La Paz and overnight bus to Sucre 22 July

SATURDAY 22nd La Paz & overnight bus to Sucre

Valle de Luna

Five of us went with our guide by public bus to "Moon Valley".

It is a place that has limestone stalagmites due to erosion. It covers many hectares.

It turned out to be a bit ho hum but the main attraction was that I got to do an Earth Cache.  We saw a couple of Vaspachas which are a cross between a large rabbit and a squirrel.

Valle de la Luna 

Amy and Paul with us.

They joined the trip in La Paz.

Amy is from Dublin and Paul is from Sydney.

The main entertainment for me are the bus rides. For Bob 2.5 (NZ50c) you can go for miles. Most of the buses are Toyota Hiace vans but there are a few a big old Dodge buses.

We returned to La Paz central and went to the market.  The Bolivians (and Peruvians) seem to have their main meal at lunchtime.  We had fried chicken (always dry) with rice and a mixture of potato and carrot followed by a really nice soup all for Bob14, less than 3 kiwi.

We walked the streets for a bit and returned to the hotel.

We had checked out before our morning trip and now retrieved our bags and set up camp in the hotel lobby while we waited for our transfer to the bus station.

Our overnight bus (12 hours) departed at 7pm for Sucre. 

Another double decker bus with three seats across. These were the best yet. Fully reclinable into a flat bed without disturbing the people seated behind.

Unfortunately we had been warned that the bus may not have a toilet and Lindsey was very worried about how she would survive overnight.  It turned out that the bus did have a toilet but it was kept locked.  So apart from some offical toilet stops if we needed extra, which Lindsey did, she had to let the driver know.  He would stop and she had to squat beside the buses rear wheel.  Not very satisfactory.  Lindsey had a sleepless night, of course, worrying about how long she could hold things together before the next organised stop.  So our first Bolivian bus experience was different! We have two more shorter trips ahead of us in Bolivia before two long ones in Argentina.  Hopefully the Argentinian buses are better.

We arrived in Sucre around 7am and caught a bus transfer to our hotel.

La Paz Friday 21 July

FRIDAY 21st La Paz

Lindsey had mentioned to our guide last night at dinner that we wanted to go geocaching to Muello de Diablo, the devils tooth and needed some advice on how best to get there.

She said that she hadn't been there for many years and would like to come too. Bonus.

The three of us walked out of the hotel and the next thing I know Marisol has waved down a van and we were off. The roads are full of these vans and up until now I hadn't realised that they are all private buses. 2.50 Bob to go pretty well anywhere.  They have collective groups and so they do operate specific routes and work to a very loose timetable.

We got off at San Miguel which is about 10km south of the city centre.

The geocache is a Multi so we had to find a four digit number on a modern church in order to solve the final coordinates for the cache.

Once that was done Marisol hailed a taxi and a rapid Spanish conversation ensued. She turned to us and said 80 Bob?  Lindsey said 60 and the driver said si.

Off up the hill we went.  Quite steep and the road deteriorated as we went.  From bitumen to rock, like paving stones, to dirt and quite a few hair pin bends.  We eventually arrived at a small rural community and the driver dropped us off by the school.  We had about 1km left to walk towards Muello de Diablo towering above us.

A very nice uphill walk with a bit of a scramble at the end and there was the cache.  Last found in January.  Marisol was intrigued, asked lots of questions and is now initiated into geocaching.

Log book and trinkets in hand.

Once the hide was replaced we walked on up to a view point and took some photos.

The devils tooth with La Paz in the distance.

The gateway to the community that lives in the shadow of Muello de Diablo.

As luck would have it a taxi appeared and dropped some passengers off.  We grabbed it and for 20 Bob we were taken halfway down the hill to the bus (van) terminus.  We hopped into a waiting van which took us all the way back to the city centre.

Nearing midday now so Marisol took us to a "fast food" restaurant that sold a local Bolivian specialty called Saltenas.  Similar to Empanada but with more filling and juicier.  She told us that McDonalds tried La Paz out for a year and then closed down.  They were too expensive and the Andean fast food is cheaper and healthier.  Burger King is still surviving with one restaurant but is never busy.

After our snack we said goodbye to Marisol and headed out to collect two more geocaches.  The first one was 15 minutes away in a scruffy park on the side of a hill frequented by young couples whose only interest was to play tonsil hockey.

A quick find and sign and then we walked onto an aerial walkway which wormed its way up the hill to a saddle.  Great views and from the saddle we could look down into another valley suburb of La Paz and we saw where their major football stadium was.  In the background was another 6000m mountain in all its glory. Stunning.

