Dangerous roads and mosquito infested jungle

Saturday 26th April

Well, I have just returned to La Paz after 3 days on the edge of the Amazon Basin exploring the pampas. But before I start jumping ahead let me fill you in on what I've been up to since my snowy peak adventure...

La Paz is a crazy city. Full of smoke and cars and more car fumes and people and alcoholics anonymous centres... alas it seems that most of the folk who should attend such places don't, such as the taxi driver who decided to drive off road and wrap his car around the lamp post just yards from where me and a friend were walking. I love lamp posts.

I signed up to cycle 'the world's most dangerous road' which is basically a single track gravel road cut into the edge of a sheer mountain side. Its stunning. One of the most amazing places I've been. It was a photo of these roads that first triggered my interest in Bolivia and by gum they lived up to my expectations. Unfortunately the nickname 'death road' also lived up to its reputation and a middle aged man in my group fell off his bike and off the edge with tragic consequences. So that was a terrible shock and needless to say we didnt finish the road. These places deserve and demand respect... I just learnt that another cyclist was killed 2 days ago, knocked off the edge by a bus. Sometimes its easy to dismiss the disclaimers you sign for these things, but they're there for a reason!

To top off that rather somber day I then fell quite ill for a few days, boo. However, I am now marvellous again so thats all history, yey.

On 23rd I flew north from La Paz to a small town/village called Rurrenabaque. Its on the edge of the jungle and the starting point for my 3 day pampas tour. Stepping off the plane I almost melted, coming from La Paz at 3500m altitude it was VERY hot and humid. I was annoyed with myself as I'd forgotten to take my penknife out of my hand luggage at the airport... but luckily the nice check-in man took it from me and then went round security and gave it back to me when I got on the plane!!!

My taxi met me at the airport... it was a scooter. Good job I only had a small rucksack. I then spent one night in a hostel hoping that the electric ceiling fan wouldn't fall down as it was a tad wonky. The next morning I set off for my pampas tour.

It started with a 3 hour jeep ride on a spine numbing bumpy road... boing boing. We then unloaded the jeep and loaded the boat which took 1 an a half hours to get us to the lodge. The wildlife in the pampas pretty much smacks you in the face. Within minutes we were seeing huge stork birds, parrots, vultures, crocodiles, squirrel monkeys, dolphins... Anyhoo, we arrived at the lodge and I found a nice hammock to swing in for a while before that evening's crocodile hunt. Croc eyes glow red in torch light, and boy oh boy were there alot of red eyes. Yuri, our guide, caught a baby croc so we got a close up view, it was about 2 years old and probably 50cm long. In the dark, the plants were full of little glowing bugs and fireflies which looked like they were reflecting the stars in the sky... the night time is deafening with all the bugs singing and buzzing and the odd frog splooshing into the water.

Back at camp I almost trod on an Anaconda in the darkness... yikes! Thank goodness I had my headlamp on. Although apparently they aren't poisonous... they just give a nasty bite.

Next morning we went off down river to a marshy bit to hunt for Anacondas... alas 2 hours of plodding about in knee deep water and mud we didnt see any (although we heard and saw movements from about 3 or 4). We returned to the lodge for lunch... yum... then headed out again to go piranha fishing. I didnt hold many hopes for catching anything but ended up catching the most in my group... 2 piranha, 1 sardine and a slimy catfish thing later we left our fishing spot to watch the sunset.

Day 3 consisted of going swimming... in the same river we caught piranha, hunted crocodiles, where anaconda live etc... with pink river dolphins. They like to nibble your feet under the water which is a bit disconcerting as you can't see below the surface. One girl in our group got a hefty chomp on the bum from a piranha too... hee hee. I decided to get out at that point.

We then headed back to Rurrenabaque by boat and then jeep. My little plane back to La Paz was literally waiting for me when I got to the airport so I jumped on (the dont have security scanners so penknife was safely carried on, phew). The runway is a grass and mud strip cleared from the surrounding forest so a few bumps later we were airborn.

There... a brief yet rambling run down of Beagle in the jungle pampas... loved it and was ace to be away from 'civilisation' for 3 days although am glad to be back so I can tend my poor bitten feet and legs and liberally apply aftersun to my burnt bits (I ran out of suncream on the last day, oops).

Right, off to book my bus south. Chau...

Almost...

Wednesday 16th April

Well, today I returned from Huayna Potosi... the 6088m snowy mountain near La Paz. Alas, mine is not a tale of victory, boo, but it was an adventure nonetheless.

