Out of the city, into the mountains

Ive spent the best part of two weeks next to the pointy Cordillera Blanca, in a place called Huaraz. Tonight I am heading to the beaches of northern Peru for a week or so before I jump on a 30+ hour bus ride to Quito to start work at a hostel. Although I have tended to stay put everywhere I visit, its been good to get to know a place and once you do its too hard to leave.... I could stay in Huaraz much much longer!


Huaraz has definatley been one of the highlights of my trip, the mountains surrounding Huaraz are incredible. Waking up every morning to breakfast on the rooftop with the beautiful peaks bathed in sunshine is the best way to start the day. There are something like 30 peaks over 5700m in the Cordillera Blanca, and because we are so close to the equator that you can hike up to 5000m before u get to the snow line. The movie Touching the Void is from here too, you might know it. Watching that put me off any mountaineering or snow climbing!

There are a lot of rock climbers / boulderers at the hostel I am staying at, so I have been getting into bouldering a lot. The crew from Carolines Hostel have found a bouldering oasis amongst the gumtrees, that is only a short walk out of town. Its been fun and its pretty much free, but my complete lack of upper body strength means most of my time is spent lazing around in the sun reading and writing, watching the others attempt the near impossible climb we have dubbed The Bitch. We have also been doing alot of day hikes up to the lakes and glaciers, but the mountains are so huge you can walk for hours and hours and still not seem to get any closer!

Last week I did the Santa Cruz trek with a great bunch of people I had met at the hostel. 50km through enourmous U-shaped glacial valleys and high mountain passes. Thomas and I managed to get lost on a route that we had been told was impossible to get lost on, but we managed to find our way back to the track after being spotted from a few hundred meters above. The walk made me want to do more, and I wish I had enough time to trek the Cordillera Huayhuash just south of here...have to do it next time i guess.

I just cant explain how amazing it has been travelling alone, and it sounds funny writing that because you are never alone, in fact you feel like you have more friends! I have met so many great people in the last month, and when I look back over my time in this continent, its the people and the experiences I have had with my travelling companions that are the most memorable, not the places I have seen. I know when i planned this trip I said I would only be away for 3 or 4 months, but I cant imagine coming home yet... i´m missing big weekend breakfasts on Bridge Road, but not much else ;)

limalimalimalima

In the last three weeks i have slowly made my way to the coast of Peru and up to Lima.  I spent quite a bit more time than I expected in Cusco, meeting up with some familiar faces, and sadly saying goodbye to some others.  A few too many big nights and my funds were disappearing quickly, so it was time to move on.  A lonely overnight bus ride to Arequipa, and i checked into Bothy hostel hoping to catch up with Robyn from the Inca trail.  I was in Arequipa to visit the Colca Canyon, the second deepest in the world and over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon (technically speaking).  After getting the low down from Robyn over  dinner, i was booked in for a three day tour of the condor canyon.  I´d have to say that I was extremely lucky in the company i scored for the trip, as it was more like a relaxing stroll than a trek.  The afternoons were spent lazing around the beautiful camps set deep in the canyon, drinking overpriced beers with my fellow ¨trekkers¨.  Three of the best people I have met on this trip, all Swedes, made the trip a real blast.  Can´t wait to visit Sweden. Anyway...The canyon is more like an enourmous valley surrounded by mountains...not like I had imagined.  The final day we ascended over 1100m, which was about the same as the inca trail, but due to the altitude difference, it was not nrealy as difficult.  We were at the top by 9am and after a visit to the hot springs back on the bus to Areuipa in time for the weekend, and what a weekend it was. All I can say is that a visit to the Point Hostel Arequipa should be on the ¨dont miss¨ lists in the lonely planet.

I needed to leave Arequipa, and the Swedes were heading to Cusco, so my fellow compatriot Amy and I courageously (under the circumstances) booked a ticket to Ica and Huacachina, home of sandboarding in Peru. Last year i visited the Oregon dunes in the US, and i guess i beleived the claim that they were amongst the biggest in the world.  There is no way they could be even compared to these mountains of sand that we were gliding (or cartwheeling) down.  Being on the dunes for sunset was mightily spectacular, and fun.  The loco dune buggy drivers made the trip back nearly as fun as the actual sandboarding.

It was time to leave Huacahina for Lima, and im glad i travelled in the company of spanish speaking travellers.  I guess you´d have to say it was the lowlight of my trip, but the ¨bus incident¨as i would like to call it, definatley created a bond between Amy, Emma and I.  So with all my precious belongings stolen (read ALL as including my Camera including memory card, iPod, Passport), the three of us hit the town to collectivly drown my sorrows.  We tried cerviche for dinner, a local specialty of raw fish in lime juice which is exquisite, but definatley not as good as sex, as one traveller i met had claimed.  The night ended with a memorable drink called super sexy, which is definatley was not, tasting like flavoured metho.

Needless to say the next few days was a haze of admin, as Amy liked to call it, and getting sick of doing admin and partying with the Loki Hostel crowd.  I have however managed to get a new passport, new camera, and a learn to speak spanish book....probably a bit late on that one.