We were trying to get to the next cache in an adjacent park but walking up this hill which was a minor navigational error as all the park entrances up this way were blocked off.

So back down we went to an entrance where there were several small astro turf football fields for people to play five or six a side.  We watched a few moves as we walked past.  They were pretty good.  Eventually we got to GZ and set about looking for the cache.  Lindsey spotted it in a rock wall and unfortunately it had slipped down into a crevice. 20 minutes later with the aid of several sticks Lindsey managed to extract the tube.

Mission accomplished so it was time to walk the two or so kilometres back to the hotel.

In the evening we were our guides guinea pigs. She took us to a restaurant that she hadn't tried before.  It wasn't a winner. In fact it was a rip off.  Service was slow and the meals were small and expensive.

In bed by ten for our last night in La Paz.

Puno to La Paz, Bolivia 20 July

THURSDAY 20th Puno to La Paz, Bolivia.

Lindsey had a bad night. Her altitude sickness isn't great.  She is worrying that we still have another six or seven of the next ten days at above 3500m.

We beat the 5:30 alarm by getting up at 5:15.

Packed and went down to reception where the Internet is better.

Breakfast began at 6:00 and we left in our mini bus for the main bus station at 6:30.

The bus was on time and we filled the lake edge for two hours to reach the border town of Desaguadero.

We got off the bus and our Peruvian guide introduced us to our Bolivian guide.  Her name is Marisol.

We said our goodbyes to Luis and then received instructions from Marisol.

We had been joking with Luis that he would be catching the "chicken" bus back to Cusco but it appears because of continuing disruptions from the teachers that he couldn't even do that.  His latest arrangements were to catch a contraband truck via a back road to avoid the disruptions.

We found the customs arrangements at Desaguadero hilarious.  The bus dropped us off and we queued on the footpath for about half an hour and then walked into a building where two officials were on duty.  Showed our passport which was stamped with an exit stamp and then we walked out an adjacent door back onto the same footpath.  Our guide had been waiting outside for us.  Then as a group we walked 200m over a bridge and queued up for 45 minutes this time on another footpath.

While waiting it was no problem to pop across the road to a toilet or to do a bit of Bolivian shopping.  Finally we got to enter the building that we were queuing for where two more officials were on duty.  This time we got to hand over a declaration saying that we had nothing to declare and had our passports stamped again

Two hours later we were able to reclaim our seats on our bus and continue to La Paz.

La Paz has a population of about one million, however there is an adjacent city called El Alto that has a similar population and appears to be the dormitory for the less wealthy who work in La Paz.

Three hours after leaving the border we arrived at the La Paz bus station.

Our first impression is that La Paz makes Wellington look flat.  The city is in a hilly valley with houses clinging to every part of every hillside.  The drop from El Alto, which is on the flat at over 4200m, to La Paz is about 600m.

We boarded a transfer bus to our hotel and then discovered how chaotic La Paz traffic is.  Bumper to bumper with nobody prepared to give way and "Hiace buses" just stop anywhere to pick up and drop off, but somehow it works.

Checked in at a little before 4pm to be given an internal shoebox of a room which we were later to discover was also freezing.  The hotel doesn't have any heating.

Twenty minutes later the group met for an orientation walk of central La Paz.

We walked down a steep street full of touristy shops to a plaza then across the valley and up a less steep street to a pedestrian only street.  As we hadn't had any lunch our guide took us to an empanada shop where Lindsey and I had a beef empanada to stop the tummy rumbling.  We then continued to Murillo plaza to see the parliament building on one side, the presidents officers on another and surely there was a Catholic Church on a third side but I cannot remember.

We walked back down to the valley and were shown the main market and then walked up towards our hotel and visited a part of the "witches" market.  Any herbal remedy is available that you could imagine and plenty one wouldn't be 

able to imagine.  Many shops had Llama foetuses hanging at their doorways.

We returned to the hotel briefly and then went to dinner as a group. This would be the last night for seven of our group.  The Canadian Russians head back to Toronto tomorrow. The two 60 yr old nurses head to Santiago for four days before going home to Sydney and the two Brisbane teachers are off to the Iguasio falls and then to Rio.  One then goes home to Queensland while the other goes to Colombia to meet up with her daughter.

Dinner was good. I had a llama steak.  It was delicious. It was the size of my plate but very thin and tasted like veal.  Lindsey had a chicken curry which she enjoyed.

Hugs and farewells after dinner and we were in bed with all our clothes on by 10pm.

Llachon Lake Titicaca to Puno

WEDNESDAY 19th Llachon to floating islands to Puno

Up at 6:30. A beautiful cloudless day and minus 5 temperature.

