The SALKANTAY to MACHU PICCHU

Instead of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, we decided on the more adventurous Salkantay Trek, 5 days 4 nights. Our trip would start early on Easter morning, 3:45am was our wake-up time in order to be ready for our pickup. Juan Carlos, one of the guides, knocked on our hostel door at 4:20, and we walked down to the square where everyone was meeting, pickung up other groups along the way. All told we were: us two, James and Laura (UK), Mark and Pia (NZ), Mark and Marie (France), Salvador (Mexico), Guillermo (Arg), Alina (Ger), Malice (Italy), Markus and Gunilla (Swedes), Michelle (Ecu), Shane (Ire), and 5 Israeli's.

Our first stop would be Mollepata, a small town up in the hills where we could get breakfast and load our stuff onto "horseback." We started 'trekking' on the dirt roads out of town, winding up and through shortcuts in the hot sun. We broke for lunch and had our cooks make us up something tasty, then hey cleaned up and loaded everything back on the 'horses' which at this point was an old truck.. We continued waking and chatting until our first camp at Soraypampa (3900m). We had climbed just over 1000m and were feeling good. We passed a huge lodge on the way to our camp, hoping it would have our beds in it, but we found out later that this lodge is part of the slower Salkantay experience. They take 7 days, ride horses, stay in lodges/resorts, pay about 7 times as much as we did, but still looked pretty swanky!

Our tent site had been tarped off to lower exposure to wind and rain, we got no wet stuff that night, clear starry, Milky Way sky, nestled in between Apu Umantay (5459m) and Apu Salkantay (6264m). We were awoken early (5:00) by a call of "coca tea" and had time to pack up and get ready. Our trail today would take us to the pass between two mountains, and to the foot of The Savage Mountain (Salkantay). The pass was 4650m (15256ft) and we were all feeling the lack of oxygen. Photos were snapped and Team Sexy Cuys, our group of 8, had a few snaps as the mountain cleared, then we were off again, back down all the elevation we had just struggled up. This was our favorite day of trekking if only for the scenery, we got very lucky to have a clearish pass, then good conversation along the trail, the only bad part was descending 1750m! We had been promised hot showers (for a fee) at our next camp, but there was no hot water, and actually no running water at all ;) So it was a face wash in the stream (no water in the mouth!) and then snack time, with Kasey's favorite..popcorn!! They did an awkward introduction of our horsemen, who would be leaving us and throwing the extra weight we had put on the horses on our backs and of course we were expected, but not obligated, to tip. It's a bit difficult to know exactly where all the money you paid for a trip went when the guides, horsemen, cooks, everyone gets a tip too...

Day three we woke to damn roosters thinking the sun came up at 3:15am, then rain and eventually a coca tea call. Everyone was a little slow and stiff getting out of bed today but even the dreary weather couldn't dampen our spirits. We were back on dirt roads today and took a windy route down to the valley floor, passing the connecting trail to Choquequirao (a ruin complex that is a bit bigger than MP) Our 'trekking' today was only about 3 hours as we got a combi ride for the last 20km to Santa Teresa. After throwing our bags down, we grabbed swimmers and headed down to the hot springs down by the river. You got whistled at if you didn't shower before going into the pools, and it was funny to see some unshowered people's reactions to being whistled at.. We enjoyed the hot pools for about two hours and attempted to soothe our tired legs and shoulders. Three of our group had taken a bus straight to Aguas Calientes, because they had work and a wedding to attend, so we missed them the rest of the trip (Mark and Marie as well as Guillermo). Day three ended with a campfire and a few celebratory beverages (one group had a few too many).

Day 4 would be our latest time to sleep in, 6:30 I think, and ironically our longest distance traveling by foot, 25km. Some had elected to do a zipline thing, and skip out on the first half of walking, the rest of us carried on, up the valley, past some pretty impressive tunnels being built for another hydroelectric project. We lost our guide, Willy, at one point only to have him show up ahead of us, very mysterious (actually I think he took a car, maybe he was tired..) We eventually got to Hidroelectrica, where we stopped for our box lunch, and waited for the zipliners. After that the trail was all along the railroad track to Aguas Calientes. We only got passed by one train and I was thinking how easy it would be to ride that thing into town. We arrived to Aguas just before dinner time, Kasey and I had been booked into a hotel 5 more minutes uphill from all the others in our group, so we trudged our way up to, Puma's Inn for actually hot showers, and Ellen Degeneres on TV!!! Then we met back up wih the group for our last group dinner, and what do you know they made us pay for drinks!! Anyway we got our breakfast baggies, and instruction for tomorrow and Machu Picchu!

Day 5, Machu Picchu!! We rose at 3:50 to meet the group at 4:20, and headed out, most of the group had elected to walk from Aguas up to the main gate instead of taking the bus. Our route took us over the bridge and then up a windying set of stairs something like 1700-2000 stairs...in the pouring rain. We had plastic ponchos on but still managed to get wet from sweat or rain coming fom the ground up. We arrived at the main gate via headlamps and determination, and found people already pouring off buses, and standing under cover (I was thinking they should have to stand in the rain for a bit..) Our group finally got organized around 7am and we headed in, for our 2 hour tour, which eneded up being maybe 40 minutes. Our guide wasn't as informed or practiced in his presentation and we were a little more than bummed about that performance. It had been raining all morning and our guide kept telling us that by 10 or 11 it would clear up, well he was wrong, but it did eventually clear after 1:30 or so. Kase and I had climbed up HuaynaPicchu (Wayna Picchu) after a mad scramble from SunGate (with Mark and Pia) to the complete opposite end, only to find MP obscured in fog, we waited up there on the Inca's nose, being entertained by Luis and Ken talking about spirituality and the meaning of life, real deep stuff. We climbed to the tip-top of Huayna to take in a different view, and the clouds finally started to part! We snapped a few more pics before getting shooed off the top by a 'ranger type.' We tried to head to the Temple of the Moon, but were turned back by another 'ranger type.' Apparently they close these further sites down early so no one gets left behind. We wandered back through the main complex snapping shots where the rain had made it more difficult before, on our brief tour. We met our friends James and Laura who were snapping shots with their big Canon! So we hung out and snapped even more pictures as the sun had really burned off most of the surrounding clouds..

more info on a face to face breakdown of MP.

We finally left the park just before they closed and headed back down the stairs, a bus costing $10 US dollars, was a little ludicrously priced. We grabbed a fresh(ish) set of clothes before meeting everyone at Chez Maggie's, a pizza place we had been recommended very early in our trip. We ate and talked about the trek, eventually passing the time until we needed to go find the train station, we had a ticket for 9:30pm. Our train ride and snoozing (as there is little view at 9:30) and was interrupted numerous times by loud and apparently rich group of rude Argentinians. Then they pulled a bunch of us sleepy tourists off at Ollantaytambo, to catch a bus the rest of the way back to Cusco. We arrived in Cusco at 2:00am, sleepy and groggy as can be. Long day, 22 plus hours, but man was it worth it!!

We felt so lucky to have the weather break the way it did on Machu Picchu, because without that we wouldn't have been able to be checked off the old bucket list. .

Thanks for reading, we will see you all soon!!!

Life in Cusco

Well, as Jon said earlier, we spent about three weeks in Cusco volunteering and taking Spanish courses. I'll write a short blurb on those experiences for those of you who are interested.

We heard about both Spanish school and volunteer program through other travelers. For school, we found an organization called Fair Services, started and run by an awesome guy named John from Belgium. John has been living in Cusco for 12 years now and has a Peruvian wife and kids. Fair Services takes in single mothers and puts them through an intensive 600 plus hour course to teach them how to be Spanish teachers. Then, they become insructors for Fair Services. John had a new batch of teachers that just finished their training course and needed to gain confidence as instructors, so a discount was offered to students for the month of March...S/6 per hour, which equals just over $2 per hour for one on one instruction, an awesome deal!

Jon and I attended Fair Services, about a 30 minute walk from our hostal, Monday through Friday, 8am to noon. the first 2 hours were grammar, so in a classroom at the school one on one with a teacher and with workbooks provided by the school. The second two hours were one on one with another instructor for practical practice. We would walk around the city, visiting markets, museums and other locations just talking in Spanish and practicing our vocabulary and going over what we had covered in grammar class.

Fair Services also offered a Peruvian cooking course every Tuesday night. We only needed to pay S/5 and could show up with some booze and the teachers bought all of the ingredients and would instruct us on how to help prepare the meal. We made some delicious meals like Rocoto Relleno and Llomo Salado. we bought the schools cookbook with 9 recipes included so we can make some Peruvian food when we get back home! Salsa lessons were also offered on Friday nights, but since the school was so far away and Jon and I were usually doing things with other friends we never made it to those lessons unfortunately.

