February 18th, 2012
It's been too long since you last heard from me. Well, this is going to change very soon.
My travel blog is about to come back to life, so stay tuned folks. This is going to be fun.
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| A teaser photo, for a taste of things to come. :) |
We arrived at Cusco after a ride full of weird events. Just the guy that got on the bus, stood in the middle of the corridor and before beginning his rythm shouted: "Ladies and gentlemen... I shall sing!" to remember, is more than enough!
So, Cusco it is and we're here only for one thing: Machu Picchu.
Words are not necessary. The photos say it all.
Aguas Calientes. The village at the bottom of the mountain.
We were there from 6am in order to get out priority number to enter Huayna Picchu, the tall peak in the middle, onto which they only allow 400 visitors per day.
Now for that one, what can I say? About the long and hard hike to the top?
About the incredible altitude which we reached?
Just look where the river is and Machu Picchu on the left in relation to my feet!
About the even harder hike downwards and around the mountain to find the infamous big cavern?
Or maybe about the fact that after going up and down endless steps and losing tons of sweat, we asked and were told that through this whole route that we followed, out feet experienced about 13.000 steps?!?!?!
Yes. 13.000!
When we got back to our hotel well in the afternoon, we went straight to sleep, only to wake up the next morning and head back to the center of Cusco. The long ride to Cajamarca is about to begin...
M.
Once again an early morning wake-up and off we go to form waves on lake Titicaca. 20-odd people on the boat, along with our guide Juan Carlos, we set off towards the islands of the lake.
The surface of the water within the port area has a strong green color, which although looks interesting when the boat tears through it and leaves a blue track behind it, it still is not very inspiring to touch at all.
Within a couple of hours we had made our two first stops at two of the Uros islands. These are floating islands, artificially made out of dirt from the bottom of the lake and bamboo, onto which live native Quechua families. Personally... not impressed. To me all it seemed like was a tourist trap which although possibly once genuine and fascinating, now it is just being taken advantage by the big boys of local tourism and it seems completely fake. I couldn't stop getting the feeling that to those families (which I doubt they were actually native and having lived all their lives on those villages) saw us like walking dollars. They didn't care about our interest to see their life, the same way that most tourist don't really care about their life. All they go there for is to take a photo of the brave native man that lives in the middle of the lake and the cute little girl and rolls on the bamboo sticks and licks the crap of them. I just wanted to get out of there...
We sailed a few more hours and reached Amantani, one of the biggest villages of the lake and where we would spend the night. Here's another tourist trap. Local women took us all and offered us a room to sleep in and also a plate of food for dinner and breakfast. Later on in the night they even put up a show for us. Dressed us up in local costumes and we all gathered in their community centre (equiped with a mini-market of course) to dance their local dances. Yes, let's take the tourists and show them what our life is like. Please... As if this is how they live. You could see it on their faces that they were not awfully excited to have us there and they were certainly not in the mood to be jumping around and dancing with a bunch of people that don't even know why they are doing what they're doing. This is what the travel agent put on our plates and we are simply eating it. Oh, how original. I bet no one has ever done this before...........
Touristy part aside, this is a very interesting island. Peace and quiet all around, old people working hard, magnificent views of the lake, both from the shore as well as from high up at the Pachatata and Pachamama temples and no electricity! Too bad we're experiencing it through the tourist funfare...
The following morning we set off early to go to one more island before setting course back to Puno. Taquile was the name of it and once again,everyone waiting for the "wealthy" tourists to charge them two dollars for a snickers bar. Nothing impressive about it, especially as my earlier fears have by now been confirmed. Other than the fact that this lake is gigantic and is reaching the clouds, it has nothing more to show me compared to the greek islands that I've visited in the past.
So, having followed the most touristy path ever, we're back in Puno and planning to leave towards Cusco tomorrow. But nooooooo.... We'll just stick around another day, doing nothing, because I got food poisoning by the delicious meal that family is Amantani offered us. Lovely...
Yes. Lake Titicaca. Been there, done that, don't want a friggin t-shirt, stop trying to sell it to me!!!
M.
Bus from Uyuni to Oruro that offers the experience of being inside a baby rattle: 11 dollars
Bus from Oruro to La Paz that goes through every single possible stop: 2 dollars
Bus from La Paz to Copacabana (not the brasilian one. The bolivian one) that crosses the lake on its own personal boat: 4 dollars
Accomodation and food (trout of course. We're not next to the lake for nothing) at this beautiful but kinda indifferent village: 8 dollars
Bus (yes, yet another one) from Copacabana to Puno, the peruvian "capital" of lake Titicaca: 4 dollars
Gazing at the beautiful dark blue waters of the largest navigable lake of the world at high altitude: priceless!
Priceless my arse!!! Did I really go through all this for three days just to see the same images I would see on the greek islands? Ok, joking aside, I am a bit dissapointed. I don't know what I was expecting, but I wouldn't say I'm left speachless by what I've seen so far over here...
Tomorrow we are going on a 2-day tour on the lake and some of its islands. Let's see...
That's our bus sailing away...
...and us on a separate boat chasing after it.
Believe it or not, that's our shower. Hooray for health and safety!
M.
We didn't waste any time. As soon as we arrived in Tupiza we searched and found an agency that organizes tours to the Uyuni salt flats (What is that? Read below you lazy sods!). We arranged everything, got a well-deserved good night sleep and first thing in the morning the following day we were already on our way.
