Peru and Bolivia

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Another overdue travel report (it seems to be the perrenial excuse with these travel blogs.)

From Piura I went south to a number of unremarkable towns (Chiclaya, Trujillo etc) and then went inland to the mountains to Huaraz and the Coderilla blanca (do yourself a favore and googleimage it). It was late and cold when I got in so I asked the guesthouse owner for a hot drink, upon which he produced a cup of coca tea (the raw ingredient for cocaine. Now that’s hospitality.) The effect is quite mild, almost unnoticable, but it does help with altitude sickness, which I was feeling, so I got into the habit of having a mug or two with meals throughout the day.

The mountains around Huaraz are pretty stunning, apparently the largest outside of the Himalayas. The bus trip there and back wasn´t however. Sharp corners taken at full speed on a dirt road with a drop hundreds of feet deep the other side. I think the drivers take it as a test of masculinity or something as the bus really feels on the edge of skidding.

From Huaraz back inland through Casma to Lima, the Capital of Peru. This is a really nice city and one of my favorite places so far in South America. Splurged on a few nice meals complete with cocktail apparatief, bottle of wine and liqure coffee. It still only cost about US$20.

From Lima to Pisco, which is the town they produce their national spirit by the same name. Got hideously drunk (rude not to really.)

Then to Nazca where I stayed a couple of weeks. Nice layed back town where I relaxed into the local pace of life, and didn´t really want to leave.

I wanted to go inland to Cuzco from here, but there was a bus strike, so I went to Arequipa where I was told I could get a bus inland (found a place that did a full English breakfast). But the strike was here to. So I went right down to Puno and then back up. The bus trip was worth it though. Flatlands as far as you could see in every direction dotted with laeks, but thousands of feet about sea level.

Puno centre is nice with an old monastery in the centre (hundreds of years old.)
Stayed one night and then up to Cuzco. Another very nice and old town, used to be the capital of the Inca empire. Lots of old Inca structures as well as Spanish colonial buildings. Had a Peruvian mixed grill which consisted of a chicken breast, an alpaca steak and half a roast guine pig. The alpaca steak was delicious, the best thing on the plate, but the guine pig is not for me.
Maccu Piccu was here but due to it getting over a thousand tourists a day (and these are all real tourist type tourists) I decided not to go. Impossible to have a personal experience inthose conditions, so back to Puno and onto Copacabana in Bolivia.

Copacabana is right on the shores of lake Titicaca (worth googling pictures). It is a beautiful place. The town itself is like a Greek fishing village: very quiet and surrounded by hills. Titicaca itself was stunning. Always flat and calm when I saw it. It looks like a sea, but of course isn´t and being in a port town 3,800 metres above sea level is difficult to get your head around. My first night there there was a pink sunset one half of the sky and a violent thunderstorm the other, which made it pitch black. Pretty surreal.

From here onto La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Easily the most run down of any town i´ve been too. For instance I´d finished eating a Pizza when a man came in off the street, scooped up my discarded pizza crust and stuffed it all in his mouth, and walked off without saying anything. Classy!
However all the other Bolivians I met there were all very nice so obviously a small minority.

From here onto Oruru (nice restaurants), Potosi (nondescript) and now Uyuni (a strange collection of buildings right in the middle of miles of mountain and desert.)

The lack of infrastructure means traveling in Bolivia is a bit of a nightmare, so I´m leaving for Chile as soon as possible (I´ve only been here eight days), but even that is a problem finding a tour company open that will sell me a ticket!
So you´ll find out how that went in my next travel blog (who knows when…)

Until then.

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