From 2:50 until 7pm, Monday through Friday, Jon and I were volunteering at the after school program for kids called Aldea Yanapay. "Yanapay" is Quechua for "help." It was run mostly by a local Cusquenan named Yuri. For the first few hours of the day, the kids were divided up into classes: art, computers, games and homework tutoring were a few. Jon found himself in the computer class for the two weeks we volunteered and I was in art. For the second half of the time, the kids were divided into Families based on their age. During family time, you had to discuss the theme of the week (helping others, love, acceptance, etc) and the kids needed to prepare a skit to demonstrate the theme for the Friday performances. At the end of the evening, some quinoa in milk was provided for every kid, and vitamins were given to the younger families of kids.

On Fridays, the restaurant associated with the Yanapay school would offer an all-you-can-eat buffet for the volunteers for S/15. Drinking and dancing usually ensued, and Jon and I had some of our latest nights with other volunteers in Cusco.

Our third week im Cusco Jon and I dedicated to Spanish school and meeting up with my friend Hayley who was in Peru for her spring break with other optometry students to do free vision screenings. It was awesome to meet up with her and show her our local favorites, like Jack's cafe (the best food we've had in Peru, western size and quality food that never disappointed, not to mention delicious brownies and milkshakes that weren't just milk and flavoring). In fact, Jon had a Jack's count, and we had to match the number of times we went to Jacks for brownies or other food with the number of times we hiked up to Christo Blanco, the white Jesus on top of a hill just outside of Cusco. We also had our 10 day tourist boleto at this time and spent our afternoons visiting ruins in the area on the ticket.

Overall, it was an extremely busy but fun 3 weeks in Cusco. It was nice to avoid long bus rides and the stress and money that it takes to move around a lot. But, by the end of the third week, we were getting stir crazy and we were ready for our next and final adventure...the Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu!

Sacred Valley, Ruins and Legends

March 7th we arrived in Cusco/Cuzco/Qosqo depending on who you talked to. We had a direct bus from La Paz that took us around the bottom of Lake Titicaca and up the valley to Cusco. In Cusco we would get involved with two types of Spanish "schools" but I will leave that for Kasey to write about. This blog I hope to inform, those who would like, a bit about the Sacred Valley. These are mostly weekend trips that we did, and we had a great time on all of them.

Here we go:

oops, for most of these we needed to pay entry, so we bought a 10 day tourist boleto that would count for all but one of the sites.

SAQSAYHUAMAN or as we gringos call it "sexy woman"

Cusco really took shape when the ninth Inca (King) Pachakuteq started reorganizing and rebuilding a lot of places, he also started the expansion of the empire. His city Qosqo would take the shape of a Puma (a sacred animal) and the fortress of Saqsayhuaman would be the Puma's head. The site now overlooks the city from the north and was the site of a rebellion by the last Inca. This site has three tiered walls with some massive stones. Each of the walls have a zigzag that make them look like teeth. These walls and other buildings were ransacked by the Spaniards to build their houses (thy also just destroyed the temples and sacred areas) but the main walls have mostly been un-moved by weather or earthquakes, pretty spectacular in their construction, And in size of the stones used!

Saqsayhuaman has a large field where the native people still celebrate Inti Raymi, 'The Festival of the Sun.' There is also some 'slides' on the backside of a quarry looking area where the Inca probably had some fun, slipping down the rocks on their feet or maybe in their ceremonial dress (; Saqsayhuaman was the closest site to Cusco.

QÉNQO

Just up the road from Saqsayhuaman, we find the ceremonial site of Qénqo. This place was smallish, but held a semicircular ring around a massive stone (altar or something), and cool cuttings from the rockface. There was also a few channels at the top of the rock outcrop that had been made to drain the sacrificial blood, chicha or water down from a nother altar. And lastly there was a tunnel that had an flat stone cutout, a shelf in the stone and burial chambers. Seemed like a very spiritually centered place, and like most of these places we were left guessing about what we'd just seen or walked around.

LANLAKUYOQ

Not much of a ruin but a really cool playground of rocks, tunnels, narrow slot 'canyons', crevases, and shafts. I couldn't find much online about this place so I assumed it was a mining area, a playground for the little warriors, or a place to run to and confuse, scare, and ambush the would-be conquerors. I felt like I was wandering in an Indiana Jones film..

TAMBOMACHAY

These were apparently some pretty awesome baths to go to in the olden days. Incas would come here to bathe in the sacred and forever clean waters before doing a ceremony or big festival. it doesn't look like much now but water still flows out of the hill and down the channels built by a once great empire. I guess the other thing was that Kasey and I rode up there on a bus with a capacity of about 25, and I think there was at least 50 on te bus, so literally squeegeeing ourselves out of the bus into the downpour was an experience in itself. We didn't really need to see the baths when we were already soaked (;

PUKA PUKARA

Puka means red, Pukara means strength or fort, so PukaPukara is 'Red Strength' or 'Red Fort'. This site would have been a check point or rest place for people, messengers, merchants going from Cusco to the Sacred Valley or vise versa. It sits on a rocky prominence and would be easily defended from three sides. I think the Inca built many of these smaller forts or lookouts to help guard their territory as they were never without enemies.

MORAY 'crop circles'

The complex at Moray has been described a agricultural laboratory for the 'scientists' of the empire. There were over 4000 different kinds of potatoes, and I've heard numbers from 57 to 250 types of corn or maize. This site has over 20 levels of terraces in at least 4 different 'indents.' Archeologists have found multiple soil types at the different levels, and there is a 20C difference from bottom to top terrace. With different soils (carried in from all over the empire) and seeds from different regions, they were able to acclimate seeds and plants for foreign areas, get special characteristics for certain plans and modify others so they would grow in the high plains of the Altiplano. Basically ancient horticulture!

These plants all needed water so they irritated the levels too, but what to do about the bottom levels, wouldn't they just fill with water? They either dug down and created a drainage system or there is a natural occurring drainage at the bottom so that no matter how much rain the bottom level never floods!!

SALINAS (not realy a ruin site but cool anyway)

Near Moray, there is a spring that spits out salty water, actually 7% salt, that's twice as much as the oceans. Here the people have built rice paddy looking 'holds' for water. The water comes from the spring and is split up among 5000 or so shallow 'pools' and as the sun bakes off the water a salty crust forms. This salt has no iodine but does have small amounts of iron, magnesium, and a few other minerals, making it healthy and a commodity for Peru. The mines aren't running in the wet season as too much rain makes the water less concentrated in salts and evaporatiisn't effective enough to produce salts. The Incas may have used this site too to make salt as they needed it to dry their meats and other products for longer storage.

And now the big ones in the Sacred Valley proper.

PÍSAC

The site of Písac sits above the town of Písac. Písac (the town) now survives on the tours that come to town, the market on Sundays sprawls through every nook and cranny spreading from the central square. This square contains a very old tree that legend says Pizarro roped his horse to when he came (1533?) making the tree near 500 years old. Believable as the tree looks as its seen a number of years. Our guide also told us that the church holds mass in Quechua, the only one to do so in the region, every Sunday after normal service.

Písac the ruins, sits high above the markets and square, and we took a ride on the tour bus ;). Like Saqsayhuaman was the head of a Puma, Písac was built to resemble a 'pisaca' a type of partridge found in the valley. The site has many terraces, for agriculture and erosion control. They grew the best corn, white maize, here in the valley, and Písac would have been another stopping place to rest the llamas, get more food etc. to continue the journey. The main temples and storage for drying food were at the top of the spine where Písac layed across. Temples on top because they were easier to protect at the top, and closer to the gods and Apus, and storage houses because the wind kept the food dry with the wind and not soggy.

Písac would have protected the southern valley, Ollantaytambo protected the northern valley. Another interesting fact is that the walls across from Písac hold some thousands of tombs, many of which have been looted, but its still interesting to see an Incan grave 'wall.'

OLLANTAYTAMBO

This site keeps to the animal theme, and we find it in the shape of a llama. From the town, Ollantaytambo rises up the rockface like a pyramid, these terraces were for style only, no agriculture was done here, only beautification. Ollantaytambo was built with stone from across the river. National Geographic came to test a theory for how stones were moved (we found out how they cut stones at Machu Picchu). It would take some 7 thousand villagers or workers pulling ropes to move some of the more massive slabs, an they rolled them on wood rollers and/or stone ball bearings as big as bowling balls. They used ramps, like the Egyptians, to get the stones up to the cliffs and higher rockfaces. When they had accidents with big rocks they left them where they lay, in fields, because putting that stone up in a temple or other structure was seen as bad luck.

