Advertisement
Published: January 26th 2008
Edit Blog Post
I can hardly believe it - my 5 months of travelling is coming to an end !!! Where does time fly ? I am currently enjoying summer heat in sunny Lima (almost 30 degrees). I like it here, and apart from staying in a 6 bed dorm at a hostel I have felt less like a backpacker the last days... Went for a manicure / pedicure, paraglided off the cliffs at the beach (wow), had Chai tea Latte at Starbucks (yummie), went to the cinema, had some sushi (yummie again) and enjoyed drinks with one-night fellow room mates from Hawaii. What a great ending to this trip !
Since my last blog the Intrepid tour took us through Bolivia: stopping at Sucre (the official capital of Bolivia if you didn´t know - I didn´t !), Potosi (highest city in the world at 4.100m and was earlier prosperous due to the silver mines), Uyuni Salt Lakes (somewhat under water now in the rainy season) and passed some more volcanoes and amazing, amazing landscape in the south at the border to Argentina and Chile. Bolivia is really the cheapest country of the three to travel around in. A good dinner in a
nice restaurant is about 3 Euro (and a Pisco Sour cocktail only 1.50 😊))) But I don't enjoy the cities as much as I enjoy the country side landscape (favourite city being Cuzco in Peru). It is very poor in some parts and pretty dirty...
The group ended with the 5 of us (me, Rachel, Claire, Fiona and Tim) for the last 8 days, as some in the group had only booked the short trip which ended in La Paz. We had a marvelous trip through the southern part of Bolivia, with the Salt Lakes and the visit to the silver mines as high lights (low light being Claire heading to the hospital in Sucre as she was the second person in the group to suffer from food poisoning).
At the Salt Lakes you can play around with perspectives and take really fun photos. For the silver mines we bought dynamite for a few Euros (!) and coca leaves, to hand out to the miners we met during the tour. It is amazing to think under what conditions they all work !
After a few days in our 4x4 it was time to take the night train
from Uyuni to Oruro up north - the closest you get to La Paz by train (an additional 4 hours by bus after that). We had dinner and headed to the station around eleven at night last Saturday, where we boarded the train which should arrive at 7.30 next morning in Oruro. But around 2 at night we all woke up by a noise and the train came to a sudden stop. After a very long wait we were informed that one of the wagons had de-railed ! The rail is built on very soft ground and due to all the rain some of the track had broken or sunken. So there we were, stuck in the middle of nowhere ! We kept on sleeping and only in the late morning were we allowed out of the train to get some air and we could have a look at the problem... They had worked on it all night, but even so I doubted we would get out of there very soon (see the pictures). But to our surprise we got started again around 11 in the morning (after standing still for 9 hours !). 23 hours after heading off from
Uyuni we arrived in La Paz and I fell asleep straight away. That was the best nights sleep I have had in a long time !
Monday I went shopping with the girls and in the evening we had the final groups last dinner and some dancing (and Claire & Rachel tried the oxygen bar - you pay to breath air for 10 minutes !!!!! OK scented, but still...)
Wednesday I said goodbye to the girls at La Paz airport, I went to Lima while they flew back to Australia. I will enjoy my last day here where I can walk around in a t-shirt and summer shoes... But always look on the bright side of life, when I am back in Amsterdam I can:
- catch up with friends, always breath normally at (under) sea level, sleep in my own bed, be guaranteed a hot shower, throw paper in the toilet, eat salad, drink tap water, use a hairdryer, have all my clothes in a wardrobe, feel safe walking around at night, cook my own food (eh, who am I kidding ?) and go out dancing to something else than 80s and 90s !
And then
again it is not too far away to next holiday - snowboarding in Val d´Isere in March 😊)))))) Yippie !
Thank you for following my blog and for messages received during my trip to the other side of the world. I am sure I will catch up with most of you very soon.................
Marie
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0515s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Cecilia
non-member comment
Welcome home to Europe!
Awww Marie what an amazing journey you´ve had! And more stunning photographs - memories to last you a lifetime! : ) And now you can forget about ever running for a public office job (one career choice less to think about : )) - you do know coca-leafs are what cocaine is made of, right? I sure hope you haven´t brought any back with you in your luggage... My dearest sister, I wish you a great flight back home to Europe, I know you might think it´s a bummer returning - but there always has to be a "home", for you to "get away"! : ) Big hug, and safe journey! Cecilia