Welcome to the jungle
Trip Start
Unknown
1
2
Trip End
Ongoing
Rurrenbaque, Bolivia
Friday, August 19, 2011
So the last time we talked Brigit and I were in Mendoza, Argentina. From there we took an incredibly long bus (20hrs) to Salta, Argentina. First on our list was to head out to the Sataya on a horseriding adventure. After being laden with tea and scone/cake things, we were told to eat up some more because the usual horses were lost in the bush and the gauchos (cowboys) were out trying to find them. After seeing the state of their makeshift bamboo ´fence´, I am not surprised. Dad would not be impressed! After being given a non-lost horse (I secretly named him Marty after pronounciation issues) we saddled up and started to ride. Well, trot. Actually, more like an amble slow enough to let Marty feed every 30 metres or so. What can I say, we were well matched. My highlight of the entire experience? Lunch. Prime cuts of Argentine steak loaded on to my plate. When I said I was full (just to be polite, of course) I was loaded up with another. And another. And when I was actually full, more food was plonked on the plate. The same process was repeated with the wine. Poor, poor Marty is all I can say.
The next day Midge had the bright idea to walk up a flipping great hill overlooking Salta. 1073 steps worth of hill. With a mild hangover. Not ideal. All I can say is that I´m SO glad I´m super fit due to all the intense training I undertook prior to this trip... Ha.
We were pretty keen to get out of Salta upon hearing that the police had found the bodies of two French girls were murdered in the Salta district. So we took an extremely heated night bus to the Bolivian/Argentinan border. Walked 20ms from one country to the other. From there we bargained with a mini van to take six of us to Tupiza (where our salt flats tour departed from) for the extreme sum of $7NZD each. We thought we had hired the van exclusively, so we were a little surprised when the driver stopped along the way to pick up a local couple. The woman squished into the back with us, complete with her giant bag full of cheese graters. Tupiza was like something out of a Western film - think cacti and red dust everywhere. And it was hot! Bonus! Loved it.
Our four day tour from Tupiza to Uyuni began the next day. Midge and I, plus two English girls bundled into a Landcruiser, with our fifth member joining us at the very last moment before departure.
Because I am feeling a tad lazy, and because other people have done it so well and included some fantastic photos, here is a link to another blog that pretty much describes what the tour was like: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelblogs/1374/86126/Bolivia%E2%80%99s+Salt+Flats%3A+One+Wild+Ride+The+Wrong+Way+Round+%28Part+1%29?destId=363148
Read part II also! The only exception is that we didn´t visit the Green Lake. Two tourists had been killed three days before we were due to head there. Needless to say, we all were pretty keen to give that a miss.
The trip was such a incredible experience and I´m so glad I went on it. Shame I decided to wig out with the altitude and vomit everywhere on day three. So the hotel made entirely of salt where we spent our third night? I heard it was awesome. All I saw was my bed and the baños (bathrooms). Day four on the actual salt flats was also a bit of a challenge for me so at the end of out tour Midge and I stayed a night at Uyuni so I could rest up before heading to Potosi.
We thought we would be going down to Potosi (ie coming down in altitude). It turns out that Potosi is actually the highest city in the world, sitting at 4090m above sea level (cf: Mt Cook at 3754m ASL). This is where we learnt Rule #317: When one is affected by altitude sickness, do not head to higher gound. It will only make it worse. You will get sicker. You will be forced to vomit out of a window of a moving bus. And you will lose any remaining dignity and composure on the side of a dirt track somewhere in Bolivia. You have been warned.
Once in Potosi, Brigit went on a crazy tour of the working mine. Drinking, drilling and exploding dynamite all inclusive! Some fun facts: The mine itself is still produces silver and tin. Total estimates for the number of deaths occurring in the mines run as high as 9 million over the life of the mine. Not being my cup of tea, I stayed in bed. All day.
We then moved on to sunny Scure, at the perfect, non-sickening height of approx 2000m. Worth a mention is our hostel, Gringos Rincon Hostel. Newly opened, the showers were, in fact, as good as home!
La Paz was next on our list and so we headed to the Wild Rover hostel to meet up with a bunch of Irish we had collected along the way (or rather, who had collected the pair of us ´kiwi girls´). While there, Midge and I ticked off the Death Road experience. Just between you and I, I was a bit of speed demon. Keeping up with the boys and all. Not bad for someone who is allergic to bikes (and exercise in general)! I absolutely loved it and wanted to go again once we reached the bottom of the 63km ride.
After a couple of all-nighters fuelled by cheap vodka and cokes, blue beer and free shots, we left the Wild Rover cursing the Irish and headed for the jungle. I somehow found myself crawling onto a tiny plane at an ungodly hour. Had one of those ´what the heck am I doing?!´ moments as an alarming piercing beep sounded just as we were flying between a snowcapped mountain to my left, and a giant hill to my right. Nevertheless, I was very pleased to be greeted by the steamy heat of Rurrenabaque. Our two night, three day trip began with 7 adults squished into the back of an ancient Toyota Landcruiser. On the way to the Yacuma river, where our boat trip would begin, we stopped to help fix (unsuccsesfully) a broken axel of another Landcruiser. Stringent safety measures are obviously a high prioirty around these parts. Not. Once at the river, we jumped into our trusty, wooden dug-out boat, complete with 15 hp motor and headed up to our digs (huts on stilts to accommodate the rising river in the rainy season). Over the next three days we saw an array of creatures - alligators, capybaras (giant guinea pig-like critters), piranhas, plus a million different birds. I even caught a piranha. It was white. As in one of the deadly ones. No big deal. An amusing moment was finding a huge frog in the toilet. This was after I had shone a torch in to inspect for such creatures. And after I had been. Welcome to the jungle, Emma!
After a stunning (and white knuckled) flight back to La Paz, we bused on to Copacabana. From there were caught a boat and checked out Isla del Sol, an island on Lake Titicaca. The trip ionvolved a minor clamber up to the top of the island. This was some 240 steps. Not bad ordinarily. At about 3800m ASL? Death. The pain was well worth it, though. The scenery was spectacular.
We´re now in Arequipa, Peru. We´ve been chilling out here for the last two days. I may or may not have been working on my tan next to the pool at the Wild Rover (again). We´re aiming to complete the trifecta by staying at the Wild Rover in Cuzco, which we are heading to tonight on an overnight bus. My liver hurts already.
Chao x
Comments
Better a frog than an anaconda! So pleased you survived it all xxx