Ollantaytambo also has a few faces in the rocks, one has a man-made corona (crown) representing Apu Tunupa, a pilgrim knowledge giver in Incan Mythology. Another face, the north face has what is known as the 'inca face' and the winter solstice sunrise appears from this face when looked apon from the temple of the sun on top of Ollantaytambo. One of the temple walls has some unique architecture, 6 large slabs are spaced by smaller narrow slabs which could move and break during an earthquake and be replaced, rather than replacing a huge slab.. Many of the temple areas and structures were smashed to bits to promote Catholicism from the Spaniards.

CHINCHERO

Chinchero is the last stop on our tour, the main temple here has been overlayed by a massive church, but many of the terraces and walls can still be seen. We went on this part of the tour on a Sunday and the church had just closed, but we still got the lana demonstration. Wool from llamas, alpcas, and sometimes vicuñas is not ready to weave just yet. Ladies of the surrounding villages demonstrate how they wash the wool using a root that has saponins, which naturally clean the dirty wool. The next step is to spin the wool into various thickness depending on what you're making, then dye it. For this last step they use anything from plant leaves, flowers, roots and even a bug that lives on cacti, smooshing this bug gives a deep reddish/purple, a few drops of lime and the color turns bright red, put salt on it and it turns orange!! With this they can make many different natural colors to make their mantas, and clothing. A table runner sized piece of work would take 1 - 1.5 months to weave!

One final fact:

The Inca became such a wide spread empire not just from conquest but from integration. They picked the best parts of each culture they came in contact with and used these skills to enhance their knowledge or boost their warriors. Nazca for their astronomical knowledge. Tiwanaku and Chavin for their architectural genius. Huari (Wari) for their battle skills. Others for their knowledge in potery, weaving, crops, etc. Too bad the Spanish came along as white bearded men, or we could be looking at a completely different region..

Ollantaytambo, the sun god smiles

Moray

Písac from the temple area

Salinas, salt "mines"

Huayna Potosi: The "easiest" 6000m peak

After the Salar de Uyuni, we headed back to La Paz, one last time. We had wanted to do some more climbing and decided that a 6000m peak would be a good challenge. And what do you know, there is a 6088m peak just outside of La Paz, how convenient!

After talking to a number of companies about the route, prices, gear and food, we settled on Alberth, who turned out to be a fine choice. We spent the previous day prepping ourselves by walking a few sets of pee smelling stairs, repacking our bags to accomidate the full suit of mountain armor we would be renting, and we also found a lady that made us some pretty good, nutty trail mix off the street.

Day One:

We walked to the tourist agency to try on all our gear. We got ice/snow boots, gaiters, pantalones, harness, jacket, gloves, balaclava, helmet and head torch (without batteries). Our gear all sorted, we stuffed it into our big bags, now popping at the seams. Then it was a waiting game of the rest of our party, 4 Canadians (eastern). We didn´t have to wait long, and soon we had: gear, guides, and van, we were off.

It took about 2 hours (40km) driving on some very bumpy roads, up and out of La Paz and up to Zongo Pass. We were dropped off at the first hut, our base camp that we didn´t have to hike to, at 4800m. We soon geared up to practice some climbing moves on the nearby glacier, which like so many others is quickly retreating. We learned how to walk up-slope and down, ice climbed, and self arrested. All in all it was a fun time on the glacier learning some pretty crucial techniques. Then we trekked back to the hut and had some dinner (soup and a pasta dish..)

Day Two:

Kasey and I slept very well during the night dispite having to use the baño a number of times, the others in our group didn´t fare so well in terms of sleep. Breakfast was the unusual, granola and yogurt, fruit, bread, egg and tea/coffee/hot coco. Today´s main goal was to get up to high camp at 5130m. With only 330m to climb it wasn´t supposed to be too hard but our group struggled a bit carrying our full packs up. The guides thought we should have been mas rapido, so they decided to get up earlier the next "morning." Kasey powered her way up the small climb, followed by myself and we decided to help out one of the gals who had been sick the night before, by carrying a small bag of hers. We got to the high camp and then it was lunch (at 1pm), followed by rest, followed by dinner at 5pm! Altitude really takes the appetite away from you but we knew we needed some energy for our 11:30pm "morning" wake-up call. Early to bed and we hoped we could get some sleep for our long day tomorrow!

Day Three, Happy Birthday Kasey, Happy Anniversary Ben n Amy, and Summit Push!!

We woke at 11:30pm to have a bit of food, bread rolls and tea (I didn´t eat anything). A girl from another group remembered it was Kase´s Bday and offered her a piece of "cake" and we sang happy birthday to her. Then we geared up: four layers plus our jackets up top, two socks, and warm hat, long-jonnys and trekking pants. We trompped down a small rocky hill to put on crampons and rope up. Kasey and I had gotten the main guide (2 people per guide) Illisayo, and two of our group chose not to wake up (don´t worry they aren´t dead..) Headlights on we started our ascent, following balls of lights wobbling up the glacier. Following a pattern of plant Ice ax, cross leg and follow, for steps we began at a fairly good clip up the mountain.

Soon we passed Camp Argentino and rested for a bit before carrying on. I soon began to feel the altitude take its toll on me, I packed my cheek full of coca leaves and carried on. Illisayo and Kase kept a race pace, and I had to stop a number of times to catch my breath and make some excuse about taking off a layer or putting on the same layer I had just taken off :) I was feeling pretty worked. Half the time I felt like they were just pulling me up the mountain as I concentrated on the pattern of sticking one foot in front of the other.

We came to a near vertical ice wall that we got to use some of our ice climbing skills on. After pulling ourselves up the wall, and taking a break, Illisayo said we were making excellent time and we were nearing the summit. Kasey says she was just following the guide´s pace but she´s a badass and isn´t phased by silly things as lack of oxygen.

Around 5:40 we were at the final push: a ridge about 80m long and 1m wide was all that was left between us and the summit. Illisayo instructed us to keep the rope taut and keep a steady pace. The ridge fell steeply off on either side so we focused on following his footsteps. Both of us had adrenaline pumping through our systems now and focus came easy, a few minutes later we were at the summit, 6088m! At 5:55am we were the second group to acchieve the summit and we slapped hands and Illisayo and I sang Kasey Happy Birthday again. After snapping a few dark photos, sunrise photos and surrounding beauty with frozen hands and dancing around (Illisayo had burried an ice ax as an anchor) we waited for a few more groups to cross the ridge before we headed back down, me in front this time.

Our hike down could more accurately be called a "stumble" as both of us felt exhausted. But we trudged on and even had a stretch where Illisayo had us sit down and slide on our butts! It was great not to be on our tired feet! We soon found ourselves, after some breaks, at the bottom of the small rocky hill where the high camp was. Although now the hill looked a lot larger, so we released our crampons and un-tied from our guide and made our way slowly, groggily up the "small" hill. At the hut we were elated to have made it back and started pealing off gear, first the boots! We had to pack up all our stuff for the hike back down to base camp so we could catch a van back to La Paz, but first I had a treat for Kasey :)

I grabbed the two candles I had brought and the Snickers bar (that I had meant to give her at the summit but we were too preoccupied by actually summitting!) that I used as a "cake" and candles lit the girls (who had not climbed) and I sang her Happy Birthday Again :) She tells me that the Snickers bar was the only thing that could have filled her appetite at the time.

After a few snacks (buttered bread and tea) we headed back to base camp, a feat in itself because we were so tired and beat, also carrying our full bags again. Feeling accomplished and happy for our summit of the closest thing to a 20,000 foot mountain that we have done, we climbed in a van and headed back to La Paz.

All told it was an amazing experience. Neither of us have been pushed that far towards our breaking point (me especially). But we managed to climb the "easiest 6000m peak in the world" (It wasn´t that easy...)

Electricity of El Alto, lighting up the Altiplano as we reached the summit still in near total darkness.

Kasey, showing off and instructing us on how to properly swing an Ice Ax!

High camp, 5130m, with our summit of Huayna Potosi in the background.

The ridge we came up and over en-route to the summit, listed as 6088m or 19,974ft. (Many summiting groups site 6110m at summit, so we would have been just over 20k, depending on the measurements I guess..)

Salar de Uyuni...The Salt Flats!!!

Our furthest stop south in Bolivia would be the infamous salt flats just out of Uyuni. They are over 10,000 square kilometers of SALT! The typical thing to do is a three day tour with six people and a guide in jeep. Luckily, we already had a group of 6 friends we had previously met and were all converging in the tiny town of Uyuni at the same time. This meant we could walk into a tour agency and book a tour the morning of, which is ideal, since the town of Uyuni itself is quite dusty and dull.

