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We had arrived at La Paz, dirty, smelly bustling city, on an overnight bus from Potosi and while Tanya slept on the couch at the first hostel we came to which was full, Josh and I walked the streets at 5am trying to find one with a staff member awake enough to understand we were after a room for a few nights. 2 hours later we gave up and also fell asleep waiting for some more intelligent staff to arrive at work for the day.
La Paz was sweet, nice to be back in a big city, albeit rather smelly noisy one at that. A few more of the gang we had been hanging out with began to drift into town over the next few days and we started to frequent one particular English pub on a regular basis (like at the start of every night) where Chris (another crazy Frenchman) educated the group on the finer points of French cuisine and we engaged in some heated debate over exactly which words out of the English language are of French origin. All good, apart from the mayonnaise on chips......bla!
Tanya ended up convincing all the boys it was in
our best interest to spend a couple of hours one day at a 5 star hotel to use the pool and have a massage....Now not sure how u take this but over here in these countries a massage is....rrrrr....how do u say...a lot more up close and personal than normal. Pushing the boundaries but never going there had us boys more on edge during the hour more than in a relaxed state.....funny stuff......not bad for $20 either......
Mountain Biking down the World's Most Dangerous Road was awesome. This is one time in your life u don't want to do the whole "look at me thing". For those who don't know if u have seen the email going around with that road cut into the side of a cliff with a 400m drop on one side it, dirt and rock, only one lane wide. It's where trucks try and shuffle past each other and regularly reverse for hundreds of metres before there is room to pass (around 200 die each year in trucks and about 5 mountain bikers die) An Israeli guy went over the edge 2 weeks before we did it, apparently stopping
to take pics of his mates
and then overtaking them all to do it again....Not a smart cookie it would appear!
Anyway we had a blast and we r alive, bit foggy at the start of the day so did not quite get to see the 400m drop view.....but we were reassured it was there and we were not going to test the theory. A 5 hour long downhill with only about 15min of actually using our legs (that was not in the deal). Lunch was at the bottom at an Animal Refuge where Tanya found a friend in a Spider Monkey who did not want to get off her lap for a while.
A few days later we flew in the smallest plane ever (we mean like no
hosties, just the two pilots and 8 passengers) to the Amazon to a place called Rurrenabaque, then in a 45-foot long by 1m wide boat for a 6 hour trip up the very swollen River Beni, stopped on the bank and then a 45min walk into the jungle to the Lodge. So beautiful, called Chalalan Lodge ( http://www.chalalan.com/ ) it's situated in Madidi National Park and on the banks of the magnificent Chalalán Lagoon. It was
awesome....we were there for a 5 days and spent them walking the surrounding Amazon jungle (like 6 hour guided walks) everyday and chilling out in the hammock, taking our own canoe out onto the lake watching groups of Macaws feeding on the palms and troops of Squirrel Monkeys running through the trees. The bugs and mozzies
were almost nonexistent which was a relief.
The Lodge is community owned by San José and all profits go back to the community to build schools and assist in any medical emergency.
Additionally all staff are from the community and are rotated through every 6 months, learning the different trades at the Lodge and to practice their English on us.
One afternoon I went swimming in front of the canoe with a rope tied to my leg so Tanya did not have to paddle too much (slacker)....all good apart from getting attacked by 10-million sand flys and had this huge (but not painful) rash all over my back for weeks later. Food was fantastic and we ate local food from around the area everynight.....saw a few tarantulas, lots of monkeys and an incredible array of birds...sad to leave and head back to the
reality of La Paz.
From the airport to Bus station and out to Cococabanna (unfortunately not in Rio but the Bolivian version). Tourist town on the banks of Lake Titicaca and exit point for the Island del Sol. Stayed the night at some dodgy backpackers and headed out to the Island on a woefully overloaded boat for a 2 hour trip to the Island. Lake Titicaca is one impressive lake at 3812m above sea level and 190-km by 80-km and max depth of 281m its huge (8,372 km²). We landed on the northern end of the Island and with our own guide for the day, set off checking out a few Inca ruins. Walked its length and ended up at a backpackers with the best view ever down across the bay and out over the lake. Sitting down with a beer and a group of 15 guys and gals fresh from the World Cup Cricket turned up and rrrr let's just say the boat ride back to mainland the next day was not pleasurable for us at all...loooong night.
After 3 bus changes and several misleading directions from the locals we landed at the famous Cusco ....arriving in
at about 10pm at night followed by a cab to the main square, we were offered more drugs in the space of 10min than we ever thought possible.....it was like being attacked by a group of 10 hungry wolves all trying to sell their products....of course we have had this before but usually it's t-shirts and postcards not Coke and Ice.....bizarre to say the least.....police rrr only go to them if u cant find what u want....they usally have it.....! What the? Cusco is really nice.....very, very Spanish influenced, architecture is amazing, cobble stone streets etc.
