We hopped in a small van with about 8 other people at the Tupiza bus terminal. Taking a “taxi van” to the dusty border town of Villanoza was about an hour faster than taking the bus and they depart about every 5 minutes which meant that we could sleep in and leave when we were ready. The cab dropped us off about 15 minutes away from the Argentinian border so we walked the remaining distance. We were expecting a massive lineup of people entering Argentina from all the stories we had heard of the border being incredibly slow and crowded but instead we were pretty much the only gringos crossing over with a few locals so it only took about 20 minutes in total to get through! From La Quaica, the bordering city in Argentina we hopped the first bus to San Salvador de Jujuy…or just Jujuy for short. We were hoping to make a direct connection to Buenos Aires from Jujuy but unfortunately all the buses were sold out and we had to wait until the following day. Being in Argentina was such a culture shock after spending the past three months in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Jujuy was a very developed and modern city, and the prices reflected that. One thing that was finally cheap and delicious however was the wine! Courtney and I ordered a glass of wine each at a restaurant and paid less than $2 Canadian for it! I knew we were going to like Argentina…a lot! After a long bus ride we arrived in Buenos Aires in good spirits with high hopes for the city we had been anticipating so much. We had no idea how to get from the bus station to downtown and so we asked a couple young people who were working at baggage security in the bus terminal for directions and they were so helpful. One of the guys even walked us to the Subte (subway), which was about 10 minutes away so that we wouldn’t have to pay an outrageous cab fare! We lucked out by finding a hostel (Downtown Mate) that gave us a private room at the dorm rate and it even had a balcony overlooking the street! One of the first things we came across was the 14 lane road 9 de Julio that runs through the center of El Centro. It’s absolutely massive and takes two lights to cross! We spent the majority of our time in BA seeing a bunch of different sights and preparing to fly down to the end of the world! On one of the days in the city we took the Subte to the Palermo area and got off near the zoo. We didn't go in but walked along the side and crossed into the beautiful gardens. The area reminded us of Toronto Island due to the multiple parks, rollerblading lanes, ponds, and different fitness clubs. We had a nice picnic in a rose garden and then continued back in the direction of our hostel. We ended up walking for over 5 hours through different areas of the city. The city is very pretty with every type of neighborhood; ranging from the trendy downtown core to pedestrian ruled avenues packed with all stores to posh upscale areas where everyone is walking around in elegant attire or soccer uniforms. We really enjoyed our day sight seeing and can't wait to return to check our the other areas!
4 Comments
You’re really in luck this week: 2 blog posts! We had to write about this road because we skipped the death road outside of La Paz because of its cost. So here’s our own little death road adventure from Uyuni to Tupiza. We did this death road the old fashioned way, on a bus not a bike. We departed Uyuni shortly before sunrise and started our journey towards Tupiza on a really narrow and bumpy but otherwise flat and straight dirt road. Our bus company, Transportes Tupiza, seemed to have its act half-together as the bus was relatively clean and in pretty good shape considering the bone-jarring daily trip it makes from Uyuni to Tupiza. We made it about 30 minutes south of Uyuni when we spotted a bus in the ditch up the road ahead. As we approached it became quite obvious that the stranded coach was also part of the Transportes Tupiza family; so we pulled over to help get them out of the ditch. Once the ditched bus was back on the road after an or so, we were on our way again too. The bus was never quite full so we were constantly stopping to pick-up and drop off passengers. A couple of times we were in the middle of nowhere, on the edge of a mountain with literally no signs of civilization around and people would be standing waiting to get on the bus as we rolled up. Lonely Planet’s South America on a Shoestring described this drive as beautiful and that if you were to take the train you’d be missing out on the scenery. They forgot to mention that about 70% of the drive was terrifying. We had climbed high into the mountains and the road didn’t grow any wider. It was one lane and littered with blind corners. You had no chance of staying asleep for more than 10 minutes because the bus driver would lean on the horn rather than the brakes when we approached a blind corner. At one point Courtney was asleep when we started to descend a series of very high and very steep switch backs. We had seats 1 and 2 on the second floor of the bus (at the very front on top of where the driver sits), which made us feel as though we were flying from time to time as we would lose sight of the actual road and could see hundreds of meters to the valley floor below us. Courtney woke suddenly to the sound of the bus horn blasting as we were in the middle of taking a blind switchback corner and she immediately thought we had gone off the road! After a short bout of screaming and then laughing she said, “I can’t believe we have another 3 hours of this!” We had a 30 minute stop in a town called Atoche where the dogs seemed to run the show. Courtney was nearly swallowed up by this huge pack. Grown men were even crossing the road to avoid running into the herd of street dogs. At a blind corner on what we seemed to think was the highest point of our journey I laughed and said, “It would be hilarious if there was an oncoming car around this bend.” And sure enough, We were just barely able to squeeze by each other and I was surprised that our driver didn’t tell everyone to move to the left side of the bus so that he could hang the right side off the edge of the cliff to make more room.
