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Published: March 1st 2013
Salta, Vilazon, Tupiza, Uyuni, Potosi, Sucre, Cochambamba, La Paz, Corico, Copacabana. Salta We arrived in Salta over the Andes from Chile, the landscape on the way almost made you want to do it again ( the numb arse not) as we crested the last hill we could see Salta in its bowl like valley and were shocked at its size, we were expecting a smallish old colonial city like Mendoza but it was another huge sprawling city, the taxi driver knew the way to the hostel for a change, the hostel owner was amazed at our punctuality (we had said on the booking site 8 o'clock and arrived at 8.01pm) We dumped our bags and headed for the main square and dinner, the square was a good 15minute walk away but was worth it, a large green tree lined square with magnificent colonial churches, buildings and what we were looking for restaurants, after a pig out of Calamari for starters and Argentinian steak for main, wine and coffee we headed for home, a uncomfortable 15 minute walk down dark deserted streets back to the hostel, the room was very hot (Salta is hot) so we put the
fan on only to discover one of the blades were missing causing it to vibrate with such noise that it was impossible to sleep, We managed to sleep for an hour without the fan only to be woken by buzzing mosquitos, Alison was covered in bites (they do not like me) so I spent the next hour with a towel on a mosi hunt, when I had finished the walls and curtains were smeared with blood and mosi bits, after swapping the fan we managed to grab a few hours sleep, the owner the next morning was very unsympathetic and just gave us a tin of insect repellant. We visited the Cathedral and a museum where we saw some Inca mummies that were buried on the mountain tops surrounding Salta, the next day we teamed up again with Luke and Gen hired a car and went on a 3 day road trip around the "Wine Circuit" L & Gs licences had run out so it was down to me and Ali to drive, the main challenge was getting out of Salta alive as the traffic was frightening, all was going well until I ran a red light and had to
swerve to avoid a side on smash, lesson learnt and with nervous passengers we carried on, the road was tarmac and wound up through the mountains covered in Cacti, the views were stunning and after many stops we reached and spent the first night in Cachi, the meal began with local beer, quite a bit of wine and then more beer for the road (not a good idea) Day 2 began with a slightly hung over breakfast and then 8 hours of driving on rough winding gravely tracks with sheer drops, clouds of dust and crazy locals who drive on both sides of the road, the scenery again made up for any headaches, what was strange was that this gravel road was part of the route 40 which we had used many times in Mendoza, Bariloche, El Charlton etc, it runs over 5000 km from north Argentina to Rio Gallegos in the south, Our second night stop was in Cafayate the capital of a huge wine producing region, and after dumping the bags and the car we headed to some Bodegas to try out the local brands. Day three the drive back to Salta was on tarmac again through some
wonderful scenery, we were told it should take on a clear road 2,5 hours we stopped so many times it took us 10! when we gave the car back to the hire company owner he shook my hand and congratulated us on completing the circuit unscratched, (I must admit he did look worried when we left) We parted company with L & G and caught the night bus to the border and Bolivia.
Villazon & Tupiza The Argentinean border town of La Quiaca was a small clustered town it's only importance was because of the border crossing to Bolivia. We did not have any idea where the border crossing was and the woman from the hostel in Salta said there will be lots of people walking to the crossing just follow them, however I noticed someone had asked a man in an army uniform the directions and he said he was going there himself and to follow him so that is what we and another group of young travellers did. We then had to wait 30 minutes at the crossing which is at bridge between the two countries before our passports were checked and
stamped by the Argentinean authorities then we shuffled a couple metres along to be stamped in by the Bolivian officials. On crossing the bridge we were in Villazon and Bolivia where we were surrounded by touts trying to sell us bus tickets or a taxi ride . We took the tickets for a local bus to Tupiza and boarded the very battered looking bus filled with locals and chickens and not 100% sure we had made the best choice but a little over an hour later we arrived where they said we would with our rucksacks still with us. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in a shootout 100km north of Tupiza. Once in Bolivia we noticed and felt we were in South America as the local dress particularly the woman's which is so traditional with their full gathered mid length skirts, long plaited hair with a bowler hat jauntily placed on their heads. We first desperately needed to use a toilet after our 8 hour bus journey here was our first surprise you could not flush the loo, but outside was a large plastic barrel full of water with several 5 litre plastic containers with the top
cut away and you had to fill one with water from the barrel to use to flush the loo. This became quite common practice during our travels in Bolivia We found a recommended hostel and booked our salt lake tour the for the next day, The southwesternmost corner of Bolivia is covered by the