We started yesterday with a 2 hour trek to the 'high camp' at 5300m... thats pretty high. More than enough to make going to the loo a breathless experience! Hmm, perhaps a bad choice of example...

We had a spot of dinner, then went to bed at 6pm... to be woken at midnight for our summit departure at 1am. So, not much sleep and alot of clothes putting on later we were ready for the off. I was paired with a guide all to myself... called Andreas. He was tiny (compared to me) and had gold around his front teeth which seems to be the fashion here. There was another girl in the group who also had her own guide... we were grouped according to speed. And two giant dutch guys who were speedy and grouped together with the 3rd guide.

I had a pair of kickass plastic boots... illuminous yellow with mean crampons. Had there been any planes flying over I could have easily landed them by waving my boots in the correct manner. Unfortunately the boots were way too big and 4 pairs of socks later my poor wee tootsies were still floating around... nevermind, onwards and upwards.

So off I went, up the snow, following the footprints illuminated in the ittle circle of light from my headtorch. And that was my view for the next 5 hours. The dutch guys soon passed me and were gone, the american girl was way behind so it was just me and my guide in the dark. It was one of the loneliest physical challenges I've done... just me against myself really.

All went well for a couple of hours but I then started having stomach issues and dizziness. Battled on with it for another 2 hours, including a bit where you have to climb across a crevass and then climb a near vertical snow wall with ice axe and crampon power. I actually liked that bit, was fun.

Kept pushing on, determined as usual, but just got to the stage where my legs were so tired I could barely lift my boots and I was wretching every few steps (nice huh)... my feet started not quite going where my brain was telling them to. I hadn't been drinking, honest! So Ma and Pa you'll be pleased (and maybe surprised!!!) to hear that I was SENSIBLE and decided to turn round just as soon as I started feeling unsafe. And to be honest I knew I couldn't have finished the climb which I knew was another half hour at least and then a 1 hour climb up a 150m wall.

The walk back was beautiful. The sun was rising and the sky burst into a million colours. I was amazed at just how far I'd actually gone and how steep it all was. That was the good thing about climbing in the dark, you are happily oblivious to what you're climbing on, round and up! In the photo, I got to just below the right hand snowy peak/point (which is the summit). You can just about make out the tracks in the snow which start on the left and go up and to the right, above the rocky bit. Then onward and upward over the second peak's shoulder to the base of the summit peak.

Anyway, got back down to the hut having reached about 5900m where I found 2 other people who had turned back earlier... was disappointed especially as I should have been able to do it but I just felt weak for some reason. But then, its good to be reminded every now and again that we cant always have what we want. And especially where the rather wonderful Mother Nature is concerned. So, I missed my 6000m mark by a snippet, but I'll get it one day... hopefully with boots that fit and stronger legs (and a better stomach)! Glad I tried though. Snow climbing though was fun, if very tiring... looking forward to taking a course somewhen.

Into Bolivia

Sunday 13th April

Hello from big, bustling, busy, La Paz. The city is HUGE and scared me to death when I first arrived... all the cars and noise and buses and people and stalls and narrow streets and... phew! Am hoping to stay here for about a week and a half... if I can sort out some spanish lessons.

So I arrived in La Paz from Copacabana (on lake Titicaca), which was a cute little place. I visited the island, Isla del Sol, for a day and a night which was also nice. Did a short walk across the island and then ate yummy fresh trout, mmm. The photo here I took on Isla del Sol.

Before that I was in Puno (also on Lake Titicaca) where I took a trip to the floating islands on the lake. They were COOL. Indigenous folk live there (they moved onto the lake to avoid being made slaves) and make the islands from blocks of reed root mud stuff which they tie together and anchor in the lake... then they cover the blocks in reeds to keep their feet dry! Everything is made out of reeds... the island, the houses, you can even eat the reeds (not so tasty though).

This little dude was very cute. AND wearing knitted woolly trousers... alot of the babies and toddlers over here have knitted trousers. They are very cool and I wish I could buy a pair my size, that'd be cosy. The kiddies also start early when it comes top selling stuff... this boy was pushing inca necklaces!

Had a lively bus journey from Arequipa to Puno... wasnt feeling very well and got slightly worried when I boarded the bus and saw that the bus driver was wearing aviator sunglasses and black leather driving gloves... sure enough he went a tad too fast round a corner and we came off the road briefly in clouds of dust! Still all okay and livened up the journey.