Magdalene provided us with a lovely breakfast. A pancake each, a boiled egg and homemade fried bread.

We went up the back with Herman to see their livestock pen as he had to feed a lamb.  They have 15 sheep, two burros, a chicken and a calf.  I don't know where the cow is.  Real subsistence farming.  

 

Then we got to meet their son Edison (15). He is already taller than his father.

At 7:45 we walked down to the jetty to catch our boat back to Puno.

Fond farewells. Everyone in our group seemed to have had a great time.  Having been quite anxious yesterday about this homestay I came away feeling really pleased that we got to experience it.  It could well be one of the highlights of our trip.

The added bonus is that my Spanish vocabulary has probably doubled overnight.  It's now reached double figures :)

Back on our slow boat and two hours later we arrived at the floating islands.

There's a whole city living on islands made of reeds.  Hard for us to get our head around this existence.  The island we landed at was about the size of our house.  Five families live here.  They have a small hole in the reeds that they throw a fishing line down.  The water level is only about a foot below the reed platform.  The houses are built another metre above the platform.  They do have solar power.  They drink the lake water which is still quite salty at about 25% the salinity of sea water.

Tourism is their main source of income.  Every island had a boat full of punters visiting just like us.  They have a reed boat that they take tourists on for a wee ride for ten Sol per person.  Lindsey and I had seen enough after about ten minutes.

Eventually we were all back on board our launch and thirty minutes later we were back in Puno.

Checked back into our hotel and had some rest and iPad time.  Lindsey is not feeling great with the effects of the altitude.  This is our second day at 3900 to 4100 metres.

Tomorrow we drop by about 250m to La Paz so hopefully she will feel better.

After our rest we made a 2km return walk for a fruitless geocaching search.

Tonight is our last night in Peru so the group went out to dinner together.

A really nice restaurant, good service and great food.  Lindsey had a Peruvian specialty, deep fried guinea pig.  I had charcoal chicken.

The reason that we went to this restaurant was because a stage show was included at no extra cost.  It was amazing.  They were all students.  The "band" consisted of a group of five young men. Two guitarists a drummer and the other two plated a variety of Andean flutes, like panned flutes, and small woodwind instruments like recorders but there was no mouthpiece. The "flute" sat just below their lower lip and they blew over it.  Then there were maybe ten dancers although no more than six were on stage at any time.  They wore different costumes for each regional dance they performed.  All costumes were in bright Peruvian colours.  Some with masks, some with huge hats.  I particularly liked a dance where two men became Condors and challenged each other around the dance floor.

Our tour guide leaves us at the Bolivian border tomorrow so tonight was a farewell to him as well.

Back to the hotel around ten. Alarm set for 5:30.

Puno - Lake Titicaca excursion. 18th July.

TUESDAY 18th Puno - Lake Titicaca - Isla Taquile - Llachon homestay 

7:30 departure this morning on tricycles!

Our guide has hired eight tricycles to get us from our hotel to the port.

It was a bit of fun. Luckily it is mostly downhill.

At the port we went to a shop to buy gifts of provisions to give to the people who will house us tonight.  We bought oil, tuna and some pasta along with three balls for any children they may have.

We then boarded our launch for a two hour trip to Isla Taquile.

We passed through a huge area of reeds.  Some of these reeds have been made into "floating islands" where people live. We will visit them tomorrow.  The reeds are called Totara which intrigues me that Quechua and Maori could have the same word in their very different languages.

We arrived at the Isla Taquile and walked up quite a steep hill to a plaza.  We were all sucking in air again which we hadn't done since day two of the Inca Trail.  The top of this island is at 4000m.

After messing about around the plaza waiting for those that wanted to buy local knick knacks we walked along a ridge for about 30 minutes and descended to our lunch place.  We were served delicious quinoa soup followed by fresh trout with rice and fries. I was the only one to have the second choice of an omelette.

The men here knit!  They showed us how they knit their very fine colourful hats using five very fine needles.  They knit bags and belts as well.  There are various designs which designate whether you are married or single and if single the size of colourful pom-poms suggest the level of your availability.

The knitting man.

After lunch we descended a short distance to our boat and set heading for our next destination Llachon.

Llachon is at the end of a long peninsula jutting out into Lake Titicaca.  Here we were farmed out in pairs to local families to experience how they live.

Our mama for the night is Magdalena. Her husband is Herman and she has two lovely, vibrant daughters, Karen (10) and Vanessa (8). She also has a fifteen year old son who we haven't met.  The family speak Quechua and are also fluent in Spanish.