First though, we had a little adventure getting from Potosi to Uyuni. We left Saturday night on a 6pm bus from Potosi, hoping to reach Uyuni by 10 or 11pm. Signs that this trip was going to go poorly:

1. Upon purchasing the ticket at an agency, they told us to go to the Ex-terminal, not the Nuevo (new) terminal.

2. Upon arriving at the Ex-terminal, Diana Tours (our bus) was by far the shittiest looking thing in the lot.

3. 45 minutes outside of Potosi, going up a slight incline, I realize I could walk faster than the bus was moving. Strange noises are also coming from the engine.

4. The bus starts hobbling, like it has a flat tire somewhere. It was a physical limp that actually caused your body to sway.

5. The bus driver pulls over near the top of the hill and says there were problems with the engine. (My thought here is, fine, lets turn around and coast downhill to Potosi, still only 45 minutes away. But that is not the mindset of a Bolivian...if the thing is still functioning, we are still going forward. The future and consequences of actions are not part of their thought process.)

6. The bus breaks down 3 hours later, 10pm, in the middle of nowhere with fluid pouring from the engine, onto the cement..Our bus just had its throat slit.

So anyway, those were the signs and we broke down and were stuck in the cold darkness in the middle of nowhere. There was a group of about 5 of us gringos huddled by the side of the road, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. A guy jumped up on the top of the bus and began throwing down all of our luggage and people unloaded all of their stuff from the broken bus. We sent a delegate to the mob of locals at the front of the bus and found out we were waiting for other buses to pass by to hop on and take us to Uyuni. Apparently there were others coming...when, we didn´t know. The only answer we got when we asked how long was "Si." So we waited, but surprisingly, only 30 minutes later, headlights appeared on the road coming in our direction. The bus was flagged down and stopped and mobs of locals pushed us out of the way. We shouldered back but we weren´t good enough at pushing in as the big Bolivian women with their large sacks on their backs. The bus admitted a handful of people and then said it was at capacity and took off. Us gringos and the rest of the locals that didn´t make it on were left once again by the side of the road. The gringos huddled together and made a pact that we wouldn´t let the locals push us off the next bus and we weren´t spending the night by the side of the road...it was all for one and one for all!

The next bus came only 10 minutes or so later, roared by our waving mob and came to a stop about 100 meters down the road. We all took off in a full sprint towards the bus, fully loaded with all of our heavy backpacks, flip flops on, running in the night screaming at the top of our lungs: "Go Team Gringo!!!" Rolly bags were spinning out of control on the pavement and Jon was about peeing himself laughing but we got to the bus first and held our ground for the slower mob of locals. We found out that the bus could admit 20 people...there were maximum probably 15 people that needed a ride, but if anything maybe we got some respect from the locals...or more likely solidified their view that gringos are in fact loco.

Anyway, on to Uyuni, since we did after all make it there. We met up with our group of friends the following morning and headed out on our tour by 11am. The first stop were the salt flats themselves. We drove out onto the flats and took the pictures all travelers take with figurines and bottles of alcohol, using the infinite flat surface to do optical illusions with the relative sizes of people. We saw some workers out on the flats digging up piles of salt to be used to eat. We also saw buildings and statues made out of pure salt. There was even a Salt Hotel out in the middle of the flats: walls, beds, tables, everything made of salt blocks. The salt was scaled into a white, reptilian looking floor. It was very different from anything I had ever seen before, and the massive expanse of it all was pretty spectacular. We were told by our driver that the salt "crust" was only about 1 foot thick in some places with many feet of water beneath.

On the way to our accommodation the first night we stopped at the Train Graveyard, with all kinds of old rusted train engines, cars and parts that we could run around in and climb on. We drove through a landscape that looked strikingly like eastern Washington...home sweet home (for me). At our accommodation we enjoyed a bottle of rum and played cards the entire night, celebrating the birthday of one of our group members.

Day two of the tour we stopped at a giant garden of volcanic rock formations that we could scurry around on and take pictures (Jon spotted a Viscacha...looks like a rabbit-squirrel hybrid, should have been named a rabbel) and a bunch of lakes. The landscape was changing as we went, sometimes we felt like we were on Mars as we drove through rolling hills of red dirt and rocks. Then we would pass snowcapped mountains and giant orange and grey volcanic rocks. The change in scenery over the kilometers we drove was incredible! Only really pictures can describe. We also stopped at Arbol de Piedra...a stone tree! We took pictures there and our final stop was at Laguna Colorado, a massive red lake! (Jon inserts dorky info here: The lake gets it red color from the algae and plankton that feed on the mineral rich water. This laguna is rich in sodium, magnesium, borax and gypsum, which also accounted for the white shores. Three different flamingo species feed on the plankton in these waters, waters that can reach -20 C at night. Flamingos use a cool filtering system to feed. ...nevermind, back to the blog) That night was spent drinking another bottle of rum and playing more cards.

Day three we woke up at 4:15 to head out by 5 am. Our first stop: Geiser Sol de Manana...basically a bunch of sweet gysers! We took a picture by a Peligroso (Danger) sign, and then walked past it to see where the steam was coming out but our guide laughed at us and asked if we had read the sign we just took a picture of and told us to come back. We got to the famous Thermal Baths (along the shore of Laguna Verde, this one a seafoam green from lead, sulfur, arsenic, and calcium carbonates, don´t worry we weren´t swimming in the lake) by 7 am and got to take a quick dunk in those before bolting off to the Chilean border where we said goodbye to our group of friends (all 4 of them were heading to Chile) and Jon and I headed back to Uyuni. That night we caught overnight buses to La Paz (different ones since there was only "one seat" left in each bus), glad we didn´t have to stay a day in Uyuni.

The moment Kase realized that she just ripped her pants. .

Some tricks on point of reference as giant Kasey picks up miniature Jonny.

A cool reflection of a snow capped mountain in the middle of the desert.

A interesting rock formation, er, um excuse Me, THE Rock Tree!

Laguna Colorado, dotted with feeding flamingos.

City of Silver, and The Mountain That Eats Men

Potosi:

We eventually left Sucre to visit the historic city of Potosi. The city owes it existance to a mountain, Cerro Rico, below which sits the city. There are a few legends as to how the city started or how the silver was found. One of my favorites says that a llama herder, Diego Huallpa lost one of his llamas, so he set out to find it. After searching for most of the day the sun went down and he became cold, so he started a fire on the side of the mountain. Soon there was liquid silver flowing out of the mountain. Another version says that a stubborn llama wouldn´t move from his spot so Diego built a fire to wait out the llama. Diego had known that Spaniards loved this metal but also remembered an Incan legend about the mountain. Inca Huayna Capac heard a booming voice tell him not to dig into Potojsi hill for metal, because it was destined for others. Needless to say the Spanish soon found out and the "others" began extracting from the "rich" mountain.

We saw a city that had been wealthy at one point but is in a state of recession now, as most of the silver has been pulled out of the mountain. So much so that the mountain is a few hundred feet lower than when they started mining it. Mining still goes on, and keeps a number of men employed. Women aren´t allowed to work in the mines as it brings bad luck and El Tio won´t give up the minerals. The women do work outside the mines, protecting the entrances and tools. The workers now are organized into cooperatives, where they get to pick their schedules and days off. Under Spanish rule a Ley de Mita was in effect where the locals were forced to work in the mines. Sometimes they would work for 4 months at a time, without coming out of the mines, 12 hour shifts, sleeping and eating underground...horrendous conditions...and they have changed little since Spanish rule.

The popular thing to do is to take a mine tour. We did, and what an experience it was. We had Ronald as our guide; he´d worked for 2 years in the mine before taking a job as a tour guide and spoke excellent english. Our first stop was to get fitted with helmet, light, boots, and cover jacket and pants. Next we got to shop at the miners market, where anyone (children included) can buy dynamite! We also got some water and coca leaves as presents to the miners...as well as dynamite of course!! We even got to try a sip of the alcohol that miners drink...96 percent. When everyone had bought gifts, we headed to a processing plant, where they use chemicals to extract minerals from the ore they brought out of the mine. Again very little silver is left but they still mine for tin, zinc, lead and other minerals. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it was off to the mine we go. We went on a Saturday, when most of the workers had taken a day off so there was less dust in the mines (good thing too). But first we visited Tio.

Tio is the god of the minerals, and often is depicted with horns, similar to the devil. He has statues all over the mines and the workers always pay their respects to him before they start working. He is covered with coca leaves, sprinkled with alcohol and given cigarettes to smoke. Miners believe that without his blessing they will not get any minerals from mining. El Tio (uncle, in spanish) has an interesting origin as well. The Spaniards tried to force the locals to work the mines but in such horrible conditios, many of them refused. So the Spanish put a statue down in the mines and told the people that if they didn´t work then the "Dio," or god, would become angry and make them pay. Being scared of what might happen they began working and worshipping the god of the mountain and minerals. The local Quechua language has no "D" in their language and Dio became Tio. They also say that God, has no place or power in the mines so they worship Tio for protection, luck and hopefully a good vein to follow.