As the official Machu Picchu Inca Trail walk is sold out 3-4 months in
advance and we had not quite got it together to book it, we had to opt for an alternative which turned out to be better than the original. Salkantay trail for 5 days 4 nights walking 62km through everything from firetrail to half metre deep muddy single trail was fantastic...although we had been warned by a few people (cheers Nick again) it was tough we probably did not grasp just how hard it would get. Sleeping in tents on the first night in around 3c we were tired but
still positive about the next day. By 1pm the following day we thought we were going to die! Heading uphill for 5 hours solid toward the top of 4600m above we were so out of breath, there were snow capped mountains that looked like they were level with where we were
walking instead they reached over 6500m...spectacular scenery....as we descended in the afternoon we were in this pea soup fog in lush green rocky hills, perfect setting for Mel Gibson to ride out through the mist. A cow or donkey appearing behind a rock 2m away in this setting is actually kinda weird, (and scary).
Day 3 - we were getting really tired but still going, good day walking kinda flat-ish single track and then it decided to pelt down rain all day...the single track slowly turned from wet into mud, into deep mud to impassable in some sections....It was great...just got totally filthy...totally....and why is it the one barby doll, annoying, dont want to get dirty at all, perverse American chick with false nails in our group happened to fall over twice in the mud.....ahhhh love this world....hehe
Day 4......Fark UP UP UP 4 hours of hell.....on
one of the 4 Inca pathways leading into Machu Picchu now....it was the hardest yet....Tan got stung by a bee 3/4 of the way up, and we got overtaken by this insane French group who were carrying their full packs on their backs.....(did I mention we had 6 Donkeys and 4 staff following us everywhere?) We were totally %&%$ when we got to the top.....stopped for a while and our guide said we would be
pleased to know it was 3.5 hours of downhill now.....woo-hoo (NOT). As we worked out going down a really really really steep hill for 3.5 hours is not fun either.....! Switchbacks (Zig-Zagging) on this really slippery mud, still wet from the day before was really hard work.
Dinner and a warm shower (first in 4 days except for a bit of a quick dip in a freezing river) in Machu Picchu Town was great.....back to getting
electrocuted in the shower is something we missed (stupid electric shower heads if u put your head to close too where the water comes out u get zapped through the head).
Next morning up to the famous Machu Picchu. Breathtaking.... (quick
explanation for those who do not know)- Thought
to be constructed around 1400´s and abandoned by 1500 it's referred to as "Lost City of the Incas". It was never found by the Spanish hence one of the most preserved sites in South America. Not discovered until 1911 it is still undergoing very slow restoration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu )
A little misty when we were there but never-the-less spent a good 3-4 hours walking all over the ruins and just being blown away at the magnitude of them.
Totally amazing and worth the build-up of 5 days of hard slog to get
there.....You just can't get your head around the size of them and the
complexity until you're there....their water distribution and farming,
construction methods.......incredible!
Back in Cusco had a fantastic massage the next day, Tanya had the full 3 hours of pampering manicure, pedicure as well.
Did a day tour out to some other Inca ruins around the town and just chilled out and recovered from by far the most amount of walking either of us has ever done in our lives. Out a few nights to some predominantly Israeli nightclubs, good nights though, disproportionate amount of Israelis on the backpacking circuit....like 3 out of 4....never occurred to us
that Israel would be such a backpacker kinda country. Anyway moving on today for Nazca - kinda south west of Cusco....16 hours in a bus should be great fun........!
Funny story about Eucalyptus trees- Back in the 1950-60s Israel sent a spy into Syria, he did very well and by the mid to late 60s he was up there in the defence department. One of his fantastic suggestions for the Syrians was that they should plant Eucalyptus trees where every military bunker was, as they are so fast growing they could provide shade for the troops. In 1967 when a war broke out between the two countries Israel promptly bombed every Eucalyptus tree they could find in Syria and left the Syrians wondering what the hell had just happened!
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Daneil
non-member comment
The Mac Family
Well guys, things just seem to be getting better and better for you, and the photos and blogs just keeps getting better and better. I thought that I should let you know that Nana Mac has been getting the blog as well. Uncle Ken is printing them out for her and also Aunty Jen has been printing the colour verson so that she can see the amazing photos that we all have been seeing. Well I hope that the rest trip keeps getting better for you guys and that we keep getting the updates. Love from us all here in the Mac household. Love Daneil