May 2007

Went on our mountain bike tour down the world's most dangerous road. It should be called the world's most ridiculously dangerous road. We met the tour people in the morning in a cafe in la paz, and took an hour bus ride up to the top of the road, 4750m. On the way up we had an official sign pointed out to us at a safety check point that read that gave a tally of the number of people killed on the road this year......13. At the top we stopped in a freezing cold car park and got into all our gear. Was so so cold. I was wearing 4 tee shirts to begin with. Got 5 mins to get used to our bikes, which were amazing. We then all got in a circle and the tour guide did a kind of naff prayer to some inca god to keep us safe and passed round some turpentine that we all took a swig of and poured on our front tyre to keep us safe.....then we were off. Jenny was very nervous.

The first 20km were pretty easy going, all free-wheeling down a tarmac road to get used to the bikes.

Then we had to cycle up a pretty steep bit, ending up with everyone in our group getting off and pushing. Trying to do any exercise at that altitude is a joke, I tried to be the hardman and cycle up past a few of the others in the group and felt like my head was going to burst and that my lungs were filling up with blood.

Once we'd got up this the road split into two, the old road and the new road. Most of the trucks and buses etc now take the new asphalt road, although there are still the odd lunatic or two that choose the scenic route up/down the old road. Luckily we didn't encounter any trafic other than other cycling groups, which is just as well, because the road is a total joke. It is literally a dirt track, 3 metres wide with a cliff on the left side that at points undercut the road and fell away 800m, waterfalls falling onto it at points, cliff eating big chunks out of it, and littered with crosses all the way down, signifying where people have disappeared over the edge.

We were instructed to aim our wheels in the left hand tyre tread all the way down. Was so so much fun, and Jenny began to get into it the further down we got. Was so so dangerous though, and it didn't feel like it would have take too much to end up out of control and over the edge, especially as the competitive edge and confidence levels rise the longer you're on the bike. We were told a couple of horror stories on the way down, at the most dangerous points about cyclists who had ended up at the bottom of the cliffs, which was reassuring. But we both survived and it was all good fun, and we both got the t shirts to prove it. All in all we descended to 1100m, 64km, in about 4 hours.

From here we opted to stay ina little town on the hillside near where we finished, rather than take the van back up the most dangerous road, back to La Paz. We got dropped in the centre of the little town called Coroico, and promptly ended up in one of the hotel vans to be driven off to see what they had to offer.

Coroico is a really really pretty little place, perched on the edge of a spur overlooking a valley and then beyond that both jungle covered hills and snowcapped mountains in the distance. Very picuresque. The climate here was much nicer than La Paz too, although it transpired we spent most of our time in the clouds whilst there. Anyway, we got taken up the hill to a hotel which offered us the most amazing deluxe room with TV for Jenny, balcony with amazing view over the valley, pool, hammocks, and sauna, all for 6 pounds a night which was nice. So we ended up staying here for 4 days. Got a bit stuck. Was so nice to sit in the sun again after so long without it. Also the place was so cheap to eat in. I convinced Jenny to eat in a little local place down an alleyway, which was busy every night with locals. She wasn't feeling well and so got a plate of rice. I got a massive bowl of soup and steak, rice, salad and chips for 38 pence.....which was nice, and I'm still alive.

From here we took a bolivian "taxi",

to a small place that smelled of urine, and had the most disgusting toilets in the world, in order to take a nightmare bus to Rurrenabaque, where we are now, on the edge of the Amazon basin, in the middle of nowhere. The reason the bus was so bad is a combination of the fact that: it drove at 15 mph the whole way here picking up everyone and everything in its path; there was something in the luggage compartment (other than the bag full of chickens that was taken off when we eventually arrived) that absolutely stank of meat/fish/dung that smelled the entire 17 hour trip; the trip was 17 hours long; there was another selfish person who liked the smell of their own farts; and the road was the continuation of the world's most dangerous road so the double decker bus teetered its way along the same 3 metre road with sheer drops, coming face to face with trucks every mile or so and having to reverse back to find suitable passing places, edging closer and closer to the edge to do so. Jenny had the windo seat, and we were on the top deck on the cliff edge side, and was a bit traumatised by the whole experience, so we may have to fly back.

Arrived here safely yesterday, and have booked ourselves onto a 3 day tour of the pampas to hunt for anacondas, pink dolphins, monkeys etc. Should be good, apart from the mosquitos which have bitten us both to death already. Also not looking forward to the spiders/scorpions in the jungle, have seen some dried ones in a restaurant here and they look big enough to eat a dolphin.