After trying to light Tio´s cigarette, which wouldn´t because there was so little oxygen in the tunnels... we carried on to light some dynamite! We lit, then scrambled back up the tunnel and 3 minutes later a loud but muffled pop and concussion wave hit us, so exciting!

The tour continued down the shafts, past braces, dump points and through water, always ducking or crouched and watching your head. It would be a tremendous advantage to be 4 foot 1" down there. We eventually go to the third level and the temperature had reached something like 94 F, with very little oxygen and all of us panting through the bandanas or masks we had. It´s little surprise that the life expectancy of a miner is about 40. Most of them get silicosis neumonitis and die, and under spanish rule there were many mining accidents that took lives. We crawled and shuffled our way back out to daylight, the air getting cooler and easier to breathe as we neared the exit. Our lungs and throats burned and our backs hurt from just a few hours underground. We reached daylight and heaved in the fresh air, excited that we had survived but thinking about all those who had suffered, and still do, just to earn a buck.

Potosi was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the new world, reaching some 200,000 in 1672, larger than London at that time. The Spanish mint was created there and they coined many a coin that was then shipped back to Spain. PTSI, was the mint´s abreviation for Potosi, and when overlayed looks like the dollar sign ($). Spain´s empire was almost exclusively funded by the silver extracted from Cerro Rico.

It´s estimated that more than 8 million have lost their lives to the mountain, either by silicosis or accidents.

Some say that with all the silver extracted from this single mountain, a bridge could have been build from Potosi to Spain, and there would still be sacks of coin to carry across the bridge.

There were also enough bones from those who died to build a bridge just along side the silver one, all the way from Potosi to Spain.

The miners chew coca leaves all day to satiate hunger and thirst, to help with the effects of the dust, and give them a little energy to continue to work, also at the lower levels many work without shirts.

Cerro Rico is known as THE MOUNTAIN THAT EATS MEN.

If anyone is interested check out the documentary THE DEVIL´S MINER, about a family who depend on the mines in Cerro Rico.

El Tio, all decked out in Carnival garb.

Dynamite, for Team Sexy Dynamite!

Our guide, Ronald, displaying "all you need to wear for the mines."

Narrow streets of Potosi, Cerro Rico looming above.

Cramped spaces in the mine. Oh to be a dwarf ;)

Sucre, the one where we saw dino prints!

After a slow start out of La Paz, we stopped in El Alto for about an hour, we reached Sucre in about 14 hours. Sucre is the Constitutional capital of Bolivia but most of the governing happens in La Paz. It is also is a place that has many universities and is considered one of the safest cities in Bolivia. The central plaza, 25th of May Plaza, is surrounded by impressive white colonial buildings: churches, a government building, a bank or two, and a few cafes...the usual for most cities in latin america.

Sucre was cool but we were kind of done with taking pictures of plazas and white colonial buildings, so we decided to get out to the surrounding areas for some fun.

The first place we went to was Tarabuco. Tarabuco was a meeting place for pre-incan cultures to meet and exchange goods. It has survived through Inca and Spanish rule, to be much of the same thing. Artisans and weavers, jewlers and nicknack makers all join forces to sell their goods to tourists with pockets full of cash. It was a pretty interesting market, but we have seen similar ones on our trip. They have an amazing assortment of hats, caps, shalls and sweaters of alpaca/llama in an equally amazing range of colors. We snapped a few shots but didn´t feel like buying anything for gringo prices. We caught the bus back to Sucre, Jon slept most of the way back.

We next tried our hand with a local guiding service, Condor Trekkers, run by a kiwi and his vegetarian lady friend. We had heard about their one day trek to the dino park (Cal Orck´o) and then to the 7 waterfalls. Jon really pushed the dino park cause he´s a big dork about that kind of stuff. The dino park was created after the cement plant, Fancesa, dug into a layer of limestone that had suspicious prints all over it. I think they would have just carried on taking down the mountain if the layer of limestone wasn´t such poor quality for cement. Some 'thinker' proposed a money making tourist idea and the park was born. They have some cool history of the region´s tectonic activities and how there came to be a layer of mud with tons of dino tracks all over it; bent up at a 70 degree angle (almost a vertical wall)full of 70 million year old tracks! They also had a few life like dinos roaming the green spaces from tiny armed (almost non-existant) t-rex like meat lovers to massive beasts that could bury a bus in a pile of dung.

After we (Jon) had dorked out enough we trekked away from the plant, park and Sucre to find a series of waterfalls. The geology of the region is really interesting to look at and ponder how layers of marine sediment are now twisted near vertical and 3000m above the current oceans. The vegetation is mostly shrubs with the occational Australian eucalyptus tree, and soil/rocks in various shades of green, red, brown, grey and purple. After three or so hours of hiking we make it to the waterfalls. Since it is wet season we expected a bit more water but this area of Bolivia is more prone to flash flooding where water levels don´t stay high. Our guide, Ivan, fixed up lunch while we explored the first waterfall and pool. There are supposedly seven but they are very difficult to get to, we made it up to the third falls, but no more.

Hunger overtook us and we wondered back towards Ivan finding a massive spread of sammie makings! Delicious bread, hard boiled eggs, lettuce and spinach, tomato, avacado, onion, a baked veggie mix, cheese, and tons of condiments!! We feasted in the shade until we were about to burst and then Ivan packed us up and started out of the valley, back in the direction of Sucre. Stuffed and nearing food coma, we stumbled into a small town where we would catch a bus back to Sucre. We ended up waiting around and getting chatted up by a local who had had a bit to drink, and a huge wad of coca leaves in his mouth. The guy was really patient with our less than perfect spanish but he was pretty difficult to understand as he slurred his way through most of the conversation. Many laughs were had before he stumbled away and we caught a taxi (the bus was really late) back to Sucre.

We had enjoyed our outing so much we decided to do their 3 day trek the next day. How lucky we were to have such a good group of people along with us too. Two couples joined (UK/UK, Welsh/Canadian), as well as a single french guy and an older gentleman from Texas. All of us met up early in the morning, split up food and we were off! The rain cleared as we munched on some tasty banana breads and amazing cookies for breakfast, and the sun came out shortly after we began hiking. Most of the hiking was on roads or small trails but the first bit was on an old Inca road. We dropped down and then back up a valley, snapping photos of the gorgeous surroundings. We, again, had beautiful layers and mutli-colored rocks all along the trail. Our first night would be spent in Managua crater, which looks like a crater, but actually is just a unique geologic formation where the crust has been bent and shifted into the shape of a bowl. We had a wet run to the store after we dropped our bags off at the cabins to get beers and chocolate, before settling back down to a delicious meal of pasta.

Our next morning had us puffing up and out of the "crater" and we eventually stopped for lunch right beside another set of dinosaur tracks! You can imagine how excited Jon was ;) This layer had been exposed by a recent earthquake and the elders had said the tracks were made by flamingos! Not too far off I guess. After a long lunch and siesta we continued on for another couple hours before we reached Potolo, walking up dry gulches to get there. Again we swung into a small shop to gather some wine and beer, before getting served a hot dinner of quinoa and soup(side note, did you know that 2013 is the year of Quinoa?). We stayed up chatting for a bit before heading to the surprisingly comfy beds. The next morning was an uninteresting 5 minute walk to the bus and heading back to Sucre. The bus ride was curvy and we felt a couple times like we might get stuck crossing a river, or rub too close to the side of a cliff, but we returned to Sucre without incident.

We head to Potosi next! (we are in Potosi, blog coming soon!)

The AMAZON...Rurrenabaque and Pampas

Well, it had to happen at some point in our trip...we would need to venture into the Amazon jungle. Finally, in the last country that we are visiting, we have finally done it.

We flew from La Paz to Rurrenabaque to avoid the 22 hour bus ride over dangerous roads (its the rainy season and most roads are washed out or experiencing continual landslides) and though we paid substantially more, we don´t regret it at all. The flight was anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes in total, depending on the size of the plane. Our flight to Rurrenabaque was in a tiny plane that you couldn´t fully stand up in and there were strict baggage weight limits. To say the least, I was nervous. But obviously we survived.