Lima is a bit of a contradiction.  It´s massive city, but is completely shrouded in fog (and a bit of smog) for most of the year.  This makes it seem almost endless, but at the same time small because you can never see very far.  There is money everywhere, especially in the suburbs around my hostel, which makes it hard to beleive the extreme poverty I have seen on the way here.  I don´t not like Lima, I was only planning on spending one day here before running off the Huaraz, but I´m kinda glad i got to see a bit more of it.  And I still haven´t booked my bus ticket out of here....

Flying over the handlebars

It´s been 2 weeks since we did the Salar tour in southern Bolivia, and I´m now in Cusco, Peru. Here´s what happened in between....

From the hole that is Uyuni, we (Will, Tosh, Shaker and I) crammed into the back row of a dogey Bolivian bus for 6hrs to Potosi. We were stopping there on the way to the capital Sucre to check out the silver mines. Potosi is at a staggering altitude of 4090m, and was once the largest city in latin america at the height of the silver mining. Silver was discovered in huge quantities in the mountain that towers over the city in the 1530`s by the Spanish, and it has been mined ever since. The mine tour was an uncomforatable and cramped experience...but a real eye opener into the conditions the miners have been going through for over 400 years. This mine was so rich it almost singlehandedly bankrolled the entire Spanish Empire for centuries.


After a great llama steak dinner and a few local beers, we caught a taxi to Sucre. Definatley the cheapest and longest cab ride I have even taken. Sucre was a very pretty city, and a lot milder being at about 2500m. Would have liked to stay longer...We left Shaker there with a plan to meet up again in Cusco, and headed to La Paz, cama suite style.



La Paz sits in a valley high up in the Andes, and from the many miradors the view of the bustling city is incredible. Taxi vans jostle for position on the roads with assistants hanging out the doors rattling off the minibus´s destinations...the buses are all vintage American Dodges, painted a miriad of retro colours and all sporting shiny chrome emblems on the bonnet.


On the Friday we had the adrenaline rush of the trip when we mountainbiked down what is officially the worlds most dangerous road just out of La Paz. Apparently more than 100 people die in accidents on the death road each year...but they have just opened a new road to Corico, so the death road is mainly used by the mountainbikers, making it slightly safer. We started out at over 4700m, and descended over 3600m down into the hot tropical Yunga region, all over about 63km. The road was absolutely spectacular and is cut into vertical cliffs with waterfalls washing away the road at many points. It is only about 3m wide and with sheer drops everywhere its no wonder so many accidents occur, its hard to imagine how two buses could make their way past each other! Our guide Phil pointed out a few manged bus wrecks at the valley floor along the way to make sure we didnt get over confident. I however, managed to have a massive stack, flying over the handlebars and a big pile of sharp looking rocks, landing in some vegetation luckily no where near the 200m sheer drop offs that we road past for kilometers at a time. Having survived the road, we hit the town for what turned out to be a massive night with some Canadians at a bar called dos, that took a long time to get started...



Despite the big night, we didnt find the nightlife in La Paz all that is was cracked up to be, and soon headed to Copacopana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We spent a night on Isla del Sol, the mythical birthplace of the Inca gods. Seeing the sunrise and sunset from the peaks of the island was beautiful, and we had it all pretty much to ourselves.

Bolivia was amazing! I wish I could have stayed longer and explored the low lands, but Machu Picchu was calling. I now find myself in Cusco, Peru, having just done the Inca trail. Four days of walking through the Andes to Machu Picchu. The walking wasn´t too strenuous, and we had what turned out to be a great group of people in the tour - 15 gringos, 2 cooks, 20 porters, and 2 guides. Hats off to Wibo who was numero uno gringo up the hardest climb of the trek, which we dubbed the ballpulveriser.



The final day we all rose at 4am to hike through steep (and very damp) cloud forest. When we finally reached the sun gate (above the ruins) at about 7am, there was NO visibility, but by the time we had made it down to the site the clouds began to lift and by mid morning we were bathed in sunshine. It was good to get there before the crouds, even if it was a bit cloudy, that just added to the mystique. Machu picchu was all that I expected, surrounded by enourmous vertical mountains shrouded in cloud forest, its no wonder it was hidden for so long. The ruins are in very good condition and it was really interesting to spend the day exploring them. We caught the train and a bus back to Cusco, and continued with the Machu Picchu 24 hr challenge, that is to hit the bars in Cusco until 4am...so today has been a bit of a write off.

Cusco is my first stop in Peru after spending 2 1/2 weeks in Bolivia. It is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Im yet to have a good look around but the centre is a picturesue mix of plazas and cobblestone streets barely wide enough for todays vehicles. It definately has a special charm about it.

I have met some great people along the way so far, and im looking forward to staying in Cusco for a few days to recharge, and to see some of the lesser know Inca ruins in the area. Having not known much about the history of south america, it has been really interesting learning about the fall of the incas, and the spanish conquerors. Next week i´m off to Arequipa to trek the two deepest canyons in the world and hopefully spot a few soaring condors.

