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Published: July 31st 2010
As the intervals between blogs grows wider my trip grows ever shorter, I'm now in my last few weeks and days. It feels very strange as I can clearly remember having the 'I'm just starting my trip' conversation way back in Bangkok.
Since my last entry I've been to many of 'must see's in South America, notably the Death Road, Salt Flats and THE must see, Machu Pichu. The Death Road and Machu Pichu were indeed fantastic, the same, unfortunately can not be said for the Salt Flats... Essentially the Salt Flats of Uyuni in Bolivia are the remains of a large and ancient inland sea that dried up leaving a huge expanse of pure white salt, peppered with some cactus covered 'islands'. A popular option when visiting is to extend the trip to three days to take in some of the geological wonders of the neighbouring national parks- acid lakes, geysers, flamingos and bizarre rock formations. After a pretty heavy night out in La Paz, Paul, Chris (with whom I'm now travelling) and I piled onto the 12 hour bus south to Uyuni ready to start the tour in the morning. The first day was fun, we were sardines in
our jeep but this was fine as the Flats were beautiful. However, it all went downhill from here. We stayed in a Salt Hotel, which sounds nice but it's something of a misnomer- the walls are salt, the ghastly privy and other sections are made of brick but some bright spark seemed to try to compensate for this by covering the whole floor with about 3 inches of rock salt, which got everywhere. The next day our driver, I say driver, not guide as he told us nothing, arrived 3 hours late and hungover. The sights were nice but it was freezing and very windy making the nicest parts of the day getting back into the cramped but mercifully warm jeep. At the end of the day we arrived, grim-faced at our lodge, looking forward to cleaning off in the hot springs the next day.
Sadly this was impossible as 140mph winds had created a once-in-five-years sandstorm meaning we could visit nothing and barely see the bonnet, let alone leave the vehicle, which was leaking sand at almost every window. After 14 hours we finally arrived in a powerless Uyuni and were able to board our bus back to La
Salt Flats Tour
Get out of the jeep, look happy and get back in as quickly as possible.Paz- which was stopped for 8 hours in the freezing desert by protesting peasants. At day break, having finally been told what the hell was going on we decided to walk to the next village (return by bus to Uyuni was impossible as that road was also blocked) in order to get a bus back to La Paz. We hiitch hiked in a pick up truck to a hamlet, then by another to a slightly bigger village, then by minibus to a small town, a small bus to a big town and at last a big bus to La Paz. It was quite an adventure and fun in a way but my God did we need a shower...
Fortunately everything else I've done has been much more fun. We mountain biked down the Death Road, which was fantastic, brilliant fun and, until Machu Pichu, the most beautiful scenery I'd seen. It's so called because it is a 3m gravel track the goes past 100m vertical cliffs and used to be the main road between La Paz and the lowlands. Bolivian drivers have the unfortunate vice of drink-driving so at once stage buses would plunge off so routinely that it wasn't
Sunset
Also, went to Chile for two days to meet Chris and Paul and went paragliding- pretty damned cool. even reported in La Paz newspapers. There is now a new road so there's no traffic except mountain biking tours. We flew down the road. Once of the beauties of the trip is that you descend through such different landscapes, snowy mountains, Scottish highland scenery, foliage from an English country lane and finally warm, lush jungle. It really was a highlight.
After La Paz and an unsuccessful attempt to visit San Pedro prison, one of Bolivias more unconventional tourist attractions, we headed to Cusco. I was a little disappointed with Peru's border stamp- I've become a bit of a stamp connesieur, Uruguay and Australia have the best ones, if anyone's interested...
Anyway, we're now in Cusco and just returned from Machu Pichu. Incredible. We did a 4 day trip that incorporated another speed-of-light downhill mountain bike trip, two days of walking, which was hot but rewarding, with more gorgeous landscapes and the last day was the site itself. The former town sits on the saddle between two peaks of a mountain. The higher one Huayna Pichu, 300m above the ruins, themselves 400m above the valley, was a holy mountain and contains a small complex of shrines, terraces and religious houses
at the very top. Due to the very steep and narrow staircase only 400 tickets for this are issued to the 4000 people who visit Machu Pichu every single day. To get these you simply have to be at the gate as early as possible. To access this gate you can either get a bus at 5.30 or start walking at 5 and be quick. We were very quick. We took no prisoners, overtook loads of people, didn't once stop and took 40 minutes to climb what should take an hour and a half. We were in the first 25 people in the queue. We were doubly proud because we weren't that far behind the insanely fit Irish peopel who'd been at the front of the trek for the whole trip. Being right at the front of the queue, which became a lynch mob if anyone tried to jump it, we managed to have a few minutes walking in febrile excitement around the site with barely anyone else there.
It's well worth the hype, I didn't realise how big it was and everything is so satisfyingly neat, terraces, little houses, the stonework is almost beyond belief in it's precision. In
honesty I'd been bracing myself for an anticlimax but it was utterly breathtaking. We were almost so exhausted from racing up that we didn't go up Huayna Pichu, fortunately, after a doze in the sun we did. The views were awesome; it's no wonder the Spanish didn't find the place, all around are plunged jungle-clad valleys and soaring, snow-capped peaks. Really it's an incredibly impractical place to live but fortunately for me the Incas made the effort. From the vertiginous view from Huayna Pichu the city looks a little incongruous and dare I say it, slightly ugly surrounded by such flamboyantly jungly mountains. We arrived back in Cusco totally exhausted after one of the most incredible days of the whole trip.
Cusco is a beautiful place, since it's hayday about 300 years ago little else has been built in the centre leaving masses of beautiful colonial buildings on solid inca foundations, a neat metaphor for the culture of the whole region. We'll probably be here for another week at least, my feet are growing less itchy I think, which bodes well for when i get home! I've done lots of other stuff since last I blogged but those were probably
the high/low lights. We did some very cheap horseriding as well, on obviously cheap, by which I mean slow and stupid, horses.
Hope all are well,
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anonymous
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dear gus just read blog about machu pichu indeed remarkable hope your well are you in villa el salvador if so greetings to one and all from me tx again for your blogs we had a great time in Turkey hopefully see ina few weeks time in Guildford.Rich