Rurrenabaque is a small, quiet town flanking the Yacuma river, with not much going on besides hosting tourists looking for excursions into the jungle. We flew in a day before our 3 day, 2 night tour in Pampas National Park was supposed to start, so we had some time to explore. We didn´t know how exciting just exploring was going to be. Since Carnival was still going on (its like a 4 day solid thing leading up to Mardi Gras) kids were lining the streets with waterballoons and foam. This all would have been fun and good, except some of the ballons we soon realized were filled with dyed water or even blood (pig or sheep or something). We had only brough limited clothing for our 5 days away from La Paz, so suddenly a trip to the market became much more exciting than we cared for it to be. The final straw was when we saw some locals actually throwing rocks at each other. We spent most of our first day in Rurrenabaque in the comfortable hammocks at our hostel and cooking in the communal kitchen we had.

Pampas Tour, Day 1: The first day was a long travel day. We met at the travel office in Rurrenabaque, and after waiting more than an hour for another group member who flew in that morning, we started off on the bumpy, muddy, 3 hour drive to Santa Rosa. It would be just too convenient if everything went smoothly though, so of course we noticed that the Land Rover was making noises and the driver kept stopping to check the distributor cap under the hood. We stopped for about 20 minutes at one point to, I don´t know, wait for the moisture in it to dry out? (Jon should be writing this portion, I know poop about cars). Once that was ¨resolved¨ we thought we were home free, but no, we got a flat tire. We waited in the car in the pouring down rain for the driver to get out and fix it. Fifteen minutes later, we were good to go with the tire, but wait, the driver had left on the car headlights and the engine wouldn´t start! After much exasperated trying, we sat back, mosquitos buzzing around us, rain pounding on the car and our guide who was sitting shotgun started chuckling. Laughter erupted from the rest of us, what a hilariously shitty situation! It was resolved easily enough, after another several minutes of trying, the engine magically started and we were on our way again.

When we finally got to Santa Rosa, we had a late lunch and then loaded into the narrow wooden boat that would be our means of transport for the next three days. On our way to the lodging site, our guide took us through many different channels of the wetlands until I was thoroughly lost, but showed us some incredible wildlife. So many kinds of birds, from eagles, to hawks, to herons, to cormorants, to funky looking oversized turkeys with mohawks. We also saw our first camen, alligators, turtles and the famous pink dolphins of the Amazon! We also got really close up to black howler monkeys and yellow squirrel monkeys.

The lodging itself was extremely basic and was essentially a series of wooden, slippery boardwalks connecting dorm houses, bathrooms, kitchen and dining area and common room. Everything was stilted and we were about 4 or so feet above the murkey water. This was all fine, except for the fact that the narrow boardwalks didnt have railings (difficult squeezing two people past at the same time), were mostly wet with little traction, and had broken or missing planks along the way. And if the only threat was falling into some shallow, gross water below, that would have been fine too. But the guides and cooks continually fed alligators and caiman scraps from the kitchen. One alligator was named Pedro, and he was about 5-6 feet long, and rarely left his spot beneath the boardwalk at one of the main intersections of dining area-dormatories-common room. The annoying thing was that all the guides told new comers that Pedro was plastic (that´s how little he moved) and a few people were going to stick their foot down to touch the plastic alligator, and only didnt because someone else had noticed slight movements in Pedro´s eyes and overall position. Nothing said from the guides though, we had to figure this out on our own...doesn´t seem very responsible. There was also a caiman, this dude was about 8 to 10 feet in length, stationed beneath the walkway connecting the kitchen and dining room. Suddenly going to the bathroom in the middle of the night got 100X scarier.

But, we found out on the first night that the food was really good and, well, that makes everything better.

Pampas Tour, Day 2: Our morning trip was to a small, muddy island, home to a herd of cattle to search for the rare Anaconda. This black and green snake lived up in trees and in logs, so our guide grabbed a stick and started poking around. After 30 or so minutes of searching, we didn´t find an anaconda, but we had seen a poisonous, white spider that caused paralysis, a fruit who´s dye is used for tattooing and a lot of cow poop. Technically, we had seen an anaconda slither across the road the day before on our way into Santa Rosa, but it was hardly a fleeting glance (and I might have been the only one besides the guide to see it). We did however, find a big yellow cobra back at camp when we returned for lunch.

The afternoon trip was a swim with the pink dolphins. It was nerve racking getting into the opaque, brown water that we knew contained anacondas, piranas, alligators and camen as well, but our guide assured us that as long as there were several pink dolphins around, they were the top predator and most others would stay away. The pink dolphins would come right up under you (which was a suprise since you couldn´t see your own hand under an inch of water) and investigate you. They were curious creatures, and so soft. Sometimes they would let you hold onto their tail, until they got bored and then they would flap a bunch of water in your face. The younger ones got a little bitey though, not breaking any skin but unpleasant enough coming from an invisible source beneath you in jungle waters. After being bit by sea lions in the Galapagos, I had had enough of these pissy water mammals and got back into the boat.

Our late afternoon adventure was to a solid patch of marshy land to watch the sunset. Overpriced beer and chocolate were sold here, but we resisted and just enjoyed being on solid land and seeing the pinks and oranges in the sky.

That evening, after dinner, we went out on our night excursion, armed with headlamps and flashlights. We spotted several camen with their glowing orange eyes in our light beams, and our guide even surprised us by pulling a baby one onto the boat. No one knew it was on the boat, and I was sitting in the back of the boat right in front of the guide. In the darkness, he rested something on my shoulder, and whne I reached for it, I found a slimy, moving tail! He wasn´t really supposed to touch the animals like that, but it was cool to see one up close. We also saw an owl that night and sat for a while with the boat motor off, listening to the symphony of frogs and watching the lighting storm on the horizon.

Pampas Tour, Day 3: Our last day out started with pirana fishing. We didn´t catch anything, but in all fairness, our guide said we wouldn´t. It is rainy season, and right now, the deepest parts of the main channels are about 9 meters, and they could get about 20cm deeper. In the dry season, the deepest parts of the main channels is at about 1 meter. So wildlife is a lot more consolidated in the dry season, and its easier to catch piranas. We were disappointed, but on our way back to camp, we did get to see some capibaras!

The rest of the day was spent packing up, motoring back to the mainland and driving back to Rurrenabaque. Back at our hostel in Rurrenabaque, we celebrated with a cold beer each and showered off 3 days of insect repellant and scum.

The next day we were supposed to fly back to La Paz at 2pm, but due to weather our flight was delayed until 6pm. We had time to explore the town (free of flying, blood-filled water balloons) and found some great little cafes and bakeries with cheap and tasty food. There was a French-owned bakery with chocolate filled crossants, sweet apple pastries, creamy mushroom pasteries and vegetarian quiches. There was also an Italian-owned pizza shop that sold delicious slices of thin crust pizza for 6Bs (less than a dollar). We enjoyed our chilled-out day away from mosquites before getting safely back to La Paz. We´ve spent one night at the Adventure Brew Hostel here, and in a few hours we will be on a 16 hour bus ride to Sucre!

La Paz and The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

La Paz has served us well the past week and a half as a homebase for all of our mountain biking and jungle excursions. To get to La Paz, we passed through El Alto, a high, dirty suburb of the main city. But then you get to the rim of the bowl the city is in and look down into the brick red, concave city. It is quite a sight! This city will get your heart racing with its busy streets and high elevation (3,800 meters) but we really enjoyed the hostel we stayed at. It is called the Adventure Brew Hostel, and for a mere $7 a night, you get an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast every morning and a free handle of one of their microbrews every night. Those perks aside, the hostel staff is friendly, the beds and bathrooms are clean, we have a communal kitchen available to us and a local market 10 minutes down the road.

Our big experience out of La Paz was mountain biking the World´s Most Dangerous Road, otherwise known as Death Road, because quite a few lethal bus and car accidents have happened there, and crazy mountain biking tourists have died as well. We booked our day trip the first evening we were in La Paz and the next morning we were putting along in second gear with a bunch of other backpackers up to La Cumbre pass at 4,670m. Due to large amounts of precipitation the night before, we started our descent in snow. The first part of the circuit was down paved roads. There were occasional cars going both diretions on this road, so we had to be careful, especially when there was a slow car coming up the road and other cars were trying to overtake them in our lane. We still got quite a bit of speed on that section of the road and it was a good warm up for the old dirt road we would be spending most of the day on. The scenery was also stunning, with snowy peaks and whispy clouds through the valley. Every once in a while, the guides would stop us, have us peer over a cliff and see the car or bus remains below. Usually at these accident spots, you could turn around and see crosses next to the road for the deceased.

