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Published: April 27th 2005
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Hey all,
The past three months have dragged and also flown by - I fly to NZ in a week. And it seems like I´ve saved the best photos til last!
The past four weeks have been pretty much all sightseeing, not a drunken night out in sight! Spending my last week in Bs As though so serious stuff over and I´m sure there´ll be a few drinks about, plus a little more shopping!
Well, last entry I was just leaving Cordoba. From there I went to Salta up in th NW of Argentina and met loads of people whol loved Cordoba so I guess I was just there at the worng time. Salta is a lovely little town headed up towards the Andes and there fore at a highter altitude. It´s really wierd when you first smoke up there!! In Salta I did a trip up to the mountains in the clouds, visited some little villeges up in the Andes, went to the Humanacha gorge and the hill of 7 colours or something. Was a good, full day out to prepare me for the forthcoming trips, plus to get used to the very high altitude of Bolivia
- highest point was 4,100 odd meters above sea level.
Spent about 3 days there before heading off to a small village called San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, near the Bolivian border. This was a nice place, very chilled out and loads of excursions to do. I did a trip to the Tatio geysers - for which I was up at 3.30am - and it was quite spectacular, but very, very cold! So the dip in the hot springs at 8.30 were welcomed!
The main reason for my venture into Chile was to start the Salar de Uyuni tour into Bolivia. The Salars are huge lakes of salt and the largest ones in the world are in Bolivia. I was looking forward to this trip since the start of my trip and from what I´d heard from others it was an amazing experience - and I wasn´t let down. The most unbelievable sights, the word/phrase "otherworldly" was used a lot and parts were sure like I´d imagine the Moon or Mars too look like. We saw different coloured lakes (due to the different types of micro-organisms I think), flamingos & llamas, loads of snow-capped mountains, flamingos &
llamas, odd shapes rocks and stones, flamingos & llamas, more geysers this time stinking of sulphur and bubbling mud or something, a few rural villages - and more flamingos & llamas!! It was three days of roughing it and it could get quite cold - but well worth it.
The tour finished in a town in Bolivia called Uyuni. Small place so I headed straight for a town called Sucre. My first experience of Bolivian overnight buses.... Not nice is all I will say. Sucre was nice - lots of whitewashed buildings etc but I was getting restless so only stayed a couple of days before heading to the capital La Paz.
Had a worrying incident as soon as I stepped off the bus - a "police" officer offering me a lift, which I politely declined - and that kinda set the tone for the next few days. Again, most other people I´ve spoken to (apart from the ones who´ve been robbed...) loved La Paz but I didn´t feel very safe walking around. Its an amazing sight as you come in on the bus - its in a valley and theres buildings clinging to the two sides of
the valley. Still, I emerged safely after 3 days and headed to a place called Copacabana (not to be confused with the beach in Brazil!) and Lake Titicaca.
This place was a different story. Like a little beach town, it was lovely! I had a room overlooking the lake which was cool. Did a boat trip out to the Islands of the Sun and Moon which were very nice, but again teh altitude (and my lack of fitness) meant I didn´t participate in the trekking!
Stayed here 2 nights then off to Cusco in Peru for another of the main attractions - Machu Picchu or the Lost City of the Incas. I´d already decided there was no was in hell I was doing the 4 day trek but there seemed to be plenty to occupy a few days. I did a tour of the city, a day of white-water rafting which was excellent (and upto 4+ rapids might I add - not that much of a wimp!) and supposed to do a bus tour of the Sacred Valley but there was somekind of protests going on so couldn´t. Again, the stay was marred a little by the rubbish
agency I booked stuff with but was looking forward to the trip to Machu Picchu. I went up to the nearest town - Aguas Calientes - the night before and stayed there. Nice little town. Then off at 6.30 to the ruins. They were quite spectuacular.... until the rain and fog settled in... Managed to get a few photos before the clouds descended properly so was a little dissapointing but hey, you can´t control the weather!
Now I´m back in La Paz after another long, drawn out bus journey and I fly to Buenos Aires tomorrow.
Know it´s a lot and I should be more regular with these diary things so they don´t take me forever to write and read!
Bring on NZ....
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Crikie girlie.......
Criki O'Riley. These photos are absolutley amazing! Thank you for sharing them with me! You have got to realise how lucky you are to be seeing all these sites??? Anyway matey...... keep SAFE and I look forward to giving you a huge big hug when you get back to sunny Watford! Loads of love - Debs (Curren)