We arrived into Tupiza later in the afternoon and were pleasantly surprised at how nice of a town it was. The surrounding scenery makes you want to throw your leg over a horse and ride off into the sunset. Tupiza is said to be where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had their last stand some 100 fateful years ago against the Bolivian military. I’m writing this blog while we are on our way from Jujuy to Buenos Aires on a 23 hour bus ride. It’s dark and bumpy and someone went number 2 in the number 1 only toilet. Needless to say we have a long ride ahead of us. Our next stop after Potosi was basically the number one tourist trap in Bolivia: the 3 day Bolivian salt flats tour. Ask any gringo that has been to Bolivia and they’ll tell you to do the salt flats tour. “It’s just something you can’t miss,” they’ll say. Well, it was pretty cool but the long hours spent bouncing down a road with our knees touching our chests isn’t something we’d recommend for everyone. If the trip wasn’t so darn cheap we probably would have avoided it but we did luck out with our group. A couple of girls from Germany who just finished some volunteer work and a couple from Belgium who is about 2 months shy of completing a round-the-world journey of their own. We had a blast with them playing Uno, yatzee and watching our guide Freddy try to fix a problem with the jeep’s right rear brake on the side of the dirt in the desert. The tours depart Uyuni every day and travel to the Salt flats, desert and through the high Andean plains where there are a bunch of cool lakes. The less expensive tours are done with a Spanish speaking guide only so we didn’t get much info out of it. One thing we did learn was that 3 days in a cramped jeep is hard on the ass. Enjoy the pictures and a short blog post for once.
We left La Paz on a night bus destined for Potosi, Bolvia; the World’s Highest City. At an elevation of 4090m (13420 ft), Potosi is a city that literally takes your breath away. We didn’t really know much about Potosi before we arrived but we quickly learned a lot about the large mining town. Potosi used to be the wealthiest and most prosperous city in Latin America. And it wasn’t only at the top for a short time, it was there for about 200 years while its mines thrived. To this day the mountain is mined for silver, zinc and tin (and some other minerals but in less quantity). But it is not privately owned like the mines we know in Canada. Instead the mine is owned by the government of Bolivia and miners pay a tax to the government to extract the ore independently, meaning that they all work for themselves. When they extract an amount of ore that they know will earn them some money they sell it to privately owned refineries for a fixed price per ton depending on the grade and value of the mineral at the time. We were quite interested in learning more about the mines so we sought out some ex-miners who now run tours into the mine. Our tour started early with a short stop at the local miner’s market where we bought a few gifts to give the miners underground during our tour. Popular items include pop, coca leaves and dynamite! So we bought one of each to hand out during the tour. After the miners market we suited up in our mining gear and headed over to a refinery to see where the ore is processed. We weren’t at all shocked to see how run-down and unsafe the refineries were; lack of safety regulations is pretty standard in Bolivia. We continued on to the entrance of the mine where there is no shaft and elevator to plunge the miners into the earth, instead miners walk straight into the mountain and a maze of tunnels leading up, down and every which way takes them to their claims. Our guide, Pedro asked us to chew a lot of Coca leaves as it would help us to get over a few of the really tight spaces we were about to go through. There were a couple apprehensive people in our group (Courtney being one of them) but in the end everyone made it deep into the mountain. Pedro said the toughest part is the first 5 minutes of entering the mine, after that if you are fine you can stay in there for as long as you want. The first portion of the mine was fine: you could walk upright and breathe fairly easily but it wasn’t until we started to descend that the spaces got a lot tighter and the air became stuffy and thick with dust. We wore bandanas to stop ourselves from inhaling the dust but we know we would have been inhaling some of the other chemicals found in the air (or lack there of) down there. There are no man made ventilation systems, only the current tunnels act as pathways for fresh outdoor air to reach the miners. The deeper we went, the more difficult it became to breath, but within reason and we were not in danger at any point. After getting used to the darkness the mines quietness became almost pleasant. I (Courtney) didn’t