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Published: June 27th 2010
So this is it. After going on to everyone I´ve met for the past few months, I´m now actually in Lima, and picked up Carrie from the airport yesterday! yay!! how exciting, the Green sisters on tour 😊
So it seemed a suitable time to just update on the last couple of weeks since leaving Sucre, and basically up to leaving Bolivia (sob!). I´ve got a bit pathetic over this actually, and really idealistic over my time in Bolivia, everything is being unfavourably compared (diet coke costs like 50p here instead of 35p, things aren´t nearly so random, and so far I dont understand what the hell people are saying, I genuinely think I can only understand Sucre Spanish. Brilliant). Im actually being very unfair cos I´ve only seen Peru from the town of Punu, and then the guy that was sat next to me on the massive bus ride, and now like a day in Lima, so I´m hardly a fair judge of Peru I dont think!
When I left Sucre, I actually held up really well, I was chuffed that I left with Dominica and Beth and we had Luis Rolando and also my housemate Yelson to wave
us off so that was nice. I had a nice wandering day with Beth in La Paz. Everything reminded me of when I had been in La Paz 3 months earlier with Andrew and it was so wierd, I was like, seriously have I actually not moved on from this country since then?!?! I felt like I had literally achieved nothing and not moved on, and Andrew has been to about 4 countries and moved into a house in Canada since then!
So anyway, after only a day in La Paz (abandoning Beth before her bday, sorry hun!) I caught a bus to Rurrenabaque with Dominica and Gaby. Rurrenabaque is the town on the Beni river where a lot of the jungle tours leave from. The journey there is notoriously bad actually, but it being dry season we were hopeful we wouldnt die...
4 burst tyres later and a traumatic reverse back along death road in the dard we were less optimistic!
Having cycled death road a few months earlier I knew how thin the roads could get and how big the drops were, and I´d had the conversations about the stories of cyclists, buses and in fact
La Paz
Bit mental, but at least you can see the gorgeous mountain behind the minging buildings!anything that moves having been killed on the road. However there is a new road that has been built so that vehicles no longer have to use ´Death Road´unless they live on it! However this new road only goes along the ´most dangerous´part and we rejoined death road half way through. It was pretty scary being 1) in the stationary bus on a thin road corner , 2)with them changing a tyre using a travellers head lamp 3)noticing the massive drop, and then 4) having to go for a wee on the road right next to all this going on... ON DEATH ROAD!
But anyway, we survived!
On arrival in Rurrenabaque we found a tour company that we had been recommended and set off on a 3 day Pampas tour that morning. I was pretty adament that I wanted to find a sloth and its in the Pampas that you have the highest chance of spotting some wildlife! I kept repeating to my guide ´puedo ver un perezoso?!´ (can i see a sloth?!) trying to make him focus on finding one! But he just would shake his head sadly and say... ´no se, tal vez´ (I dont know,
maybe...) Very Optimistic! I later found out that he had had people before very eager to spot a particular animañ but had been really disappointed as aloths especially are very hard to spot (being so speedy and alert) so he wanted me to be realistic. Me? Be realistic? I think he had met his match!
Anyway, there was a guy just 1 week before who was obsessed with sloths. So Im going to try and find him, I think he must be my future husband.
Some of the activities in the pampas involved the following
1) boat rides to spot animals
2) searching for anacondas in the swamps
3) swimming with Pink Dolphins. FACT ...actually we were pretty much swimming with the caiman as well, but apparently the pink dolphins rule the roost so we were safe... at least thats what we thought til an Anaconda was spotted slithering out the water worryingly close to us!
4) watching sunsets, sunrises and generally chilling out in hammocks
5) Piranah fishing (and piranah eating)
6) In fact, generally eating lots. the food was AMAZING
7) Dominica continuing my spanish lessons with me
On the afternoon of the 2nd day I
was starting to lose hope of finding me a sloth when the guy stopped the boat, was like ´what was that animal you keep going on about again?...´reversed a bit (by this time I was getting a bit shaky and really panicking that he was trying to wind me up... and pointed at a tree ages away. I zoomed on my camera and FOUND ME A SLOTH! I have no idea how he had spotted it from so far away! he is really clever! I got SO over emotional it was actually untrue, and made everyone with good camera zoom in really close. It was hanging from three legs with one leg and head dangling, so it looked really cute 😊.
It took me ages to regain a little bit of compose and then as we started moving on he saw another! and this one was in a really good angle to spot properly and get a really good view 😊 hence the video on facebook!
SO basically for me this was a bit of a dream come true. I dont mind they were far away cos ts so much better than seeing them in a zoo or something. They
A stork (i think)
Just wandering down the street near Rurrenabaque. Standard are running free (abeit very slowly!)
The pampas was really good fun, but it is Touristy. Big Style. They have even got a TV in the lodge so ppl can watch the world cup, and random bars placed along the river so ppl can get drunk if they want to. Which I personally think is a bit stupid cos surely a trip like this is for ppl that want to see wildlife and the environment, and not to get drunk and hang out with other tourists in a bar. And the more it gets like that then surely the more the local environment will get destroyed.
Our guide was actually really good, but when we were looking for anacondas one of teh other guides found one and picked it up, which I didnt like. I want to see the animals only if they aren´t hurt or scared and are just in their natural environment. And dangling an anaconda by its tail didnt exactly look fun for it...
Our guide had been working in the area for 20 years and knew so much, he was really good. At one point he stopped the boat and got onto the bank
Monkey
Waching us eat our lunch, again, clearly as standard started calling out a name (I think it was Felix or something). We were like, i think hes mental. But then this Caiman started swimming out the water to the name! like a dog or something! Apparently he was his ´friend´!!? Bit mental. So he said if we wanted to touch him we could. The caiman could get away if he wanted and wasnt caged or anything so i kinda felt a bit better about that, but its still not exactly natural i guess!