We were expected to help the family in some way this afternoon.  Most of the host families had organised their visitors to help sort potatoes.

These tiny potatoes had been sun dried over several days and were now on a mat in the courtyard for the three of us to sort the good from the bad.  Meanwhile Herman was varnishing doors a few metres away.  Thankfully I had my Spanish phrase book and a Pad and pen with me.  Me managed a reasonable albeit very limited conversation.

The potatoes took us over an hour and then we, as a family, walked down to their community centre.  We played volleyball for an hour or two.  Everyone had a lot of fun and there was much laughter.  Unfortunately Lindsey and I both forgot our ages.  She fell onto her bum jarring her spine and hurting her thumb and then two points before the end I leapt for a ball still thinking that I was thirty and have once again torn my calf muscle.

After the volleyball we each went to our host parents where we were dressed in their traditional costume.  I was given this beautiful bright red embroidered poncho to put over my head plus a hat that didn't quite fit and Lindsey had this lovely green, heavy pleated skirt to wear, an embroidered bolero jacket, a woven shawl and an amazing hat. The hat was ornately embroidered.  It had four turned up corners and two pom-poms on the top.  This indicated that she is married.  The two single women in our group had completely different outfits and hats and looked amazing too.

The children of our Mama & Papa are the two wearing the hats.

We were all dressed in traditional outfits

The crew with our host families.

We then moved inside to our group,dining room where we were given chopping boards and knives and given vegetables to prepare for our dinner.  These consisted of carrots, beans, peas and potatoes.  Once they were sent to the kitchen we had a cup of tea and chatted until the food arrived.  First up was a soup made with semolina and potato and accompanied with bread and a chilli side dish.  Every soup we've had has been delicious and this was no exception.

The main course consisted of the vegetables that we had chopped up with rice.  Nothing flash but very tasty and we didn't feel a need for anything else.

We then walked with our family back to their house, said goodnight and are in bed by 8pm.  There houses have no heating.  We have a spacious twin room with an ensuite in an out building.  We haven't seen any of their living quarters yet.  Our loo doesn't flush. Instead there is a big drum of water next to it and a jug.  When finished you take the jug and scoop some water out of barrel and tip it into the bowl.  It works a treat.  All used toilet here and throughout Peru even in hotels has to be placed in a bin beside the loo. No paper is allowed into the sewerage.

They have given us two plastic drink bottles filled with hot water.  Lindsey is rapt.  She thought that she was going to miss out on her hottie.

I have three heavy blankets on top of me plus a bed cover.  I guess that they don't want me to be cold.

Breakfast is at 7:15 and we catch our boat at 8 back to Puno so the alarm is set for 6:45.

Cusco to Puno (Lake Titicaca) 17th July

MONDAY 17th Cusco to Puno

6am alarm. Upstairs to the sixth floor for breakfast.

Meeting downstairs at 07:30 to transfer to the bus station.

Farewell Cusco.  By far the nicest city that we have visited so far.

Bus departs at 08:30. 7 hours with one stop to Puno.

Our tour guide had teamed up with a guide running a G Adventures tour and hired a bus for this trip.

The landscape changed from green hills back to brown and the valleys became desert again similar to our first week of travelling.

The valleys also widened out to become some large plains however we did pass a couple of mountains with snow on them.

Arrived at Puno at about 4:00pm. We were afforded excellent views of Lake Titicaca as we descended into the city.

Transferred from the bus station to another bus and arrived at the hotel within one block of the city square to check in. Nice room and warm.

The group met downstairs 30 minutes later and we went for an orientation walk followed by dinner.

Our guide took us to a Charcoal chicken restaurant.  It was one of the nicest, best value, meals I've had. Apart from the ones on the Inca Trail which will be very hard to surpass.  Dinner consisted of a quarter chicken, some fries and two slices of tomato washed down with a beer.

After dinner we bought some Agua Florida, an alcohol based liquid that one pours onto the hands, rub them together and then inhale. It goes right up into the sinuses.  Most people cough when they do it. It is meant to help in keeping altitude sickness at bay.

Lindsey isn't feeling great and has some symptoms hence the purchase.

Puno is at 3800m, about 400m higher than Cusco but Machu Picchu was only about 2500m and we noticed a shortness of breath once we returned to Cusco.

Off to bed at about 10pm having sat in the reception area for two hours where the Internet worked the best.  I made an effort to load enough photos onto Google Photos to allow me to catch up on this blog.

Alarm set for 6:30 for a 7:30 departure tomorrow.

Agnes Calientes to Ollyantotambo to the Sacred Valley to Cusco 16th July

SUNDAY 16th Agnes Calientes to Ollyantotambo to Sacred Valley to Cusco.