mind when we were walking or almost crawling, it was when Pedro would stop and talk was when it became more real (and scary) about where we were and how far we were from sunlight. We met some miners who were prepping to start excavating a new claim. Claims here are interesting to say the least. Basically if you find a vein of a mineral first it’s yours. Pedro told us a story of two miners who fought over a really high grade claim of silver back in 2000. The miners were both old veterans and unfortunately their greed got the best of them. Things got so out of hand that they were planting (and exploding) dynamite to scare and sabotage the others’ claim. Pedro said a lot of his friends were hurt and some even hospitalized during the feud but luckily no one was killed. The guys we met were surveying the area for new veins. We then visited El Tio, a statue of the devil that the miners worship. Pedro told us how important El Tio is to the miners and then poured a little of 96% alcohol on the ground for Pachamama and then for El Tio while he prayed for lots of minerals for the miners. Pedro then went around and wished something nice for each one of us. We then each had a turn at the 96% proof alcohol. It was so strong as soon as it touched our lips it felt like they were burning off. Not something I would recommend anyone drinking on a regular basis yet the miners drink a bottle of it each Friday. After we worshiped the devil we walked through some more tight areas until it opened up to where two other miners were working. Pedro explained how the average life span of a miner in Potosi is only 40 or so years old. He also said with this in mind that being a miner is a sought after profession due to the income and the status a miner has in the community. Only men are miners as it’s bad luck for women to work there. It was hard to hear that some boys start as young as 12 years old. We didn’t see anyone too young but met a miner who had been working there for over 30 years. Continuing our trip through the tunnel we had about 500 m to go. We rounded a few more corners we (mostly Courtney) was so happy to see the light at the end. The tour was a very interesting experience that we will not soon forget. After experiencing being in a mine for two hours we can really appreciate miners and their families.
On our way from Copacabana our 3 hour combi ride had 3 minor breakdowns all quickly repaired by the driver. The winding roads were getting to our stomachs but not as much as a local woman who was sick out the window in front of Courtney. Good thing Courtney’s window was closed. Then we had to cross a portion of Lake Titicaca on a small boat while our combi crossed on a separate barge. We were somewhat worried we’d never see our luggage again but the combi was waiting for us all ready to continue on to La Paz. La Paz is a beautiful city set in the valley of the Andes; it’s amazing to see the houses built throughout the valley and up the mountain side until the land turns into sheer rock. The houses look as if they are sticking out and could fall off at any point. It’s not until we climbed up for a view that we could see their sturdy construction. The majority of our time in La Paz was spent catching up on blog posts and trip research. We needed to come up with a plan as to how we could get to Ushuaia (the southernmost tip of South America) by bus and plane before it gets too cold in Patagonia to camp. We had first heard about the San Pedro prison from Claire, an Aussie girl who we met in the Galapagos. She was reading a book called Marching Powder and it was written by a guy who spent time living in the Prison. The prison is like no other in South America, it is completely run by inmates and the only guards at the prison are stationed at the main entrance. Basically when people are arrested and enter the prison they have to rent or buy a prison cell. So wealthy drug dealers typically live in large nicely furnished cells that could be mistaken for luxury apartments while the poorer people live in small shared cells that they rent. In order to afford to pay the rent the people of the prison have to work inside of it. Some people sell goods or food, some people shine shoes, some people are hairdressers, etc. The prison is divided into several small districts and each district elects a representative to look after their needs inside the prison. The districts also have their own soccer teams and it’s not uncommon for the wealthier districts to pay the good players to play for them. We wanted to take a tour but a few years ago tours have been restricted because tourists were going to the prison to buy drugs rather than to have a tour. We were in La Paz over Easter weekend; it was neat to see the cities Easter celebrations. On Good Friday we were walking the streets and ended up in several Good Friday Processions where men