More photos from Lake Titicaca

Traditional kitchen as used by our homestay family

The simple life

Taking the bull out for a walk

F and Talia hearding sheep

All dressed up in traditional costume

Lake Titicaca

Stone archway that seperates the different ethic groups on Taquille Island. This is just piled stones not binding compound.

Fresh trout from Lake Titicaca

The pre Inca terraces on Taquille Island

A traditional stove on wet peat on the floating Uros Islands

Floating Uros islands

We were picked up from our hotel in what our guide called
the Puno limousines which were pedal powered tuk tuks. It was surprising that
as soon as we crossed the border in Peru the prevalence of Tuk tuks was
evident. As part of our Lake Titicaca tour we were overnighting with a homestay
family and were expected to bring gifts in the way of food. It was terribly
orchestrated as our guide had told us too late in the evening the night before
to stop at the supermarket so our whole group was taken to one shop where we
stocked up on goods to supplement the villager’s diet. It was a horrible feeling
of being herded and taken to specific locations and having the choice taken
away from us. The tour continued to get more fake when our boat stopped at the
Uros floating islands. The islands are made from reeds and hence float. The
people who use to inhabit these islands were said to be originally from the
Pacific Islands that when they landed in South America a group of they climbed
the mountains and were so unwelcomed when they arrived at Lake Titicaca that
they had no choice but to live on floating islands. There are now none of the
Uros people left but people still build the floating islands. In my view this
is strictly for tourist purposes as there is little evidence of people living
on these islands, I suspect they come over from the mainland in the mornings in
time for the tourist trade. When we arrived on the island we were sat down and
told about the people and how they used the reeds to build the islands, houses
and rafts, it was very interesting. After the well-rehearsed speech the ladies
took us to look at the houses and dress people up in traditional clothes before
being shown their handicrafts. It was a huge exploitation of traditional culture
and I felt uneasy through the whole experience.
I was glad to leave the floating islands and the hoards of
tourists. After a 3 hour boat ride we arrived at Taquille Island which was
beautiful and green with lots of terracing in the landscape. The terraces were
made pre Inca and are an incredible engineering feat. The hike up the hill
tested our lung at 3600m. The tour agency rotates in lunch supplier through a
number of local families so the income is more evenly through the community.
Lunch was a vegetarian quinoa soup followed by fresh trout from the lake, it
was devine!!!!!!!
From here we cruised across the lake for another hour before
arriving at our homestay destination Laguna Chico which was on the Chucuito
Peninsula. The cringe worthy tourist trap continued with the local community accompanying
us with a band up to the school. It was all very awkward, but this community
has been doing this for two years with our tour operator. A local game of
football had been organised on the concrete field with large grass cracks in between
the concrete slabs, it was a miracle I did not sprain my ankle. After the
football game we were dressed up in local costume and taught to dance. As
touristy as this was it was hilarious, F looks quite good in fluro pink J
The lights went out and that was the end to the festivities
and saw us head back to our homestay families for dinner. The families have
been encouraged to develop facilities for tourists, so while our family slept
in one room – mum, dad, 5 kids and granddad, F and I had one room with 3 beds
and a private bathroom. I realise this is a source of income for these families
but it is very false and not a great way of development. The families were paid directly by the tour
company, it would have been more beneficial to have the tour company invest in
the community and develop more sustainable agricultural and fishing techniques
and help with education and providing more job opportunities.
As much as I was concerned by our impact on the community
and its long term sustainability our family was very hospitable. Waldis,
Isabel, Talia, Surina, Jefferson and Diana were gorgeous and the food we were
provided with was delicious (although it was prescribe by the tour agency as to
what to provide). In the morning we helped out with herding the sheep and doing
the dished before heading out for a hike up the hill. A final lunch of trout before
we headed back to Puno.

Puno

F and a 1/4 of a chicken and chips = one happy man

A view over Puno

The condor at the top of Condor Hill thats 620 steps up... dont forget the 3600m altitude

Pedal powered tuk tuks

The towns cathedral

Photos

A few days off

The view over Cocacabana

A very easy boarder crossing - goodbye Bolivia, hello Peru

After the full on trip across the Salar de Uyuni we had a night bus followed by a few days off in La Paz before crossing the boarder into Peru. The night bus from Uyuni to La Paz was interesting to say the least... 11 hours with one stop with the first 5 hours of bumpy bumpy dirt road. The toilet stop was at 1am am saw the ladies in the bus exit for the bathroom which was a curbside, when you gotta go you gotta go. We were lucky arriving into La Paz at 6.30am that the hotel let us into our room so we could get some much needed sleep and a shower. F and I stomachs were still not very good which saw me reach for the antibiotics after 6days I had had enough. Needless to say the two rest days in La Paz were for catching up on the blog, washing, sleeping and getting better. It a pity we were so sick as we wanted to do a little more exploring. I managed to get out on the last day to take city tour to find that the bus had broken down, it just wasnt meant to be.

