Cusco: 16 - 17 Apr

Back in Cusco, arriving by bus and train from Agua Calientes (Hot Waters) and Machu Picchu, our group of Ali, Lutz, Shen, Diana, Rodrigo, and me sorted out hostels and then went for a celebratory dinner at Tengo Beef where the best braaied meat is served.  After some suitably huge portions (we´d been hiking/travelling since 05h00) and some increasingly better vino tinto, we decided that town needed a vistit, especially since there was a pub named Mama Africa.  Well, a couples of free drinks later (thanks to Ali the local tour guide) and everything was rocking.  Till seven this morning!  It took a good all-you-can-eat-breakfast to solve the lack of sleep, etc. at lunchtime. 

 

So today I just went shopping and, tomorrow am flying to Lima, Peru for the day, before catching a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina---where it am began, and UNFORTUNATELY is going to end.  !!!

Alternative Inca Trail: 12 -15 Apr

Having a great time hiking anf mountain biking in the sacred valley around Machu Pichu in Peru.  I´ve gone on an alternative to the inca trail since it is all booked till June.  SO got to do MTB instead.  Anyway, tomorrow I wake up at 4:30, to go climb Machu Pichu.  Should be good,

 

Cheers,

 

Colin

 

Cusco: 11 - 17 Apr

City of the incans.

Puno, Floating Uros Islands [PERU]: 10 Apr

The famous floating reed islands on Lake Titikaka.

Copacobana, Isla Del Sol: 9 Apr

Woke up, had breakfast, spent 15 minutes checking internet, organising a 10 part combination tour, calling a taxi, packing, driving to bus station, missing the bus (not my fault :-) ), transferring to a mini-bus taxi, and leaving for Copacabana on the shores of lake Titikaka. From there, it was supposed to be a simple transfer to the ferry to the Isla Del Sol, the birthplace of the mighty Incan civilisation, and as they believed, life itself!

After some negociations, my grubby handwritten voucher was transferred into a ferry ride, but not before some arb crazy tour operator had erroronously scribbled "solo ida" on it, which effectively made my return ticket a one-way!

To her credit, it did later transpire that I would have missed the bus the next day if I had waited for the correct/paid for return ferry.

So unfortunately, I didn´t that much of Copacabana, save for the giant popcorn sellers, as I spent most of my time hiking amongst the broad-bean (fava-beans: as in: "I ate his live with...") and Quinoa fields growing on pre-Columbian Inca terraces. Incredible views of Lake TitiKaka, the Isla Del Luna, and the 3 ancient settlements on this island of the sun.

Ended up having a great supper of quinoa and fava bean soup, with grilled lake kingfish and other stuff, while talking to an american who was in IT, did a first aid course, then another one, etc. was a paramedic for 4 years, and now is back in proper Med school.


10 Apr:

Waited for my ferry, it didn´t come (as mentioned earlier), so jumped aboad another one as it left and ended up talking about CERN´s distributed computering for the whole trip with a Polish couple working there, living in France. Sounded excellent.

And would you believe it, the boss (a little Amayran mother) of the other ferry company had sensed my predicament, and handed me back the 15Bs I had to pay for the trip back. But not before I had had a panicky situation as another bus co. had refused my voucher to Puno-Uros-Cusco and had to phone La Paz, with my last 50 centavos, to get authorisation for another co. to take me (plus the phone guy lent me the other 50 centavos to pay for the call.).

Anyway, got on the bus, and passed into peru with no problems or Bolivianos (currency).

La Paz: 8 Apr

Back from the jungle! What a mission. Actually, in the end it was a great 12 hour trip in a great american 4x4 which was a change from the Toyota Landcruisers that dominate the "roads" here. Needless to say, the GMC broke down not 20km out of town. Luckily, puting 15 litres of muddy river water in the radiator solved the overheating problem on the mountain passes.

So the 10 of us (7 Israelis, the driver, a crazy German/Spanish mountain bike guide, and me) finally got to see the mountainous jungle road to Rurrenabacca in daylight. It was insane. The whole trip had cliffs on each side of the road as we followed the Rio Beni, then crossed the watershed to the Rio Corioco. Did I mention that we were racing against the clock the whole time to make the uphill Death Road before dark. And that the driver drove for 12 hours solidly, and that we had 10 mountain bikes on top. Anyway, somehow I drew the short straw (the Israelis had shared a dorm with him the night before!) and had to sit next to the crazy Spanish/German guide for the trip. And he wasn´t crazy in a good way, just really crazy---fits of manic high pitched giggling, shouting at trees to stop moving, buying hologram religious stickers and sticking all over the inside of the car (OK, maybe that wasn´t such a bad idea), and drinking 4 litres of MangoPop just for an extra sugar rush (and 15 piss-stops).

Unfortunately, none of you will get to experience the full extent of the tortorous [can never remember how to spell that word] road which normally takes busses 20 hours to complete, because we passed at least 30 teams of road-workers and bridge builders constructing sweeping bridges to cut out the sharpest corners. Don´t know who´s paying for all of this, but they were working damn hard.

Well, we did do the Death Road at night. Wasn´t really a problem, and the waterfalls into the roads cleaned the car and bikes nicely.

Back in packed La Paz (Passover is coming up), I got a prison cell in the Hotel Alem, and unfortunately was too late to go to any of the super resturants there.

Nextday, in a sleepless haze, I found my self in the travel agency booking a multi-stop tour Cusco in less than 20 minutes.

Rurrenabacca: 3 - 7 Apr

Again, can't write much, internet is really crappy here in the Jungle.

I did an excellent 3 day tour living in the jungle, with many walks to learn everything there is to know.
Then did a alright 2 day tour of the swampland pampas which is amazing (just the tour itself sucked a bit).

Anyway, as Dirk says about what Amazonian fishermen say: In winter it rains every day, in summer it rains all the time. The seasons are just changing, so I'm getting a bit of both. Well, the point of this is that since I booked my airticket to La Paz (trying to avoid ever having to bus the Death Road!) 2 days ago, no planes have taken off from the flooded grass runway. So I'm like 124th on the list when the planes (might) start flying againg tomorrow, and they fly 12 + 19 + 12 people a day! So I cancelled the ticket, and paid 36 Bolivians (almost the same as Rands) for the inconvenience! And now going to get a Jeep (12hours) or Bus (20 hours).

Then go to Cusco!

Coroico: 30 - 1 April

Whooo hoooo!!! We mountain biked the did the epic 77km "Most Dangerous road in the world". Descending from the snow at 4700m to the misty forest at 1200m. It really was amazing---scenery straight out of Indiana Jones, with hundreds of metres of waterfalls cascading down vertical cliffs and landing in the middle of the road. We stopped at Coroico which turns out to be lost paradise---cheap hotelks, tonnes of resturants, swimming pools, waterfalls, parrots, friut smoothies, buffet meals, etc. Even went for a 2 hour trail run today through the Lost World with Jay an american Whitewater kayaker.

Gotta run, getting on a 'luxury' (NOT) bus to Rurrenabacca deep in the jungle. This 16 hour ride is going to be hard!

P.S. Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone---much appreciated.

La Paz: 28 - 30 Mar

Excellent City. Great food, great hotels, great markets....

La Paz: 28 - 30 Mar

Excellent City. Great food, great hotels, great markets.