From Cusco we got another freezing cold overnight bus to Puno, on the shores of lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. We arrived at about 5 am and were hassled by a guy offering accommodation in the town. We were too tired to argue and just went with it. The accommodation turned out to be nice and cheap which was a surprise. Unsurprisingly the guy who kindly took us there had his own motives......selling tours on the lake. At 5 am, having had no sleep and absolutely freezing, I wasn't in any mood to be going on an overpriced tour that started at 7am. The guy was very persistent, standing in the doorway, eventually we told him that he should come back later (meaning never). Jenny opted to wear all her clothes in bed to deal with the cold. Puno is so cold. Even more so seeing as I got fed up of my Nicaraguan hairdo and opted for an army issue one. Bad timing given the climate.

We got up the next afternoon and had a look around the town. It didn't really have very much to offer, other than tours on the lake. We decided to just go down to the port and get on a boat there, rather than taking an organised tour. We ended up waiting for about an hour on a rickety old boat until the captain, who was a pirate with one eye and a big scar on his face, had the requisite 7 people. Fortunately some more tourists pitched up, just before we were about to tell him to stuff it. We got underway, and set off onto the lake....very very slowly. Turns out the engine (outboard motor of sorts) was homemade by the pirate captain and consisted of a big mess of metal with a tube leading from it into a can of petrol on the boat with a pump that he squeezed by hand. When the engine died (which it did several times) the pirate would put his mouth over a piece of metal protruding from the engine and blow/suck into it, which made a gurgling sound which seemed to do the trick. All very strange, but we did only pay about 2 pounds so can't complain too much.

The purpose of the trip was to visit the Uros people, who live on floating islands on the lake. This was quite interesting. The islands are made entirely from reeds, as are the Uros houses and boats. You could feel the ground moving underneath, which was quite strange.

All in all we went to 3 of the islands and then returned to Puno, very slowly. We had been told that the Uros actually probably wouldn't still be living on the lake, were it not for tourism, and that was pretty clear form the fact that they spent most of their time whilst we were on the islands trying to sell stuff. We were even sceptical as to whether it was things they had made, as on one of the islands they seemed to be buying souvenirs to sell from a guy from the mainland. Or maybe I'm a bit cynical. Anyway, the tour was interesting all the same and the children running to get into any photos being taken,for a small price, were entertaining.

Lake Titicaca itself is pretty amazing as it's so so blue, and massive. It's full of trout, and I became a bit addicted to trout soup which only costs about a pound per cauldron. From Puno we headed further round the lake and accross the border into Bolivia. Crossing the border was relatively simple for a change. You feel the difference between Peru and Bolivia instantly......in the wallet. Bolivia is ridiculously cheap. It's great. It's also a very poor place though, and there are lots of children working, and begging which is not so great.

We ended up in a place called Copacabana on the shores of lake titicaca, and spent a few nights here. We met up with Moanie Peter and Sally and a few of their mates here and had a heavy night out with them which was fun, until the whole place closed at 12am, and huge packs of dogs came sniffing about us, as we were trying to sniff out some more drink. This Copacabana was very different to the one that Barry Manilow sang about. So so cold, and a bit of a dump, apart from the shore of the lake which was nice.

From Copa we got another bus to La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia. This was an interesting experience. About half way there we had to get off the bus and get on a boat across a short stretch of the lake to the other side where we were reunited with our bus, which had travelled on its own boat across.

All very surreal. We made it safely to La Paz and have spent the last 4 days here.

La Paz is an interesting city. Really busy with street sellers. There are lots of Chola's, traditionally dressed woman, selling their goods on the pavements. We are staying in a hotel right next to the famous witches market which is a very strange place. It consists of the same Chola women with stalls, except they sell really weird and disgusting things in the name of magic/medicine.

Llama foetuses, bear claws, bird heads, dried baby llamas, dried frogs, stuffed armadillos and cats. All a bit creepy. Jenny is horrified by the Jaguar furs of which we have spotted a few, and she hasn't been shy about her disgust. I've told her to be careful though or she might end up a dried frog in one of their baskets.

Other than this we've just been wandering about, as there is plenty to see here. We have plucked up the courage to book ourselves on a mountain biking tour down the world's most dangerous road tomorrow. It is a 50km road descending from 5000m to 1100m lined by a cliff which has 500m sheer drops at some points. It has gained its reputation from the statistics which detail that 100 or so deaths occur on the road a year from cars etc plummeting over the edge. The road is a dirt track most of the way and can get as narrow as 10 feet at points. This would be ok were it not for the buses and trucks that still use the road. Going to take it very easy I think. After completing this we intend to head into the jungle to the amazon for a tour to catch some anacondas. All very exciting.....

Just a quick entry to announce that we did try the local delicacy of "Cuy al Horno", oven baked Guinea pig last night.