The team. The dog is a stunt act.
Myself, P., two canadians, Rafael our driver and Margarita our own personal cook (yes, you read correctly. I could be talking about her cooking for hours. One night I nearly married her when she brought us a chocolate mousse!), all together in a 4x4 jeep which looked to be in a good shape, we headed for the mountains. And I mean it! From the first moment, the altitude at which we were travelling did not drop below 3600 meters! Bolivia is a very mountainous country with, most of the time, little to none vegetation: an ankle-high bush here and there and a few 2-meter tall cactuses... Other than that, rocks and dirt as far as the mountains allow us to see.
On the way...
Lots of little villages in the middle of nowhere, at altitudes of more than 4000 meters, whose residents add up to between 40 and 500. People cut off from everyone and everything, living off their plantations (when the ground allows it), their animals and their products. 
For some reason this lama was looking at me in a very seductive way...
We spent our first night in one of those villages, in San Antonio de Lipez. The houses of all those villages are made of bricks constructed by the villagers, made of mud and hay.
After the first 24 hours, the altitude is starting to get to us: we can't breathe properly, our heart is pumping extra fast and headaches have become part of our daily routine. They say that the human body gets accustomed after 48 hours. So they say...
4855 meters above sea level...
We can't even breathe and those damn kids are playing basketball!
The second day kicks in in a pretty adventurous way. We got up at 5.30am in order to go and see the sunrise through the ruins of a deserted village near by. The jeep however did not do us the favor and had no desire to start up. Two hours had passed, Rafael was still struggling and the cold was so unbearable that we wouldn't dare to get out of our blankets not even to turn off the light. We were throwing shoes at the switch and when we ran out of ammo, we simply left the light on. However, lo and behold, a while later our fantastic driver performed the miracle and we set on our way.
It's all bloody frozen!
It was the liquid element that conquered the day, driving from lake to lake, with a couple of in between stops at some thermal baths and some geissers. After visiting lakes Morejon and Kollpa, which although impressive, were nothing to write home about, we arrived at the stars of the day.
- Laguna Blanca: The baby of all lakes with light blue waters. It reminds an oasis, as it appears after having reached the top of an uphill ride after many kilometers of dead ground while crossing Dali's desert (Yeap, the artistic element is present. This desert has earned its name thanks to the bizzarely colour formations of the mountains that embrace it).
- Laguna Verde: The most impressive of them all. Despite the fact that it begins only a few meters off the shore of the former, the scenery is spectacular. Bright green waters on the foot of a volcano, thanks to which the hill in front of the lake is full of large, black, volcanic stones, offering an intensive contrast to its exotically green surface.
- Laguna Colorada: The red, endless home of 25000 flamingos. The largest part of the lake has a bright red colour thanks to the red alge off which the flamingos feed. Arriving at the lake near sundown and watching dozens flamingos flying just a few centimeters over the red waters and dissapearing in the horizon, was a truly marvelous view.
Third day and the cold is absolutely unbearable! Each one of us slept with seven blankets and any reason to exit this warmth seemed like punishment. The morning was a true torture. Despite our desguise which resembled an onion (two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, three jackets, gloves and hoods) and the warm cup of coffee in our hands, the cold was winning this battle. Frozen fingers and toes, ice on my beard and rattling teeth. We had no more clothes to put on and running was not an option, as at this altitude we couldn;t even run to the bathroom. The final blow came when Rafael told us that just half an hour before, the temperature had reached -20 to -25 Celcius below zero. Knowing that was enough to make the cold even more penetrating...
Leaving the morning chill aside, the day did not include anything remarkably worthwhile. After all we had seen up to that point and with the salt flats (I told you, I'll explain later what this is) looming ahead, the deserts and little lagoons of the day seemed pretty insignificant.
At least we know where to park now.
The most important fact of the day, and for various reasons, was tonight's choice of accommodation. It was a hostel, situated just outside the Uyuni salt flats and constructed entirely out of salt! The beds, the benches, the walls, the decorations, everything was "salty"! However, sleeping innovation aside, the best part of it all was that there was a hot water shower!! We finally had the opportunity to wash off all the dirt that our bodies had accumulated. Besides, the pleasure of sitting on salt chairs around a salt table goes to a whole new level when you smell of soap instead of 60 hours of adventure.
A salty living room...
...and a salty bedroom.
Fourth and final day and the very early wake up call was well worth it. 6am and we're already on our way to the salt flat. So what is thing thing after all? Imagine a flat surface of 12000 square kilometers that consists of nothing but salt. Salt as far as the eye can see and at some parts, even 50 meters deep. The salt flats of Uyuni are a gigantic source of salt, located just outside the equally-named town. Once upon a time, there was a salt-water lake here which in time dried out and left behind millions of tons of salt. The companies that take advantage of it have employees who shovel 20000 tons of salt on an annual basis! In other words and to put it simply, we're talking about A LOT of salt here! In the middle of this salt flat there is also the island of the fish (isla de pescado) which does not offer much more than plenty of cactuses and a marvelous view.
Waiting...
The sun is rising over the endless acres of salt.
The view on top of the island of the fish.
It's the choo-choo shoe!! (For those who are in the know...)
After leaving the salt flat, there wasn't that much more to see. What else would we want to see anyway after four activity-filled days? Around noon Rafael and Margarita has already left us in the town of Uyuni, where we would go back on the road....
M.
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