After a quick snack break at the end of the paved road, we loaded up our bikes on the vans and drove 15 minutes to the start of the really dangerous, unpaved road. By now, it was much warmer since we were dropping significantly in elevation. We got amazing views of the green valley we were biking down. We flew down that mountain (Jon was usually at the front of the pack, I was front middle, not that we are competative or anything) underneath water falls, through puddles, around tight cliff bends. Usually you wouldn´t know how precarious the trail you just rode down was, until you stopped, turned around and saw the sheer drop off, some of them up to 600 meters. Jon and I were the only two people to get flat tires, but the guide in the back would quickly rectify it by switching us bikes, fixing the tire, and then switching bikes back at the next stop point. While we probably reached faster speeds on the paved part of the road, this rocky road was way more technical and fun, and the elevation change still prompted a rapid pace.

We ended our ride in the tiny town of Yolosa at 1200 meters...so thats 3470 meters of elevation change, or about 11,385 feet from start to finish. From snow covered mountain pass to humid jungle, we were now craving some freezing cold cervesa (which we bought), clean showers and the buffet lunch/dinner that we were promised. We didn´t return to La Paz until nightfall, but it was an awesome, exciting day, probably one of our favorite day trips of all South America!

Carnival was a major event happening in South America (and all around the world) while we were in La Paz. The streets were crazy with kids in costumes, everyone armed with foam cans or giant supersoaker guns, prompting rain slickers and plastic eye covers for most people wandering the streets. We spent a fair amount of time dodging friendly sprays from kids and got nailed a few times in the face and ears, but it was usually good fun with most of the Bolivians. There were however, some malicious Bolivians that would try and spray our faces or cameras and usually yell out something like ¨F***ing gringos.¨ Another bummer was that our friend Luke was carrying his iPhone at one point, and we got mobbed by a professional, middle aged, pickpocketing crew, resulting in his iPhone going missing in seconds and all of us wiping the foam out of our eyes and wondering what had happened.

Besides Death Road and Carnival festivities, La Paz has some amazing artisan markets with some of the cheapest prices you will see in South America. I now have my own partially alpaca wool sweater that I bought for about $13. We will spend more time getting gifts for family members here when we come back through. Another attraction is the San Pedro Prison, which lies in the middle of the city and is one square block of 3-story high, solid cement walls. Jon and I were particularly interested in this since we had read the book Marching Powder about a guy from London who got caught smuggling cocaine in Bolivia and spent almost 5 years there. Besides these attractions, La Paz has to offer good, diverse cuisine and some breath-taking miradors to hike to. Definitely a city worth a few days of exploration and shopping. And we will for sure be returning to have more of the Saya Ambar brew when we are coming back north in a few weeks.

Bolivia!!: Copacabana and Isla del Sol

From Puno it is a quick 2 hour bus ride to the Bolivian border. As busses were full we took a combi, otherwise known as a minivan that fits 15 plus people. Most border crossings are fairly simple: wait in line, answer a few questions or get a fatherly stare from over the glasses, stamp stamp amd then into the next line. The Bolivian border is no different. . . unless you're an American. We had to fill out a visa form, get photocopies of our passports (we paid for the copies), pull out $135 US each and the bills were inspected very carefully, a $20 bill with a slight tear was thrown back at us as if it were monopoly money, and our money was counted at least 4 times. All in all the border wasn't that bad but we felt a bit victimized solely for the fact that we were born in America.

Once on the other side we caught another combi to Copacabana. From here we would set out to explore the Sun island, or Isla del Sol. Copacabana has an interesting tradition where they 'bless' their vehicles by sprinkling confetti all over the car, deck it out with streamers, then douse the car in alcohol! The vehicles are now protected from harm by some patron saint, we saw this ceremony on our way out of town and I think the drivers were putting back as much as was poured on their cars, so the amount of 'protection' would seem limited.. Anyway Copacabana is a neat little town with a main drag filled with touristy stuff, tour operators, food and drink. We found a place to buy boat tickets to the island.

A small boat stuffed with 60 - 70 passengers putted its way out to the island, about an hour an a half from Copacabana. We got off the boat in Yumani, and were immediately accosted by a ticket lady who we had to pay 5 bolivianos to as a "tax" for being on the southern part of the island. There used to be a single fee tourists paid to visit the island but the money wasn't being properly distributed to the entire island, so as we walked in a big loop around the island we were supposed to pay at each "zone" change until you had a ticket from each zone. Anyway, we paid for the first zone and then headed up the Inca Stairs to the top of Yumani, passing the natural springs that were thought to represent the three codes or morals of the Andean People "ama sua, ama llulla, ama qhilla (don't ask me to pronounce it but they mean: do not steal, do not lie, do not be lazy). Also Spaniards thought the springs might be the fountain of youth. At the top of the stairs we passed a plethora of hostels and pizzerias, even a few llamas!

We had decided previously that we wanted to spend the night on Isla del Sol so we chose to loop the island and find a hostel to lay our heads that night. As we were sin gia we went at our own pace, starting north from Yumani on the ridge trail. This path gave us fantastic views of the island and Lake Titicaca. We soon found ourselves at the Chincana ruins, a sacrificial table and a large rock that's said too look like a crouching puma when viewed from the southeast. A quick bit of history. The Aymara people called the island Titi'kaka which either means 'puma' 'rock' or 'piedra fundamental' (foundation stone). The Inca's believed that the first of their people, Manco Capác, was born here and also where the sun was born. Lots of cool legends and creation stories are centered around this island. We hiked around many of these significant features of the island without knowing we had just passed a sacred place, there weren't many informational signs for the do-it-yourselfers.

After checking out the ruins we headed south again walking on the east side of the island through a few small villages and taking in more sights. The entire island is covered in terraces, some historians say there have been people farming on Isla del Sol since about 2200 BC! Many of the terraces are still in use by the villagers, mainly growing potatoes. Crossing back over a few 'zonal checkpoints' we were back to Yumani by supper time. We stayed at Templo del Sol Hostal and found a pizza joint to fill our bellies. After dinner the night sky opened between clouds to show the Milky Way, a couple of planets and on the horizon the city glow from La Paz, our next destination.

Isla del Sol has a lot of history and it was cool to explore the island on our own. A few winks in Hostal Sonia, who we didn't particularly enjoy, and it was on a bus again to La Paz!

A view of windows in the maze like setup of Chincana ruins.

A friendly llama on our way up the Inca Stairs.

Our ridge path, heading north.

Jon on top of the crouching puma rock; I had no idea what I was climbing on! oops.

Puno: City of Festivities

Puno!

We arroved to this lakeside town at the very beginning of the Festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria (Candlemas). This festival is in celebration of the agricultural cycles, and the colorful cultures of the Quechua and Aymara people come from surrounding villages to dance and give blessings to Pachamama, Mother Earth. The streets filled with sound and a myriad of color and there seemed to be a celebration at all hours. We found out on one of our wandering walks that much of the music comes from impromptu "bands" that form on street corners. The more impressive shows came as geoups of dancers and drummers wound their way through the city streets.

Drummers kept a steady rythmic and earthy beat as flutes and pipes played a tune that when combined made your feet stomp to time. Dancers, men and women, danced in cadence to the drums and dresses floated, men jumped and twirled all while making their way up narrow, cobbled streets. We stayed a few days in Puno and were able to see at least some dancing each day. One of the processions we followed all the way up to the main square and church. While the procession and others continued to party outside the square the church was having mass!! Both areas were packed with people. We saw some dancers with scary masks that were made to look like the devil, giant curling horns and colorful hair and clothing. It was interesting to see the different styles of "celebration": dancing vs prayer, amazing colors vs pure white, raucous excitement vs devote silence.

We hung around the crowds soaking up the energy before going back to wander the streets, and eventually heading for bed.

The next day we tried out another cultural experience, the floating reed islands of the Uru People. A boat motored us out to The island that is most set up for tourism, the island itself is about 80-100ft in diameter. We had the "President" of the island explained how the islands were built. Islands have a foundation of the totora root mass/blocks and then totora reeds are stacked top of the blocks in crisscrossing fashion to about 2m in height or thickness. The islands are continually decomposing and new reeds are layered on top. The Uros use the totora reed for everything, houses, boats, islands. It was hinted at us from other travelers that the island we went too wasn't really live on anymore, it was more a show for the tourists, it was still interesting! Our tour was going to take us to another island but on our way there our boat had some issues, apparently one of the blades of the propeller snapped off.. so we waited about 2 hours, stranded until a rescue boat came out to save us. At least it wasn't raining!!

We head for the Bolivian border next..

Arequipa: Peru´s second largest city, and Colca Canyon: World´s Deepest Canyon!