Tasted ok, once we both got past the fact that it looked like a giant hairless rat road kill, and that all its organs, face, claws and teeth were still included. Certainly was a unique flavour, that neither of us will be rushing to order again I don't think. We were in a restaurant with only one other couple there, and I think the woman was a vegetarian judging by the looks that we were getting, especially when picking up bits of carcas and taking photos of each other. It even smiled for the camera.

As for taste, it kind of tasted a bit like rabbit, but there wasn't a lot of meat to eat, and we both spent most of our time poking at it, trying to avoid the slimy bits. The skin was like rubber. Wasn't too bad though, and we're both still alive today.

We travelled to Cusco on an overnight bus with one of the cheaper companies on offer. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. We got on the bus in Areqipa at about 8pm and the bus was due in at cusco about 5.30am. No sooner had we started moving than a video came on the TV screen, which we were sitting very close to. For the next hour we had to endure a Peruvian brass band commercial - a not very good Peruvian brass band - blaring out at us and jumping about inca ruins on the screen. Not a good start, as we were both knackered. In addition to this the bus was absolutely freezing, and there was a draft coming through the window, for the entire journey. There was also a big fat woman who was a couple of rows back snorting and grunting in her sleep which was extremely annoying. The worst of it was yet to come though. When we arrived we got off the bus and found a hostel and went straight to bed, having had next to no sleep on the bus. When we got up to go have a look round the city Jenny realised that her phone had been knicked from the bag. Someone must have reached under our seat to get it, because it was on the floor the whole time, at our feet. So the first place we visited in the city was the police station. Got a report, which was like pulling teeth. Took the officer about 30minutes to write 4 lines of notes on what happened. Having acheived this we had to go to the bank to queue for an hour and pay them for a copy of the police report, then return to the station with the receipt. A total hassle. Anyway, afterwards, we went and got a bite to eat.......during which we realised that the cameras had also been stolen from the bag. Couple of idiots. So we had to go back to the police station to explain this. Needless to say the officer thought that we were trying an insurance scam. He did believe us in the end, and we did get our report a day and another trip to the bank later. Not a good start to Cusco. We have chipped in together and bought a new camera between us.

Cusco is at an altitude of 3,500m (11,500 feet). At this height, everything is such an effort. Both me and Jenny have suffered quite a lot from altitude sickness. Both had really sore stomachs. The locals say that coca tea, made from the leaves of the cocaine plant abundant here, is the antitdote, so we've been drinking gallons of the stuff.

Also got some pills from the pharmacy. Apart form all of this Cusco is a really nice town. Loads to do and see.

Lots of locals clad in traditional gear with llamas or alpacas in tow. Jenny is using up most of the memory on our joint camera taking pictures of the llamas and alpacas.

We have not done too much in Cusco other than try to aclimatise to the altitude. Just been taking it easy.

The initial plan for me was to be to do the traditional inca trail up to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately I wasn't organised enough to get on one of the tours. You have to book it 3 months ahead, not 3 days as I imagined. Don't think we'd have managed given the altitude sickness anyway. Instead, we took the lazy way up, by train and bus. Train costs an absolute fortune.

Jenny was struggling a bit on the journey and had to hang her head out the window for most of the journey here, again because of the altitude. We stayed last night in Aguas Calientes, the town from which you take the bus up to the ruins. It's a bit of a dump and overpriced.

There are hot springs however, which we went to yesterday afternoon. They also serve the local beer by the litre which is helpful, although expensive.

This morning I dragged Jenny out of bed at 5 am to try and get the first bus up the hill.

Managed to get the second one and arrive not long after the sun was up. The place is absolutely amazing. Unfortunately we had to wait quite a while for the cloud/mist to lift before getting a proper view. Thankfully it did lift, and turned into a really nice day. I had very high expectations of the place, and wasn't disappointed. It's incredible. Wandered about the ruins for a most of the morning. Decided not to pay for a guide. Did a bit of evesdropping on other English tours, lurking about in the background pretending to be interested in something else. Although Jenny was impressed by the geography of the place, don't think she was that impressed with the ruins because they are only 500 years old, and "the Romans probably had electricity 500 years ago". She was impressed with the llamas/alpacas roaming about the place though, so we've got even more pictures of them after today.

Killing time just now waiting for the train back to Cusco. We've been waiting until both of us felt a bit better before trying the local delicacy of oven baked Guinea pig (or Indian Rabbit). Think tonight could be the night though. Probably going to head for Lake Titicaca tomorrow. It's another 500m higher which is worrying on account of the altitude sickness.