carried the body of Jesus in a glass coffin while the women carried a weeping statue of Mary. A truck would follow with a loud speaker where the Priest would speak or a lady would sing. We especially enjoyed watching the truck drive through the streets with the loudspeaker attached to the roof. The streets have very low-hanging power lines so every time the loud speaker got hung up on one of the lines, a man would climb onto the roof of the truck and use a specially made stick lift the power lines over the loud speaker allowing the truck to drive under them. Only in Bolivia. Well that's about it from La Paz. Check out some of the pictures below for further enjoyment! After the Inca Trail we took a few days to rest, do laundry and try to figure out what to do next. After a little planning we thought we would pay a visit to Lake Titicaca, the world's largest high altitude lake. Our guide from Arequipa, Luis said that because Lake Titicaca is split between Peru and Bolivia the name also is split between both countries: Titi is Peruvian and Caca is Bolivian. Keep in mind that Luis was himself a Peruvian. Before we left Cusco, however met up with Mike and Gino (remember them from Arequipa) for a night on the town and to try some local cuisine. We spent several hours at Paddies Pub in the Plaza de Armas and finished the evening off with some MacDonald's. That's not the local cuisine I'm talking about though. The next day we went to a restaraunt to try our hands at some cuy. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term cuy, it means guinea pig. Although we were told it was a delicacy, we thought that we would enjoy cuy more than we did. It tasted kind of like fish but it had the texture of pork. So we hopped a night bus from Cusco to Copacabana, Bolivia. We had heard a lot of mixed reviews about Bolivia, but there was one thing everyone agreed on: it’s cheap! Copacabana is a small tourist town located along the shore of Lake Titicaca and it doesn’t have much going for it other than the surrounding nature. So we decided to take a couple days to relax and enjoy the sunsets before heading over to Isla del Sol, a small island 2 hours by boat from Copacabana. We took a boat from Copacabana to the North side of the island then hiked for three hours to the south of the island where we spent a couple of nights. The smells and sounds of being on a lake made us both feel a little closer to home, until we would hear a donkey honk. The weather on the island is mostly sunny during the day but late evening, overnight and early morning it rained pretty hard. The pictures below show some different views of the lake. Our last day on the island we hiked down to a small village on the other side of the town with a little friend (a really cute puppy who showed us the way) and bargained with a local to rent his little row/sail boat. Unfortunately we don’t have any sailing skills so we opted to row for a little while. It was great fun rowing around the bay and enjoying the tranquillity of the island. If our already massive blog posts haven’t crashed your computer, this one will. Lots of people we know have done the Inca Trail or at least have been to Machu Picchu, so hopefully this post brings back some find memories. On Saturday March 24th at 4:00am we were met outside our hotel by our assistant guide Manuel to start our Inca Trail 4 day hike to Machu Picchu. We began driving around Cusco picking up other people from their hotels. At one of the pick up points a guy got on the bus from the Wild Rover hostel and we continued to Peru Treks to pick up our sleeping bags, mats, and our potters. Our second guide asked our sleepy-eyed group who had reserved a sleeping bag and 8 people put up their hands. Then the guy from the Wild Rover hostel told the guide he needed one and didn’t understand why he wasn’t previously informed that sleeping bags were a requirement. This guy wasn’t happy when our guide told him he was going to have to pay an extra $45 to rent a sleeping bag. So they jumped off the bus and began discussing the sleeping bag issue with other Peru Treks employees. No one could hear what they were talking about and assumed he just hadn’t read the 8 page debriefing sheet they provide when you go the day before to pay. After much deliberation between the disgruntled gringo and the Peruvians everyone got on the bus and we were on our way! But the bus turned back up a familiar street and pulled over at Wild Rover hostel AGAIN. The disgruntled gringo hopped off and was quickly replaced with a similar looking gringo; it turns out they had the same first name and so we picked up the wrong person. Apparently they only care about your first name! After some good laughs we were finally ready to start the drive to Ollantaytambo, a small town in the scared valley, where we ate a delicious omelet breakfast. Andrew and I had