Reserva de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa a 7147- square-kilometre wildlife reserve, ranging between 4000m and 6000m in altitude and encompassing some of the most startling scenery in Bolivia. We were up at 6.30 for breakfast and on the road by 8.00, we were in a jeep with our driver George, Florence the cook and two sulky french girls, who on day one had grabed the comfy middle seats leaving us in the back on bench like seats with little leg room and non stop pan pipe music booming from the rear speakers right next to our ears (ok round one the French) Day one involved 7 bumpy hours up into the Altiplano (High altertude plains) with many stops to take photos of the amazing scenery and stretch our legs, our accommodation for the first night was in a small adobe (Mud) village, the jeeps (there was another 5 fellow travellers in a second jeep) entered a small mud walled compound where we were greeted by the owners and shown the rooms, the french girls got in first and we ended up with the two sagging beds, (round two the French, we realy had to sharpen up) Florence cooked up a tasty meal for us 9 plus her and the two drivers with only a basic camping stove and no electric. Juan from Bogota produced a bottle of Tequila and limes and we all went to bed happy. Day 2 we were up at 5am for breakfast and on the move at 6am the sulky French did not like the back seats, while we spread out on the comfy middle seats wishing for every lump and bump we had found the day before (1-2 starting to fight back) We passed through many abandoned mining villages, the scenery was amazing, after our lunch stop we went to a pink coloured lake with hundreds of "James Flamingo's" grazing on the small pink shrimps which gave the lake its colour, an hour further on we stopped at some geysers and bubbling mud ponds, our accommodation for the 2nd night was in another small Adobe village, we bolted out of the jeep and grabed the two best looking beds, only later did we find out that we had actualy grabed the two most wobberly beds (3-1 we were loosing badly) Day 3 started early with us in the back again and two smug looking French girls (4-1) the drive again was long and bumpy but the scenery we passed well made up for our numb bums, we spent night 3 in a Salt hotel on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni (the largest salt lake in the world covering some 9000 square kilometers) The salt hotel is constructed totaly of salt (the roof is tin) the walls are salt blocks, the floor is large salt granuals, the bar, tables, chairs and beds all salt blocks, we were given double rooms so the scores stayed the same, the only tricky bit was getting into bed without filling it with salt. Day 4 started mega early to catch the sunrise out on the salt, we had the comfy seats but the salt was so flat we could not count this as a win, the sunrise was spectacular, the salt flats are amazing with nothing to give you any perspective there was no diffined horizon, nothing to gauge the size of things and a good place to take crazy pictures. We drove for an hour to a rocky island in the middle of the salt flats which is covered in Cacti where florence prepared breakfast while we climbed to the top, the veiws in all directions were of distant mountains topped by fluffy clouds and everywhere you looked Cacti, hundreds and hundreds up to 9mts tall (they grow 1cm a year so some were 900 years old) and with the sun still low in the sky the shadows accross the salt were kms long, a strange almost spiritial place that was quite hard to leave, we drove back onto the salt for some more picture taking befor ending the trip in Uyuni.
Potosi. As there was nothing in Uyuni to do or see we took a 4 hour bus journey to Potosi, set on a desolate windswept plain amid barren mountains at almost 4100m above sea level, Potosi is the highest city in the world, above the city towers the "Cerro Rico" (Rich mountain) quite simply the richest source of silver the world has ever seen, the silver rush began in 1545 when a llama herder caught on the mountains slopes started a fire to keep warm and was amazed to see a trickle of molten silver run out from the blaze, news of this soon reached the spanish and over the next 20 years the new city of Potosi became the richest single source of silver in the world. The only sign now of all the immense wealth that flowed from the mines are the many fine churches (16) that occupy the center of the city. We arrived in Potosi on the 23rd Dec along with our handy new spanish speaking travel companion "Juan" and on finding a hostel near to the main square and a Pizza for supper we turned in for an early night. At breakfast the next morning we found "Juan in full miners outfit including the headlamp, he had signed up the evening before for the mine tour, we decieded to explore the many churches and colonial buildings in the city center. The most interesting was a Nunnery which is still in use and its history, in the 1500s the new nuns were the second born daughters of rich spanish familes who as well as supplying thier daughters also gave a huge amount of gold or silver, the daughters had no choice it was an honour for the family, if the second born was a boy then he went to the monastory to become a monk, (kind of makes you think being the second born myself) We thought we were in for a party being that it was Christmas Eve but by the evening everything was shut, there were hoards of travellers all walking round looking for somewhere to get a drink or something to eat, we found the pizza place where we had eaten the day before was open so another pizza and a beer for our Christmas Eve celebrations. Christmas Day was the same everyone looking a bit lost, its a shame no one had the idea to just have a traveller party, and the only place open was the pizza joint so three days running pizza on the menu. Potosi is a beautiful old colonial city so we had lots to look at and do.
