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Published: January 26th 2011
We last left you back in La Paz at the very start of the year. From there we jumped on a bus to Copacabana (of Lake Tititcaca fame, not the big waved, high bikinied Copacabana of Rio de Janeiro).
The bus trip was pretty uneventful, although we did have to disembark at one point, and we all caught little wooden boats across a narrow section of the lake, whilst our bus caught a micro-barge which looked very unbalanced with our bus on, and ready to flip at any moment. After a slight delay caused by a young Aussie lad who left his passport in La Paz having a little trouble with the local constabulary we were back on our way and arrived at the very touristy lakeside town of Copacabana.
We wandered around and were confused by the huge array of apparently useless tat available to purchase at stalls out the front of the cathedral. All became clear around 2:30, however, when we were witness to a ceremony being performed by the local monks out the front of the cathedral. The locals (and not so local – people drive from all over Bolivia) would arrive with their newly purchased
vehicles in order to have them blessed (Benediciones de Movilidades). Whether new or second hand, minibuses or just minis, people lined up and decorated their shiny new autos with flowers and streamers (readily available at the many stalls on the street). The monks would go one by one blessing the cars with holy water sprinkled with a flower over the entire car, including the engine. Once he was done, the family would spray ‘champagne’ over the car (also available for about 10 Bolivianos from the stalls – we didn’t sample the quality but have little doubt it was superb...), throw flower petals over the car, let off fire crackers and generally celebrate.... extraordinary!! But apparently a very popular family day out!! We saw lots of recently blessed car-loads of Bolivians down at the beach enjoying an ice-cream and a splash later in the day!
Next morning we arrived early to the waters edge to catch a ferry out to Isla del Sol. We climbed aboard our seaworthy vessel, and watched as the line grew longer and longer. We were sure they were going to offload those passengers onto other boats, but our conviction began to fade as our boat
got fuller and fuller. By the time we actually left ‘port’ I was convinced that we were going to end up a horrible tourist statistic resting at the bottom of the lake, and that the Isla del Sol was probably not worth giving our lives for – but by this stage, we were already on the boat, and nobody likes a fuss, so probably better just to sink politely than cause any trouble or abandon the plan...
After a few hours of straining outboard engines and groaning hulls, with the boat springing a leak directly above Megan, we eventually docked and disembarked, ready to see what the island had to offer. We had decided to stay at the Northern end, having been told that it’s the nicest end by the lady who sold us the ticket.... thoroughly researched, we arrived with a boatload of other tourists, who all promptly set off to walk to the Southern end of the island, where all the guest houses / hostels are!!
After wandering around for about an hour, we came across a ‘refugio’ run by two old toothless Bolivian ladies, who were happy to have us stay for the princely sum of
20 Bolivianos each (£2). We agreed the price, and stayed in a very nice mud-hut with no shower, a bed made of concrete and loos that required buckets and barrels to flush!! For all of you thinking we have it easy, enjoy this moment.... In fact it was all right, and we spent a pleasant day wandering and looking at some old Inca archaeological sites including the sacred rock Titikala where legend has it that the first Inca, Manco Capac emerged for the first time.
The next morning we departed our opulent lodgings and headed for the shore, where we were once again shoe horned in, although this time only like cattle, not sardines, and set off back to Copacabana. We had enough time to collect our bags from the hostel and jump on a bus heading to Puno, where we were due to take part in a tour upon arrival.
We crossed the border with no problems, and Megan was delighted to hear Tiffany’s “I think we’re alone now” playing at the Peruvian border – we’ve taken it as an omen that Peru is an awesome country with lots of fun times to be had..!!
Almost
to our destination for the evening, Puno, the local ‘Fiscal Police’ stopped our bus and inspected our entry papers. We were all fine, with the exception of one lady who had somehow or another managed to stamp out of Bolivia, but had forgotten to officially enter Peru. After 10 minutes of arguing and other passengers grumbling about missing their connecting bus, we were on our way again, the police having come to some agreement with the girl. The rest of the trip we were entertained by the same girl and our conductor each blaming the other for the mess up, and neither too forgiving of the other.