Landed in Lima on the 26th of April. Very excited about being in South America, always wanted to come to Peru. It hasn't disappointed so far. Lima was nice enough, although only spent one night there before heading south to a small town on the coast called Pisco. We went there to do a bit of wildlife stuff for Jenny. There is an island just off the coast which is dubbed "the poor man's Galapagos islands", and seeing as we don't have a spare 1000 pounds to go there we settled for the 5 pound boat trip out to the Islas Ballestas. These are islands which are basically made from bird shit, and they absolutely stank, a far cry from the Galapagos. We saw loads of birds, sea lions, and there were a few penguins. All in all was a pretty good trip. Spent one night in Pisco and drank a few Pisco sours, the local drink made from White grape brandy, lime and egg white. Quite nice.

From Pisco we headed further south and a bit inland to a desert oasis called Huacachina, near Ica. This place was amazing. Basically just a tiny wee lake surrounded by palm trees, surrounded by huge sand dunes on all sides. We got pretty drunk on our first night and met up with an English couple who we ended up travelling with to Arequipa. We also did a sand boarding trip with them the next day. Sand boarding's basically the same as snow boarding but warmer and softer. We got taken off into the desert up these enormous steep sand dunes in a dune buggy. The drive to, from and between the different dunes was probably the best part of the whole trip. The driver was a lunatic. Was great fun.

The sandboarding was good as well, although we never managed to actually stand on the boards. We got taken to the top of these really steep dunes and went down on our fronts head first. Got sand everywhere, and bruises all down my elbows from clinging to the board, was well worth it though.

After this we headed much further south to Arequipa, a 12 hour overnight bus away.

Arequipa's quite a big place and there's plenty to do. It's flanked by a big volcano and mountains. On our first day here we went to a museum, our first cultural experience for a while. The musem exhibits "Juanita" who is a frozen 500 year old mummy, an inca sacrificed girl found on the volcano beside Arequipa. Actually quite interesting, even Jenny found it interesting. The frozen body was pretty creepy, perfectly preserved in the ice, with face and hair and teeth and apparently organs all still in tact. No eyes though. Spent quite a long time staring at it thinking it might move or wink at me.

We decided to do a bit of trekking into the Colca Canyon which is a 5 hour bus trip away from Arequipa. We arranged this through the hotel that we were staying at. We paid for a guide called Alain to take us there and cook for us. He was a bit strange but funny. He didn't speak very much English, so I got a chance to put my Spanish to the test. I can now have proper lengthy conversations with people which is helpful.

Colca Canyon is the 2nd deepest canyon in the world. The tour started by getting the 5 hour bus at 1.30am to the canyon. It was horrendous. The bus broke down every hour or so, and we sat while the driver fiddled about with the engine. It was freezing cold, and there was a phantom farter sitting somewhere close to us who farted every 20minutes or so....and the windows didn't open. It stank. Not a good start. When we eventually got to the canyon we had to descend down into it which was very very vry steep and took about 6 hours, the last few in the blazing heat. We did see 2 condors which was good. We went on the tour with the English couple that we had met, Sally and Peter.

Peter did not enjoy the walking. From about 2 hours into the tour until the end he spent most of his time sulking and whinging. I didn't think it was all that bad, although it was hard work. We stayed our first night at a tiny little place in at the bottom of the canyon. It was amazing. It had no electricity and we stayed in bamboo huts.

It had natural hot springs which we went in after dark and looked at the stars which was incredible. We had a go at fishing with bamboo rods, but didn't manage to catch anything.

The owner of the place had a net, so he caught fish which we ate that night. The next day we hiked up the side of the canyon and walked to an oasis where we stayed on our second night. This took about 4 hours, 4 of which Peter spent moaning. The Oasis was similar to the place we stayed on the first night, although it had a swimming pool. Was absolutely freezing though, so didn't bother with that. After another day's walking we were all feeling pretty tired. We had not slept much, given that for the 2nd days hike we had to get up at 5am. We both had blisters and our legs were very sore. When Alain told us that we were having to get up at 3am the next morning to hike out of the canyon, up about 1000m, that didn't go down to well, especially with Peter. Anyway, instead of walking we decided to pay a little extra and take mules up. Needless to say Jenny enjoyed this a lot. It was quite good fun, although surreal and scary at the same time.

The path up was so so steep and rocky, and the mules seemed to like going right to the edge of the sheer drops. It was also dark the whole way up because we set off at 3 am. The whole canyon was lit up by the full moon though which was quite cool. All in all the tour was really good.

We went out last night in Arequipa with Peter, who had finally stopped whinging by this stage, and Sally, and had a really nice meal and few Pisco Sours, before they got on the overnight bus to La Paz. We on the other hand are taking it easy and catching up on some sleep, before heading for Cusco probably tomorrow. From there we will hopefully be able to do some sort of trek up to Macchu pichu.