7:15 breakfast. 8:00 the group gathered and walked to the station.

Quite a flash train.  Windows in the roof and a tea, coffee and snacks service.

The 90 minute ride afforded stunning views of the stunning mountains rising above us as we followed a river through a narrow valley.

We caught glimpses of where we had been walking and towards the end of the ride we saw where the Quarry Trail ran.  This was the Trail that six others of our party had walked while we walked the Inca Trail.  This is the Trail you end up doing if you don't book early enough to get a pass for the Inca Trail.  The Quarry Trail was higher and colder and made a loop from/to Ollyantotambo.

At Ollyantotambo station we transferred to another 18 seater mini bus with Señor Carlos at the helm and were taken into the Sacred Valley to visit a local community .

Intrepid has a foundation that supports these communities in an effort to improve living standards.

The first private house we visited was set up to give us lunch.  But first we were shown how they traditionally cook potatoes and sweet potatoes.  They had a stone oven, like a little house and had been burning wood inside to make charcoal and to heat the stones. We arrived in time to throw in the spuds and yams and collapse the hot rocks on top.  We then shovelled dirt over the top to seal in the heat.  Just like a Hangi. Having been told that the potatoes would be ready in 40 minutes time we drove around the corner to meet a traditional potter. Senor Bernardo.  He showed us how he prepared the clay, which takes several weeks and then he made an almost tankard sized cup in front of us at his wheel.  He moved on to the next part of the demonstration where he showed us how they smooth the pottery out and how they paint it.  Next we were taken to their gallery where he hoped that we would buy lots of his pottery. A couple made a purchase. All I could think of was the issues I could have carrying pottery around on a tour for the next four weeks.

40 minutes was up and we returned to our lunch venue.  Oops the Hangi hadn't done its job.  Not even the yams were cooked let alone the spuds.

We sat down at a long L shaped outdoor table and were served lunch.

Firstly a refreshing red drink made from purple corn followed by a delicious quinoa soup with a chilli condiment.  This was followed by a piece of chicken breast, a lump of rice and a lump of yellow stuff that first looked like beans but turned out to be grated potato with lumps of more potato within.  I'm not a fan of their main courses. Way too much starch and not enough sauces.  Most of us hardly touched the rice.

They had a lovely garden with lots of interesting plants. Some recognisable like Thyme and Rosemary and others more in the cactus or succulent family that we had no idea of.  They also had cages at the far end of the garden where roosters and chickens lived.

Luis gave a speech about how the family would only receive 5 Sol per person for the meal provided locally where Intrepid were paying them 20 Sol for it.

Back on the bus and three hours later we arrived in Cusco to be reunited with our belongings and most importantly for Lindsey, her iPad.

At one stage we had our belongings in five different places.  It felt so good to have them all in one place again.

After unpacking and finding out that the Hurricanes had beaten the Crusaders (was there any other important world news in the last five days?) we ventured out to find the Cusco market.

We got there at about 5pm and all the doors were locked up.  Ugh.  Then we noticed people were still inside.  We soon discovered the one door still open and entered.  Our mission was to buy some more fresh fruit and maybe some local chocolate.

Both missions completed easily. The fruit was very cheap and the chocolate not so cheap.  In fact we were wondering if we'd been ripped off until Lindsey spotted the same items in a supermarket for nearly twice the price.

Now for a quick Multi cache, or so we thought.  When I started reading the instructions I discovered that it would take 90 minutes.  It was nigh on dark and Lindsey didn't have her puffy jacket.  The Multi would take us to five different plazas or squares and was quite interesting.  Lindsey survived well as the night air began to cool us down.  It took us past some beautifully formed Incan walls.  We arrived in the main square just as a "guard" was ceremoniously lowering the national flag.  They marched off in a goose step which we found ugly. Onto our fifth square and there was a stage set up and a concert happening.  The information I had to get was on a plaque in the middle of a fenced off piece of grass right by the stage.  My torch wasn't powerful enough for us to read the dates so I quickly jumped the fence had a quick read and jumped back much to the drunk locals consternation in our vicinity.

Numbers completed and final location entered into the GPS and it pointed a further 700m uphill.  We'd had enough by now so we turned around to head back to our hotel.

Passing a supermarket we stopped and bought a bottle of the local 42% alcohol to take home - Pisco, some potato crisps to munch on and for Lindsey to check up on the price of chocolate.

Back to the hotel for iPad time and soon ready to turn in, in preparation for an early start and another long bus ride to Puno and Lake Titicaca.