After a lot of confusion upon our arrival at Puno, we eventually found our tour to the floating islands and jumped on our second boat for the day. The islands are home the Uros tribe (the region is also called Uros), and are made almost entirely of totora, a cattail type rush native to the lake. It has dense roots which support the top layer which rots, so they must be replaced regularly by stacking more reeds on top of the layer beneath. When we jumped from the boat onto the island,
it was a really weird sensation – it basically felt like walking on a waterbed, which I guess is essentially what we were doing!! We spent a couple of hours out there, looking at the homes on the island, climbing their watch-tower for a better view, but mainly trying to avoid being sold any of the prodigious amount of tat being forced upon us by the good Uros people!!
Jumping on board one of the many motorcycle taxis (a tricycle motorbike with a sofa on the back surrounded by concertina doors..) we made our way to a hotel the bus conductor had taken our bags to (big trust exercise – luckily our bags were there when we arrived 5 hours later!!!). Being too lazy to look for an alternative, we spent the night. Next morning we were off again, this time to the city of Arequipa in Southern Peru, the second most populous city in Peru. Luckily it was only a 5 hour bus journey – a doddle!! As we arrived we were wondering why we had gone there – it looked really industrial and not at all nice on the outskirts, all the way to the bus station.
We grabbed a cab and made our way to the hostel, and were relieved to discover the centre of town was actually very beautiful, with one of the prettiest main squares we have seen in our travels!!
We spent a couple of days wandering and exploring town, before getting up at 3am on James’ birthday (he wanted to be awake as long as possible to enjoy his day!!) to go on a 3 day Colca Canyon tour. The Colca Canyon is the 2nd deepest canyon in the world and more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon at 4,160m deep. We were offered a tour to drive around it, but for the same price we could take the 3 day trekking tour down into the canyon. Never being ones to turn down a challenge we thought the hiking was the best option. The reason for such an early start was to give us the opportunity to see the condors in flight. They are truly spectacular birds, and appear somewhat lazy as they refuse to flap their wings. Mind you, they have a wingspan in the region of 3m so flapping wouldn’t be the easiest thing to achieve. When
the land heats up, they take off and rise in altitude courtesy of the hot air currents coming up the canyon. So we were up early to get to the best spot to see them take off. We were very lucky to see 8 condors start their daily rise up into the atmosphere. Had we turned up 5 minutes later then we would have missed it all. So the early bird does indeed catch the worm......
Our trekking started in earnest as we descended deep into the canyon and after several hours we were relieved to hear from our guide Roy that we had made it to our stop for the night. It is an awe inspiring site when you look back from where you had started and fail to see any possible way down, but we made it unscathed and were glad of the rest at the end. Although young and supposedly fit, we were still continuously overtaken by locals carrying their wares up and down the canyon, not to mention the endless train of mules carting both lazy tourists and local produce to market. Having relaxed after a big lunch, we spent the late afternoon net fishing
in the river at the bottom of the canyon, with limited success.
Our second day in the canyon was a little easier, we had a few hours trekking to get to our next stop which was described as an oasis at the bottom of the canyon. On our way we stopped in a small village and were given a guided tour of the local museum. The big draw to the museum was the strange collection of stuffed animals and tribal hats. Not exactly the Smithsonian, but I guess you do your best with what the local surroundings offer.
To call our second stop an Oasis wasn’t far from the truth, for when we arrived we were welcomed by a rather pleasant swimming pool, and the chance to relax and prepare for our hike back up the canyon. After all what goes down normally has to go back up again, and our third day was meant to be the hardest one, so a bit of poolside R&R was welcome.
We were up early on our final day to make the most of the cooler weather and get to the top in time for breakfast. It was overcast to begin
Local Museum
artifacts were in sort supply on the floating islands.....with, but as we climbed higher and higher the view vanished behind the clouds, and it was just a matter of getting to the top. As we reached the top, we were served a fantastic view of snow capped peaks coming out from above the clouds. Although the hike was hard, it was well worth it, and was made all the better as we made our way back to the local town we saw 5 more condors making their early morning flight right over our heads.
After such a strenuous early morning climb we thought our bodies deserved a break, so we stopped by the local thermal springs for a couple of hours, but they were so hot that after an hour we were both out, feeling a little like lobsters in a cruel chef’s kitchen!
We were dropped back in Arequipa where we had a few belated birthday drinks, which were a bit of a shock to our systems – we are definitely out of practise!!! Our next stop is Cusco, the gateway to Macchu Picchu and some of the many ancient Inca Trails crossing the continent.
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Annie
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Megan first thing in the morning!?!?!
he he