brought all of our bags and left the majority of our crap in Ollantaytambo to return there on the last night so we could spend another night in the scared valley before returning to Cusco. After breakfast we drove for another 30 mins down a bumpy dirt road and unloaded our gear, packed the last few things into our day packs and walked towards the beginning of the Inca Trail. The trail begins at a government check point where everyone has to show their passports and tickets and has to get fingerprints and retina scans… ok well the last two aren’t true it seemed like extreme overkill for a hike in the bush. We were excited to receive an Inca Trail stamp on our passports! The trail crossed a bridge and then followed the train tracks on the opposite side of the river. We were instructed that the first day hike was approximately 4 hours of ‘up flat, up flat’. We were surprised at how commercial the trail was, we walked alongside electricity poles, small villages selling goodies (a liter of rum for 25 soles), lots of pack animals, and at one point a young man riding a motorcycle. Our guide mentioned that the first day on the trail wasn’t going to be authentic but the next 3 days would be. Even though it was quite touristy, the trail was still very beautiful. The scared valley is stunning! We walked up and into our first ruins where our guide (Saul, or Coca Man as he preferred) told us a little bit about their importance however we found it somewhat difficult to understand his English. He would bounce his eyebrows up and down and end every sentence with “What, do you have any questions amigas?” followed immediately by, “ok good” and he would continue with his next speel. We laughed about it for the next 4 days! We were so impressed by the porters! They carry huge sacks full of our equipment and speed down the trail awaiting our arrival at camp. People behind yell “porter!” so you can move to the side and let them wiz past you. It’s remarkable how fast they can walk especially on the steep inclines and declines which we experienced several times throughout the 4 days. If you think you can hike relatively quickly, think again! At one of the small villages along the way we stopped for a Chicha break. Coca Man explained that the ladies along the side of the path sell Chicha, a fermented fruit drink with a taste similar to beer, used to give the potters energy, like they need any more. When we arrived in Camp our first day we were greeted by cheering and clapping porters who would pass us glasses filled with delicious juices. The porters were so much quicker than us that when we would arrive our tents would be set up, along with our dining tent and there would be snacks waiting for us! Treats like popcorn, cookies and hot chocolate were some of the goodies waiting for us in camp when we arrived. Dinner in camp consisted of a 4 course meal starting with a small appetizer, then a bowl of soup, a main (something different everyday) and dessert with Coca Tea. On our second day we were woken by Manuel shaking our tent saying, “Buenos Dias! Coca Tea?” To which we would respond yes! We sat sipping our coca tea half in our sleeping bags with the tent door open so that we could enjoy the views of the sacred valley before having to bust our asses for the next few hours. We had to climb up dead woman’s pass (4200m) and it rained pretty much the entire way. We were soaked getting into camp at the end of the day but we were hopeful that the weather would be a bit clearer the next day. All of my (Andrew) dry clothes got soaked in my bag so I wore them after we hiked to dry them. It wasn’t very pleasant. Day three was beautiful but wet again. We were able to stay mostly dry throughout the day (our rain gear decided to perform) but when we rolled into camp our guide was praying for sunny weather at Machu Picchu the next day. Our departure from our last camp was at about 4:30 so that we could arrive at the Sun Gate at just the right time for the sun to shine down onto Machu Picchu. It was a really amazing feeling to watch the clouds part to reveal the Lost City of the Incas. An older woman (actually she claimed to be the oldest on the trail) who struggled with the difficult terrain was crying at the site a Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate saying, “I guess this is what it feels like to be in shape!” We continued down the final stretch of the Inca Trail to reach Machu Picchu within an hour. When we arrived we took a small break before entering the city and Coca Man asked us to spend 3 minutes in silence to just appreciate our surroundings. Its hard to explain in words, but we had a There's a lot that we learned about Machu Picchu but rather than try to regurgitate it you're better off reading the Wikipedia page. Here are a few more pictures...enjoy!
|
Get updates by email!
Archives
January 2014
Categories
All
|