I was SCARED shitless cos this is quite a big beast, and very dangerous, but I trusted the guide and touched the caiman. It wasnt til I got back in the boat and realised the guide had like 2 fingers missing that I realised I probably shouldnt have been so trusting!! (made a good pic though!)
Anyway, so on arrival back to Rurrenabaque I decided to on a jungle tour for 2 days. This would be slightly less ´touristy´and we could go into the jungle and on some treks. There is less wildlife to be seen, unless you are really lucky, but I had heard it was really interesting as the guides know so much
Mokeys!
tried to get into our boat to steal our food, was now ay that would be permitted! about the local flora and fauna. Again I was with Dominica and Gaby and another guy from our previous group Mischa. I was really lucky with the groups on both tours as the people you are with make such a difference and I liked all my people 😊.
The jungle trip was good and actually we were lucky with the animals. We saw 2 types of wild pig (one time, having to pretty much track them and smear dirt all over our skin so they wouldnt smell us, very exciting!), macaws, and a Tapir, which was really lucky on our night trekm, it came really close to us which was amazing. No sloths though.
The most interesting thing was hearing all about the trees and plants in the area- they all can do something amazing pretty much and our guide knew so much. He would stop very dramatically, pause and sniff the air.. then wander off to investigate some thing random. we would all just be behind him staring in bewilderment, I found the whole thing hilarious but tried not to laughin case he thought I was an uncultured gringa. Ayway, the things he told us about the local
fauna was really interesting. There are trees that can produce milk, that can help with all sorts of ailments, that can give you a misscarriage if you want and also those that can poison you. The people that live in the area in the Amazon basin have spent hundreds or thousands of years finding out about the environment they live in, but still there is so much that people dont know, that there are probably cures for loads of things people havent discovered yet withuin the raindfrest.
One particular tree, our guide was like'this is the tree that is used for poison arrows, if a bit of it gets into yourblod strea it will kill you... do you want me to smear somr of it onto your arm, it will only sting for 5 minutes'.... Becky, 'yeah sure! why not (idiot)'.; 2 weeks later I have sill got ahideous red itchy rash mess all over my arm. Im such a genius.
On the trip back to Rurrenabaque it wasnt nearly so traumatic and I dont think we even broke down once which was a bit boring! Back in La Paz I decided to embrace the cheapness as I
Cappybarra :)
Cute rodent animal, saw lots in the Pantanal in Brazil but never well enough to get a pic, but they were EVERYWHERE in the pampas was soon to be leaving and went shopping ( bit of a bad decision seeing as I now cant close my backpack!)
Then next day I had to leave Dominica and Gaby (gutted!) and set off for Copacabana on Lake Titicaca heading for Peru.
So Cocabana is little tourist town on the banks of Lake Titicaca. The lake is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world at 3820m, and is just stunning, as a speck of clear turqoise water in the middle of the brown altiplano. And the weather is beautiful, a bit chilly (especilly at night, due to the altitude) but beautifuls blue skies and lots of sun. So much sun that the Incas developed the theory that this is where the sun was born, and it is the focus of the start of the inc legends, on Isla Del Sol.
So I went over to the island that night and the next day trekked to the other side, which was beautiful. after randomly deciding i had altitude sickness (after 2 months in sucre and visits to potosi at 4080m?!) I couldnt sleep much and got up for sunrise, which a) was beautiful and b)
meant that I was up to start trekking early. I only bumped unto 2 other people the whole 4 hour walk and i could properly take my time, which was good with the altitude situation, and it was just stunning 😊.
So I returned and went to FINALLY LEAVE BOLIVIA ( i know, shock horror).
I had a bit of a debate as to whether to buy a ticket on the Bolivian side or Peruvian side, but after remembering a discussion with my Bolivian housemate Lizeth about Bolivians, in particular Bolivian men, ´they always lie, i only trust 1 Bolivian man, my boss, cos hes lived in Europe for 8 years so he might have learnt...´then i decided not to trist the locals and was rewarded with a ticket for quarter of the price! (However much I love Bolivians, if you ask for directions and they dont know, they will just make it up, it kinda annoying actually!). Watch this space as to whether it is a general thing or just Bolivia!
Puno was only good for the company ( i met a lovely couple ) and then legged it to meet Carrie in Lima. Of course my
bus broke down and was several hours late, bit i got here! To be honest it was a bit of a culture shock to get to Lima and Miraflores area may as well be London as far as im concerned! but I met carrie fine, with the help of ,my Colombian friend Ricardo and we have been exploring together today! I was SO excited to meet her ! i think ppl at the airport probably thought we hadnt seen each other for years from the emotional reunion!
So we have booked out Machi Piccu trek and we have got a packed full few weeks ahead of us 😊 am SO excited 😊.
I wil update as to my adventrues in Peru, there is so much to see and time seems to be ticking away I hope we manage to see everything we want 😊. Carrie will be with my for 2 and a half weeks, so lets see what we can do! We´re heading to Cusco first and then will go to Ariquipa which I´m excited about- Green Sisters on Tour...
Speak soon xxx
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Mum, Dad and Lara
non-member comment
Wow- a dream come true !
I really think it's a good thing I don't know exactly what you're up to until after otherwise I'm sure I wouldn't sleep a wink !!! So so pleased you achieved one of your life goals and saw a sloth in the jungle - loving hearing all about your wonderful experiences and sure that you'll give Carrie the holiday of a lifetime ! Thinking of you both so much and sending our love as always. Take care and enjoy xxxxxxxxxx