So yes, back to La Paz... my first night here was a bit random. I met a guy staying at the same hostel (who happened to be called Robert and had the same birthday as Bert!!) and we went out for some food and a beer or two. Met 3 local teachers from the university who decided to take us on a tour of La Paz's best bars. Well, we missed our hostal's curfew (which was at midnight cos its on a dodgy road in town, apparently) and found a note pinned to the door telling us that we had to find somewhere else to stay or return at 5.30am! So we went back out and saw more bars! They took us to some of the coolest bars I've ever been to... really fun little places that dont have signs and only locals know about them. Played a popular dice game in one bar (which was a bit like polka but with dice instead of cards), tried on vintage hats in another bar, tried the most horrible tasting drink in another bar, danced (or tried to dance) to bolivian music in the last bar then thankfully it was 5.30 and time to go to sleep! Such fun though.

Have added a couple of photos from Nazca and Colca Canyon to my last blog... have finally managed to download them after a few hiccups.

Finally, thanks to Grannikins for your concern over my lack of Marmite... and thanks to Bert for bringing some out to rectify this. As you can see I have not lost any of my graphical talent since travelling! Ha.

Lines and canyons

Tuesday 8th April

Well, its been a while, sorry... been a bit carried away with all the recent excitement...

Nasca was pretty cool, although not quite what I had expected. The flight over the Nasca lines was fun. Saw the whale and monkey and flamingo and condor and spider and candelabra and... there are alot of lines!!! Managed to hold onto my breakfast as well which I was pleased about.

The pilot then did zoomy up and down-ness on the way back to the airport for fun... well I found it fun, the other 3 girls didn't! I then managed to get a 'motorbike' backie back to town cos our bus was late... I like to think of it as my Top Gun moment. The pilot, in his white shirt and aviator sunglasses drove me on his harley davidson (ahem, actually it was more of a big scooter). Still, it was fun.

So I spent 4 days in Arequipa... which was nice although I started to go a bit stir crazy as there wasn't so much to do. I get a bit bored in towns/cities. I was waiting for a friend to join me from Cusco. However I did visit the museum which shows exhibits from the Inca child sacrifices which have been found on the nearby mountains... that was interesting. Unfortunately the famous Juanita wasnt there as she was busy being poked by scientists in a laboratory but I did get to see her friend Sirita. It was actually quite fascinating, although felt a tad strange looking at a dead child.

When Neil, one of my trekking buddies from Torres del paine, arrived we headed straight for Cabanaconde in the Colca Canyon. We spurned the tour agencies in favour of hiking independantly... so glad we did cos it was ace. We stayed in a tiny hostel in the village the first night, which was a little bit like a stable as we dozed off the to sound of donkeys next door!!! Man, they make some of the strangest noises I've ever heard.

Next day we started our 6 hour trek. First we zig zagged down the canyon... boy, oh boy it was steep (I guess thats a canyon for you) and the odd slip on the stoney paths certainly got the adrenalin pumping as the next stop would have been the river over a kilometre below! However we made it hurrah... And the locals were all so friendly, it was lovely. We chatted briefly (as it could only ever be with my spanish) to most people we passed.

Crossed the river past the man i nicknamed the troll who tries to make you pay park fees even though its not in the national park but we managed to get past him (well acutually Neil's far superior spanish managed to get past him and I followed) then we ascended a bit before the path flattened out (hurray) and we walked through villages, over more suspension bridges, round river gorges... it was beautiful.

Saw a few condors too, circling on thermals. They are pretty big innit! It was almost impossible to get a sense of scale in the canyon as it was so huge. We werent even at the bottom, yet we were looking at over a kilometre up on the other side.

Anyway, we stayed in a stick hut which we shared with a number of huge black bee things. It was possibly the coldest most uncomfortable night I've spent... ever. So thankfully 5.30am came and we got up. This was easy as we had both gone to bed wearing all our clothes!

Two and a half hours later we got back to the top, phew. It was quite a struggle actually as I was under the weather and Neil had a dodgy knee... a right pair we were. Still we did a good job seeing as the estimated time for the climb is 3.5 to 4 hours. We got lost on the way back and ended up having to climb over walls and nip through the odd garden. Neil could resist jumping onto and into the odd cactus which are pretty vicious, he has the little spike holes in his leg to prove it.

So, then back to Arequipa we headed. I got a bus to Puno the next day (yesterday) which is where I'm writing this.

T

P.S. GOOD LUCK ON SUNDAY JAMES... I will be thinking of you and your shins. I can recommend trying some valium washed down with a beer afterwards... you'll forget about any achey bits!!! Go, go goooooooooo.