We left the desert to find a canyon. We arrived in Arequipa, found a taxi to take us to Arequipay Backpackers, and within ten minutes of arriving at our hostel we had found a group of travelers headed to the Colca Canyon! As we arrived in the morning we had plenty of time to research our trek, which we wanted to do without a guide. We also gather snacks and food, and explore a bit of Arequipa, the White City. Arequipa would be an awesome place to come learn spanish, as its cheap and there are ample teachers.

Colca Canyon is said to be the world´s deepest canyon at 4160m (13,650ft, you could almost fit Rainier upsidedown in the canyon). As a comparison, the Grand Canyon´s depth is 1800m. I don´t know how they measure depth of canyons but Colca Canyon was a pretty impressive sight. Our trek was to take between two and three easy days of hiking (down, along, and back up) From Arequipa a bus ride takes 5-8 hours, over a 5000m sometimes snowy pass. Our luck would not allow us to get a direct bus so we bussed to Chivay (half way point) and arrived about 9am. As we just missed the 9am bus that would rumble on to Cabanaconde (another 35 miles and 2.5 hours) we had to wait in an Irish Pub we found on the main square of Chivay. Apparently it is the highest Irish pub!? Our 11:30 bus soon arrived at the station and I had to strong arm a few pushy Peruvians out of my way so I could grab Kasey and I a seat. Nearly 2 hours of spectacular views passed by our windows as we bounced and grinded our way along the canyon ¨rim¨ as the river cut a deeper gash in the valley floor.

We hopped off the bus at Cabanaconde and found our way to Pachamama hostel, a place where we knew we could get some up to date info on our trek. With another cartoon drawing of the valley we set off to find the trail head, about 30 minutes walk back towards Chivay. At the lookout/trail head we were able to see nearly our entire path, it looked pretty easy except for the 1000m down and up that we would have to do! Our first destination was San Juan, about 2.5 hours downhill. We took a load off at Roy´s place and his wife cooked up some dinner (soup, alpaca and rice, mint/coca tea) for us before we laid down our heads.

The next morning we were up early to eat some grub, (pancakes from Roy´s wife), pay the bill (S/.23 each for 2 meals and a bed), and head towards Sangalle the Oasis. The trail was cake except for loosing one of our party for most of it due to a bathroom run. We hiked through some small villages, and gazed up at the columns of basalt and landslides that have been slowly eroding over the years. At the Oasis we decided to have a relaxed day and not head back up to Cabanaconde (a three hour climb up to the top) and instead read, chatted and took in the scenery. Pablo´s place turned out to be a black hole for a number of items including a $400 rain jacket and sunglasses that our group of 8 ¨relenquished¨ to the canyon spirits. We paid about the same here for accomidation and meals, aside from what was misplaced...

Two of our group woke early to fly up the mountain and bus back to Arequipa as they needed to get back for a night bus to Cusco. The rest of us took our time getting ready and then we flew up the switchbacks, I always like going up rather than down. Half way up we were lucky enough to spot 4 Condors; these birds are massive, and ugly! At the top we trodded towards Pachamama to find some PIZZA! Strangely enough we ran into two different couples that we had met previously on our trip, a couple of dutch and a few kiwis, so cool!! Ping pong was played in the street before we headed in for some woodfire pizza (the best we have had since getting to South America) We also had to try some Pisco sours. It was awesome running into Katy and Baz (kiwi´s) again and they shared their Bolivian itinerary with us and some must do´s.

Our bus ride back to Arequipa was bumpy and sleepy, but we felt good about our time in the canyon. The only downside was that we ¨had¨ to pay the S/.70 ($28US) entrance fee to the canyon, which never got verified by any official type person. But the views and the sights were at least worth the sore legs :)

The White City has been fun and we wish we could hang out here longer. But, we are off to Puno tomorrow, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Then heading in to Bolivia shortly after Puno and maybe some festivals!!!

The church on the main square of the White City.

Crossing the Altiplano.

A view of the canyon near the beginning of our trek.

Sangalle, the oasis below, with our trail leading back to Cabanaconde zigzagging to the left.

Six of the eight at the top of the canyon: Estéban, Natasha, Desi, Dave, Kase and me.

Huacachina: The Oasis

From Lima we took a 5 hour bus ride down the coast and ended up in a dusty, hot town called Ica. A short five minute tuktuk ride brought us to a neat little Oasis nestled in the middle of giant sand dunes, the backpacker trap called Huacachina.

There are many restaurants, shops and hostels that surround the oasis and all are overpriced just for the gringo backpacker. The oasis itself is quite dirty looking, but lots of people still swim in it. I dipped my foot in and didn´t notice a difference between the afternoon air temperature and the murky water, so decided against jumping in.

We arrived too late in the day to book a dune buggy and sand boarding tour, so Jon and I celebrated the halfway point in our trip by eating out at one of the gringo restaurants and stuffed ourselves with some nachos and brownies at Desert Nights. Very healthy. The next morning we definitely hiked back in to Ica to shop at the supermarket so that we could provide our own meals from then on in Huacachina. Our hostel didn´t have a kitchen, but no matter, we just whipped out our stove and leftover gas from the Santa Cruz trek and cooked up oatmeal, soups and pastas in our room, taking care to always keep a window open while cooking and block the view of the burning stove from the hostel workers as they swept down the halls.

The first of the two big things we wanted to in Huacachina was the combined dune buggy and sand-boarding tour. We took off from our hostel at 4pm to avoid the heat of the day, loaded up in a 10 person dune buggy and cruised around on the dunes. Our driver was a bit slow and not as crazy as the other drivers, which annoyed Jon and I, as other buggies flew past us. Finally, one girl said ´mas rapido´ and he kicked it into gear for a bit. Over the course of a couple hours, the dune buggy would drive us around and then drop us off at the top of big sand dunes and we would each get a sand board to go down the hill on. We tried different styles, like sledding on our bellies and strapping in like a snowboarder. Both were fun, but what really made the difference was the board. Most of them were pretty shitty and beat up on the bottom and consequently stuck to sand. We were each given a chunk of a candle to use to wax the bottom of our boards between runs, but that didnt really help. Still, we had a fun time and especially enjoyed being out on the dunes as the sun set. Later that night, Jon and I bought a beer and hiked up to the top of the highest dune behind our hostel in the moonlight. From the top, we could see all of Ica and down into Huacachina. It was very peaceful up top and reminded Jon and I of evening hikes up Badger Mountain back in Richland. Running back down the steep dune was probably the best part.

The next day we had signed up for a pisco tour around Ica. Jon and I jumped into a dumpy car with our private driver and made our first stop at Bodega Vista Alegre. To get to the Bodega, we drove through some pretty slummy parts of town and arrived at a massive cement wall with big wooden doors. They opened and inside stretched a tree-lined road surrounded by dusty vineyards leading up to a big, tidy building. Jon and I got to try their white wine, red wine (a Malbec Cab-Sauv), dessert wine and pisco before getting a tour of the facilities and information on the wine and pisco making process. For those of you who don´t know what pisco is, it is a clear liquor that tastes similar to vodka and is made from fermented and distilled grape juice. However, while there are about 300 different varietals of grapes in Peru, only 8 of them can be used to make pisco. The volume of grape juice needed to the amount of pisco produced is about 4 to 1. Pisco is used in the famous Peruvian cocktail drink Pisco Sours, which consist of pisco, sugar, lime juice, egg white and cinnamon.

Our next stop was a more pisco-oriented facility. We had a private guide named Victor who seemed to have already had a bit of pisco that day. He was a riot and taught Jon and I a lot about the big pisco festival in Ica the beginning of March. Their grape harvesting time down here is in March, so this festival was all about the grape crushing. Young, pretty girls compete to be a queen for the festival and stomp on the grapes with their barefeet. There is also a lot of drinking. The pisco distilling process at this place was less sophistocated than the previous one, and actually used the same clay pots that the Inca people used to make pisco. Victor said that it was the Incans that first made pisco, and the name pisco is a bastardized version of Quechua name for the drink. We drank some shots of pisco with Victor after our tour, who seemed happy to pour us as much pisco as we liked, and when I asked him to join us, he was quick to grab himself a shot glass. Surprisingly we didn´t buy any pisco on our tour, but we did buy some special made pecan-caramel chocolates, since the pecans themselves came from the trees we had walked under on our tour. We also bought some lucuma marmalade. Lucuma is an orange fruit, indiginous to Peru and Chile, and had a taste similar to sweet potatoes, not too sweet, but good flavor.

Those two excursions wrapped up our must-dos in Huacachina, so we were on the next twelve hour night bus out of Ica on to Arequipa for some trekking in the Colca Canyon!

A traditional jug to hold the grape juice and let it ferment.

Huacachina, oasis in a sea of sand dunes.

The buggy playground.

Sorry state of our boards.

Kasey about to rip that pow...er, sand.