they mine and got a feel for it. Quite sad really as the boys start mining from an age of 12 and they have very short life expectancy due to the harsh conditions (about 25 or 30 years i think) However, i think the alcohol they drink plays a part in that. Apparently because life is so crap they go out and get completely hammered on a friday night! (sounds familiar to Blighty i suppose except the stuff they drink here is 96% proof-i had a smell of it and my stomach churnned!). Rather than do an actual mine tour-didnt fancy the clostrophobia a few of us went up to the ´hot springs´which was actually just a big lake, very reluctant to go in at first as looked filthy, but surprising lovely. Really warm and we got some of the mud from the bottom and covered ourselves in it which was
View of la Paz
Hmmm, nice hat Nads! class (ive dared to include a photo of it cos it was so funny!)
From Potosi, it was Uyuni. Long drive, but i have to say it was one of the best so far, really amazing scenery and rock formations-fab drive. Again not the nicest of places but we stayed in a really cool place owned by an american guy and his bolivian wife and he cooks the best pizzas in the world (apparently!) But they were very good! From Uyuni we did a trip out to the salt flats. Unfortunately as its the wet season the flats werent dry so not how you see them in all the photos but because of the layer of water on them it made it look really cool because of the reflections-was like standing on a big mirror with blues and whites all around so got some cool photos and the water only came up to your ankle so fine to walk around on.
From Uyuni it was off to tupeza. Unfortunately i was poorly (again!!) with a really bad throat which swelled up big time and my neck was swollen (sympathy anyone?!) so i had to miss out on doing the mountain
bike riding and horse riding-since its Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid territory, but it sounds like everyone had a cool day.
Weather getting much better now too, nice and hot so hopefully be able to get rid of my milk bottle legs.
Next it was another border crossing, which seemed much more official than when enetering Bolivia as they searched the truck and our bags. So now in Argentina. Not sure whether its because we´d come from poor Bolivia but as we drove to salta, seemed such a stark contrast. Much more civilised and fab scenery, lush green ground with mountains in the background. we all got very excited when we stopped for a banos (toilet) break at the services, as rather than our usual weeing in the field or in the hole in the ground, we had proper toilets with loo roll and everytning-luxery!
We had a local wave day also that day, which meant waving at everyone we passed and tallying how many waves we got back. Just before we started our trip the others on the truck had one of these day and managed 786 waves. We beat that total and managed 1040!! Really good fun,
especially when one old man fell off his bike as he waved to us!
Anyway. Now is Salta which is a cool place. Quite a european feel but with the south american vibe still. Drinking cocktails in the outside bars, enjoying the vino and argentinians steaks! Think i´m gunna like it here, however only have 5 days in the country and its off to brasil!! Have a couple of nights camping coming up as we have a lot of ground to cover before Iggassu falls which im really looking forward too.
Apologies for such a long entry but i´d done more than i thought!!
Hope your all well. Enjoy the piccies
Nads x x
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bananas
oh what a lovely banana