On the move

Since leaving Argentina over a week ago (i think), the last week has been a blur of multi-coloured mountains, cacti, martian landscapes, and familiar gringos....I definitely feel like I'm on the ´trail´now. Its funny in such a huge place u keep running into the same people.

Leaving Tupiza

The bus ride from Salta in northern Argentina up to the Bolivian border was a taste of things to come, slowly climbing from about 1100m to 2900m in Humahuaca. Walking around town started to literally take my breath away. After a night in a very quiet hostel, we hopped back on the bus for the border, arriving in Villazon Bolivia (altitude 3500m) about lunchtime. The border was a chaotic mix of locals scurrying across with goods unchecked, and gringos trying to find the migracion. It was there we met up with Shaker, an Iraqi-American, who would end up travelling with us all the way to Sucre. Abandoning our original plan to get to Uyuni that night based on a dream and a recommendation Will got in India, we bought a ticket to Tupiza and a bag of cocoa leaves instead. We had a hunch it was a better way of doing the Salar de Uyuni, and Shaker decided to tag along. In Tupiza we slowly adapted to the Bolivian way of doing things, that is, late and/or slowly, sampled the surprisingly good local beer, and shopped around for a tour that would take us to Uyuni via the many wonderful sights of south-west Bolivia.

Second day on the tour

The landscape in Bolivia can only be described as out of this world. Our first experience of this was a somewhat dodgey horse ride into the Canyon of the Inca just out of town. Our guide, and i use that term very loosely, was a 14 year old, who kept rearing his horse up and unsettling ours. This couldn't detract from the amazing scenery we rode through, or the fun of galloping down dry river beds past freakish geological outcrops.

Sunrise on the Salar

The next morning we departed on the much hyped tour of the Salar de uyuni and the Reserva Fauna Andina Eduardo Avoaroa. Our guide/driver Marco was a loco Bolivian with a lead foot, and Berna our cook was a smiling bundle of joy, and a good cook! The first two days we winded our way through the mountains, and into the Andes. The vastness and scale of the landscape blew me away, on the second morning we rose at 5am to see the sunrise over a 6000m volcano, but that was nothing compared to the final day on the salt flats where I experienced the most beautiful sunrise imaginable. On top of that we bathed in hot springs, got up close to hundreds of flamingos, and crossed vast desert valleys lined with snow capped volcanoes...

Uyuni

The short tour has probably been the highlight of my trip so far, and just as with every place I depart, i can´t imagine things getting any better, but they have every time.

settling in.

So, its been about 10 days since I landed on the other side of the world....and the lack of posts can be directly attributed to the fact that Beunos Aires is incredible. Socially, politically, architecturaly, the city is very expressive. They say that on average there is one major protest a day in BA. On Tuesday, it was a special day that remembers the "Dirty War". There were about 500 protests and 5 hours of drums and flag waving... They really know how to kick up a fuss here in argentina...

I had a good 4 days here before Will even got here, and it was really good to meet some great travellers from all over the place. It is much different travelling here than in asia, where its an effort to even run into someone that speaks the same language... my first 5 hours here consisted of downing pints on the rooftop with some brits, germans, aussies and locals, and hitting up a superclub till dawn. Probably not the best way to tackle the extreme jetlag I was feeling at the time. But jetlag isn´t that big of a problem here in BA, you really stand out like a foreinger if you go out for a meal before 10pm, BA time takes a bit of getting used to.
Probably the best two expreiriences i have had here have been the futbol matches... For those who dont know, BA has one of the biggest rivalries in sport... River Plate vs Boca Juniors. I didnt get to see them play each other, but I saw River Plate v San Martin, and the mental state of the locals surely has to be questioned. (See this youtube clip) The party went of for the whole match, and we were lucky enough to see a good match that was decided by a penalty in the final minute. Needless to say the locals went crazy and the away fans threw alot of dangerous inanimate objects at the home fans (ie. us). We also got tickets to see Argentina v Venuzuela in a WC qualifying match. The argentines won 4-0 thanks to Messi. (see clip here)

We are leaving to head north to the falls soon, and it will be sad to leave this city. But I can say one thing for certain and that is that I will definately be back here soon.

126 days.....

126 days..... that's how long I've been waiting to get on the plane since I booked my one-way flight to Buenos Aires. 126 days of flipping through guide books, making lists, and planning itineraries. 126 days of talking about it, reading about it, looking at it. When I booked this ticket i didn't really know what to expect, and despite my avid reading and endless hours online i guess i probably still don't know what its really going to be like, but at least now i have some idea of where this trip might take me (thanks largely to an over sized map on my lounge room wall). What to take on this trip is another question. What do you take to a place that has deserts vaster and higher, jungles denser, mountains taller and rivers larger than nearly anywhere else on the planet? Hopefully I've managed to fit at least a few useful things in to my luggage.

So, here we go, my Spanish is bad, my pack is too full, and i don't really know where I'm going. This should be fun.