It is sad to be leaving Bolivia as it has been such a whirlwind trip and I feel we have only started to scratch the surface of what is a beautful and hospitable country. I wish the stomachs had been better so we could have had some more of the local food and beer and wine.

The bus for Peru picked us up early in the morning and had a lunch stop in Copacabana which is on Lake Titicaca. It is such a chilled out place it is a shame that we are not spending more time here. Onwards to the boarder crossing saw us get off the bus and walk across a pickett line as locals were protesting for a new school and had blocked all vehicle access. It was about a 1500m walk with packs and at altitude there were a few complainers. The Peruvian bus that waited at the other side for us was luxuriuos and smooth sealed roads made a nice change.

The actual boarder crossing was easy... walk into the Bolivian office, hand them your green tourist card get a stamp then walkl across to the Peruvian side and get a new stamp after filling out a new tourist card. Since F and I are staying a while in Peru we needed a longer tourist visa which they happily gave us we have 6 months before we have to leave Peru.

Salar de Uyuni and surrounds

A view of the mountains across one of the Lagunas

The rock valley

Spectacular sunset at Villa Alota

Me at the train cemetery

Playing on the salt flats

A 6 hour bus ride through sheer cliffs and makeshift roads
saw us arrive in Uyuni. The road network was under construction. Not just one
small section but the whole road, it was one heck of a bumpy ride that im glad
we did during the day as most of the road clung to the side of the cliff.
Uyuni is a nothing town that exists solely to provide
tourists with excursions onto the salt flats or Salar de Uyuni. The salt flats
are a result of a prehistoric salt lake that has dried up. They take up over
12,000 square kilometres. Since it was the wet season we were unable to cross
the salt flats but just played on the edge taking heaps of photos of the
incredible landscape.
During this 3 day 2 night excursion we have taken our own
chefs with us and for lunch on day one they served us up some beautiful Llama
steaks with quinoa. These chefs are worth their weight in gold for the
wonderful food they served us up over the three days.
After our play time on the salt flats and lunch we headed to
the train cemetery, which is basically a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Uyuni
were old trains they could not be repaired were dumped. Bolivia did not have the technology to take
them apart and sell or re-use the metal so they have just been left to rust. It
creates a stark contrast with the surrounding landscape and some great
pictures, I particularly like the swings they have created out of the scrap
metal.
On our drive to the first nights accommodation we stopped
briefly at San Cristobal which is a manufactured town set up by international
mining companies to provide facilities for the miners such as schools and
education. We spent the night in Villa Alota and finished the night with a red
red sunset that had us mesmerised for quite some time.
Day 2 saw us head for Valle de las Rocas or rock valley.
This is an odd formation as it is difficult to see how these rocks got here, as
they form a defined space. Anyways they provided for some good climbing
opportunities. From here it was off road all the way, our driver was generally
very good but at times could get a little cocky. We sneaked a view of Ollague
Volcano and could see steam from its vents. This trip took us through the
mountain range giving us a great view of several high mountain lagoons, on
average we were about 4200m above sea level. The driving was bumpy in the jeeps
and long with shorts shops to take pictures at each of the sights, but the
scenery was breath taking. We had lunch at the place we would be staying the
night, Arbol de Piedra then quickly headed out to the geysers (Sol de Manana )
Laguna Verde (our highest point at 4800m) and finished with a soak in some
natural thermal baths (Thermas de Polques) – well worth it after all the
travelling we have done over the last two days. Today is St Patricks day and we
had organised some very dodgy Irish themed drinks for the evening, but playing
cards was as crazy as it got with several people sick, very tired and the loss
of electricity at 10pm.
The final day saw one stop at Laguna Colorada or the red
lagoon where flamingos were the sight to see as they fed on the plankton in the
lake creating both the red colour of the lagoon and of the flamingos features.
The most comedic part of the trip happened on the way back to Uyuni when our
cocky driver got us stuck in the mud in the supposed 4WD. F was incredibly
frustrated with the techniques that were tried to get the jeep out. We
discovered during this scenario that most of the jeeps are not 4WD and we were
just lucky that we had dry good weather. In order to get the jeep out a wire
was used and tied to another vehicle and we were pulled out. It was the most
shambolic series of events I have seen in quite some time. We took another route
around the mud to find a deep river crossing with another vehicle stuck. Our
group got out of the jeep and waded across the river not trusting in our driver
or his vehicle since we had recently discovered it was not 4WD!!!! He proved us
wrong however and crossed the river with little effort. Our final event in the
drive back was the random narcotics stop we had.
Overall it was a sensational trip with stunning scenery and
food, the driving was a little to much but the experience was unforgettable.l

Potosi mint

An old printing press that was used to publish one of the first Bolivian papers

A manual minting machine, two men on each side they wind down the print onto the silver then turn the coin over to do it again. Time consuming....