Sucre On our arrival in Sucre we did the normal walk about hunting the cheapest hostel with unsmelly rooms after a shock in the first one (they wanted £35 for one night and corrected my spanish) we found what we thought was a bargin at £7.50 dumped our rucksacks and found the main square, Sucre is another very traditional spanish colonial city with a huge tree lined central square, fountains, a statue of the guy who came with a big sword and a flag (see Eddie Izzards sketch "Do you have a flag?) and of course three million Pigeons, we found a great steak restaurant overlooking the square and had a pig out, on our return to our room we were hit by the overpowering smell of cats pee (the door was cunningly open when we viewed the room, which masked the smell but also let the culprit in to do more) Ali had some tea tree oil which we dripped about to cover one smell with another, we were awoken early in the morning to "pretty polly" or "pieces of eight" or something simular in spanish from the Parrot which was also cunningly hidden under a sheet when we arrived, that set off the dog to finish off the early morning chorus, so much for the bargin We visited a church and school and because the church was under renovation we were shown around the school by a retired lady who on reaching the stairs to the roof just gave us the keys and told us to lock up when we left, the roof terrace was amazing we could then go up onto the church roof and further up into the bell towers, the views were amazing and the temptation to ring the huge bells was only just resisted, next was to the history museum where we paid a small fee to go in only to walk around some modern paintings when we asked where the history bit was we were told that it was under renovation and closed (This we found quite oftern in various countries and have addopted our favorite saying "dont believe the menu" We stayed three days in Sucre and then got a night bus to Cochambamba intending on staying there for the new year, but on our arrival at Cochambamba bus station we found that the buses over new year did not run so rather than get trapped in a not very plesant looking city we jumped on the next bus to La Paz (the place we had said all along we did not want to spend new year in)
La Paz and the "Death Road" La Paz in the guide books and from other travellers has a bad reputation, we were warned about bogus policemen and bad taxi drivers that wisk you into the hood to rob you, so when we arrived at the central bus station we had a plan, look like we know where we are going, we exited the bus station heading straight for the center not looking or talking to anyone which worked for a while until the first hostel was not where the rough guide said it was so after a bit of walking up and down we decieded to head for the second choice which was quite a posh hostel and wanted £33 a night which we said was too much and then walked up and down hills looking at smelly noisey rooms and getting more and more noticed at last we headed back to the posh hostel and eating humble pie asked the smug looking desk guy if he still had that expensive room, the room with ensuite was pure luxuary after most of the digs we had slept in. We spent the next day exploring the center of La Paz and booked ourselves onto the gravity assisted death road ride the next day, La Paz was bit of a pussy cat after what we had read and heard and we enjoyed our few days there. The next morning at 7.30 we met Marcus our Australian Death road downhill tour guide and the rest of the group, we were 9 in total, we then drove to a place in La Paz where they loaded on the bikes (pre planning is not the Bolivians strong point) and about 9am we set off up the mountain to the start of the Death road, At 4700m we were given our bikes, helmets, gloves and good quality trousers and jackets we also had a safty talk from Marcus about how not to ride and how to survive the road, we then had to drink and tip a bit of 98%!a(MISSING)lcohol on our tires and say a prayer to "Patcha Mama" that we would come through the day intact, the back up driver also did the van (they realy believe in this stuff) Marcus then made us swear an oath not to be f---king idiots. We set off, the first 15km is on tarmac and after a few minutes everyone was pedalling for more speed, the road was steep bus the bends were so easy that you had no need to brake, but we were on mountain bikes so even on the lowest gear we could not pedal any faster and the only way to get the most speed out of the bikes was to lean forward over the handall bars to cut down on the wind resistance, we had to stop at the drug checkpoint where the Bolivian police control the cars and lorries for drugs, the only problem with this is its only open from 8am to 6pm so all the lorries full of cocco leaves just wait until its closed and drive through then. Anyway we then moved off the tarmac onto the original gravel death road