3000 coins a day were made by this manual mint it pressed both sides of the coin at the same time and only required one person so was much more efficient than the other machine.

The mules that were used to drive the silver flattening machines upstairs. What terrible conditions they were kept in.

The silver press machine that the mules drove.

Potosi

A view down the streets of Potosi looking at the mountains containing the silver

One of the many mine sites

Down in the mine

Trolley and person entrance into the mine

The guys all dressed up and ready for their mining experience

After a 3 ½ hour bus ride we arrived in Potosi, I spent the
afternoon in bed after a morning of a dodgy stomach. Felipe went to explore the
cooperative silver mines. This was the heart of the Spanish economy since the
first mine opened in the 1560s. It was the wealthiest place in South America.
Over the 500 years of mining terrible exploitation of human rights have
occurred with African and indigenous people working the mines under horrendous
conditions. Over the life time of the mines over 7 million people have died.
Today the mines are still active with little safety equipment or
regulations. By the morning Felipe had caught
the bug which I picked up yesterday so it was his turn to spend the morning in
bed while I went to explore the mint where they made Spanish and Bolivian
coins. The mint started making coins in 1573 and finished in 1951 and the
museum tracks the changes in technology. The melting of silver at 960 degrees C
was a stomach churning exhibit as there was nothing to protect you from the
heat or chemicals of the melting process. The silver was cast into flat pieces
before it went for rolling which was powered by four mules rotating in a circle
below the presses. The minting of the coins was done by hand and it is
estimated that 3000 coins were produced each day by this method. It was a
fabulous museum and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sucre

National emblem of Bolivia as shown on one of the government buildings in Sucre

The Spanish influenced hotel we stayed in

Local entertainment at a cafe - they were sensational - Bolivians have a great beat

A view out from Recoleta

The white city and empty streets on a Sunday afternoon

The flight to Sucre was brief and once again the scenery
spectacular, interesting flying over the Andes and thermal updrafts making some
bumpy flying and quick descents less than ideal for a anxious flyer like myself
but we were fine.
Sucre is known as the white city and is still very Spanish
in its architecture. The hotel we stayed in was very colonial and authentically
decorated in a Spanish style. It all seemed very luxurious. Its quite nice to
not have to plan accommodation or transport for a while.
Sucre was the first place in Bolivia to be settled by the
Spanish hence all the Spanish influence, it was historically the seat of government.
It was also the sight of where the revolution movement started and where the
declaration of Bolivia’s independence was signed.
On our first afternoon in Sucre we walked up to a gorgeous
viewpoint called Recoleta which has a panoramic view over the white buildings
with terracotta roofs. It was a Sunday and the streets were quiet and people
were relaxing in the parks in the city. Several show shine boys/men surround
the main square.
Day two in Sucre saw us head to the markets in search of a
cap – the one thing I have forgotten (well so far). The markets are amazing and
always make me realise that New Zealand does not do good markets. You can find
anything you want in the markets here and it is where the main food shopping is
done. In the middle of the markets is a
large square where on each side is lined with fresh juice bars – any type of
juice you want you can get here.
In the afternoon we went for a guided walk through the
valley following the river into the mountains. It makes a nice change to not have
to follow a well sculpted path just ramble up the river bed. The point of the
walk was to view the dinosaur footprints along the walls of the valley. It is
thought that the footprints got there through crustal uplift as the footprints
are on a vertical wall or by a large meteorite that changed the landscape of
this area. There are several different types of dinosaur footprints in this
area as it is thought to be the location of a watering hole.
It was such a great experience but it makes me questions several
things. First, the validity of these so called footprints. Our guide said they
had experts down to validate them but no documentation is seen, there are other
footprints in the area. The other footprints a more commercial enterprise are
so protected you cant see them closer than 120m. My other concern is the
preservation of these footprints since we could walk up to them and touch them.
The guide told us the land was owned privately and the owner was working in
Argentina in order to get the money to develop the area into a tourist
attraction. It was nice that our Gap tour guide recommend a local organisation
in order for the money to go back into the local economy.

La Paz, markets

Bolivia - La Paz

La Paz

Cathedral in La Paz - main square

View over the Andes from the plane

View as we head in land from the plane