which since the new road has been built is only used by nutters on bikes, after another more serious talk from our leader we set off slowly at first but as the confidence built faster and faster, the gravel part of the road is 45km long and 3kms down, in most places the edge of the road drops over 600mts and the other side is a cliff, we had to ride on the outside and not hug the cliff because the cars coming up the road hug the cliff and going around a blind corner and meeting a car is not a good option. (going over a 600mt edge is quite a bad option too) Marcus made a few stops on the way down for a talk about the next section Hairpins, rockslides and fords, but after 3 hours we reached the end, we were offered a chance to do three zip lines over the river each over 400mts long and reaching speeds of 85km an hour, it must have been the adrenalin the road had released ali and me both shot our hands up and along with an austrailian guy without thinking It turned out to be well organized with good equipment and a lot of Ali screams later we were back in the village, The surport van had brought our rucksacks because we had decieded to stay in the village of Corico at a hostel recomended by Luke and Gen.
Corico We rang a taxi to drive the last few kilometers to the town of Corico and the Hostel "Sol y Lunar" we had sent them a mail from La Paz to reserve a cabin but when we arrived they had received no mail and only had a place for us in two days time but the neighbour had some empty cabins, he did have two empty cabins but from the look of them they had been empty for a long time, but it was cheap and only for two days and the owner of Sol Y Lunar said we could use the grounds, pools and restaurant so we took it, the town of Corico is built on the side off a mountain on the edge of the Amazon in the cloudforest, the trees, plants and wildlife are realy exotic and wonderfull, we spent New Year's Eve in Leonardos cabin looking out over the valley and the fire works from the village below. We also shared the cabin two large spiders, one in the toilet and the other in the kitchen (he made me jump) but we respected each others space, the other problem with Leonardos cabin was his three dogs who in the middle of the most peacefull night in the most peacefull place they started to bark and bark and bark, two days later we moved to Sol y Lunar and our bamboo hut, total paradise just a bamboo roof with a kitchen downstairs and a bed upstairs and a mosquito net, no doors no windows, the toilet and shower were in two small bamboo huts open to the world, but the huts were far enough apart so that the residents could enjoy total privacey, we went to the village and bought some provisions and wine and retired to our cabin for 4 days of peace and quiet, it was shattered by Leonardos dogs who in the still night air could be heard all down the valley. From our bed we could see the new death road across the valley which in the day was deserted but at night was full of the lights of trucks running their goods past the closed drug checkpoint. We also saw the fireflies at night and stars hundreds of stars, it was a true paradise. After four days it was time to head back to La Paz.
Copacabana We got the day bus back to La Paz and then another bus direct to Copacabana, which is on a half island on the highest navigable lake in the world, lake Titicaca the other half belongs to Peru, from Copacabana we took a boat to the "Island of the Sun" a important Inca site for worshiping the sun, we were dropped at the north end of the island and then walked along the middle of the island to the south where the boat back would wait (about 10 km) at the start of the walk was a small office where we had to pay a small entrance to the walk fee, at the midway stage was a small gate with two old men and we had to pay a furthur small fee to carry on or walk back, amused we paid and carried on, the island was beautiful with great views from the path we were on, at the three quarter mark was another gate with a small group of locals and another small fee to continue, which we also paid and guess what at the end we had to pay to finish the walk, the ammounts were realy quite small and we had to admire the locals for their buisness sense. We climbed a large hill at the side of the town where the Incas used to make their offerings to the sun god, it is now a religious place for the locals where they come to make offerings to Patcha Mama for luck in the future but what we found amusing in this religious place was the offerings left behind by the peoplewere swept up and just thrown over the side to make room for the next lot, when we looked over the side it looked like a council rubbish dump without the recycling bit. Time to move on we took the day bus to our next country "Peru and Arequipe"
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dean
non-member comment
Good Blog
nice read but where are the pics?