Erin & Regan's South American Adventure

Hola,

On our last day in Sucre we decided to finally visit the "Huellas de los dinosaurios" or dinosaur footprints.  We paid 10 bolivianos for the truck ride there and back, this was the truck we left in:

The park itself is only 3 months old.  They have many life sized replica dinosaurs, these were the coolest ones:

Did you spot the one related to the NZ Tuatara?  The guide even mentions it on the tour!

These are the footprints themselves, you can view them through binoculars.  The biggest prints are from the biggest kind of dinosaur.  There are prints from smaller ones but you can only see them through the binoculars.

Apparently all of Sucre used to be a lake with a volcano nearby.  One day the volcano erupted and the ash fossilised the prints.  Later there was an earthquake which raised the once flat bed of the lake into a cliff face.

In 1994 the prints were uncovered by miners collecting materials for concrete.  They stopped mining only because they found too high a concentration of magnesium in the soil, which doesn´t make for good concrete.  The prints are now part of a national park.

The truck changed for our ride home:

On the way home we spotted one of the colourful local buses.

We splashed out and spent 66 bolivianos on lunch (approx NZ$13).  This was the view from the restaurant.

Hola,

Today I (Erin) went to the Textile Museum while Regan played computer games.  The Textile Musuem relates to what we saw when we went to Tarabuco (see a previous post).

These four photos are some of the weavings on display.  If you zoom in you can see all the detail and the figures of people and animals.  It is extremely fine weaving.   The second photo is of a chuspa (a bag) that they use for holding coca leaves.

A spindle used for spinning (Mum I couldn´t help putting this one in).

A different style of weaving from a different area.

The weaving style and materials adopted in the 1950s-1960s.

A weaving dating from the 1890s. We hope that the one we bought is this old but I suspect it dates from the 50s or 60s.

Three weavers from different areas (note their different styles of clothing) plying their craft at the museum.  It takes about 2 months to make one of these weavings.

They call these "four cornered caps".  Due to their small size it is thought they were worn by people with elongated skulls (which were created by wrapping strips of cloth round the head tightly when a person was young).

This is a tunic made from very fine vicuña hair using interlocking woven tapestry. Close up it was amazing despite the disrepair, which can be forgiven because it is 1,600 years old!  (The photo is not very good because it was taken through glass).

This is the church across the street from the museum which dates back to 1665.

The kind lady from the reception desk at the museum saw me waiting in the street for Regan and warned me that the area was not safe for tourists and under no circumstances should I go down the alleyway next to the church.  Regan and I have been walking up this street and the ones near it pretty much daily for the last two weeks.  Maybe she thought I was travelling on my own????

Regan played Max Payne II....  it was cool (Regan´s words).

On to the salt flats on Monday, all going well.

Hola,

We´re free!  No more spanish lessons.  They were good but quite hard.  We thought we´d post a few more photos of Sucre...

The cityscape from the street where we had our lessons, note the air plants on the power/phone lines.

Residencia Bolivia, the hostel we stayed in for the first 5 or so days here (before moving to an apartment... We must get some photos of that too)

The Plazoleta San Francisco, down the road from Residencia Bolivia

Some food Erin could actually eat.  On the left is Masaco platano con queso - banana with cheese!  A little odd at first but very tasty. On the right an huminta (silent h) de horno - corn and cheese wrapped in the corn husk and cooked.

All the people in the cafe thought I (Erin) was some weird and crazy gringo when I took that photo.

Hola,

The next day we emailed our travel agent to ask what to do about our insurance claim.  She gave us a toll free (yeah, not in Sucre apparently) number to call for assistance.  We called and they told us that to make a claim we would need to send them original documents etc... we explained that we would like to know if our police report was sufficient before we sent it away just in case we needed more information from the police etc.  They said we could fax it for confirmation, and so the first saga began...

First off we couldn´t get a fax to send, we tried 6 times all up.  Each time it would connect and then fail giving an out of paper at the other end type error.  We called them back, they had paper, we tried some more...

We had no luck that first night and decided to try again the next morning.  We tried and failed once more before being directed to the main telephone office and they sent me over the road to a small place where it was finally sent.

However, the police report was not very dark and the fax wasn´t legible enough at the other end, and so began the second saga...

We hunted around for a photocopy place which could darken the report, however it appeared either that they had no idea what they were doing or the machines were not good enough.  We asked around for the "best" place to go and got directions, it was, however, closed for the weekend.

At an empasse we decided to book a ticket to Tarabuco for some retail therapy.  It is a place 64kms from Sucre known for its weavings.

The locals wear all manner of interesting gear, these clothes are not costumes they actually wear this stuff every day, no joke.

The stalls were all much alike, with hats, bags, weavings, and clothes made from Alpaca etc.

Our purchases, note our new hats.

Upon returning to Sucre we decided to go hunting for a place to learn spanish.  It being our main goal here.  We hunted around and found many schools and a few private teachers.  We settled on Patricia a private tutor with many good books and resources to draw from (apparently, the schools don´t have any books, crazy!).

On monday the saga continued... The photocopy place finally opened for business and they were able to make a copy.  However the fax place was out of order and the main office over the road failed to send!  We gave up on it for an hour or so then returned to the original place (no longer out of order) and finally managed to send the report.

All this effort and we still do not know whether we need more information from the police here... we now have a claim form and then we´ll have to send all the original documents home to make a claim.  Fingers crossed they arrive!

Assuming our claim is accepted we still have the problem of replacing the items.  Items cannot be sent here (the Leatherman is a knife and the PDA a communication device, both these things are prohibited).  It´s also unlikely we can find the same items in Bolivia, perhaps duty-free or in a more developed country, but not here.

We have been taking lessons for a week now, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.  As part of the lessons we went on a little field trip to the hills outside of town.  With us went another student "Remo" and two past students now working here in Sucre.  It´s fair to say we understood less than 50% of what was said on the trip, and I didn´t say much (partly because I had nothing to say, and partly because I didn´t know how to say it).

The locals use the native trees to dry/store food for their animals in the months where there is less to eat.  It looks rather odd.

This is our spanish teacher next to an oven for baking bread.

This is a local house we visited.  The owner went on for some length about religion among other things, he was most passionate.

His son.

The local home owner and our spanish teacher.

The chicken coop.

On another day we did our own little city/park tour and photographed this local obelisk/monument.  It was paid for with money taken from local bakers who were misrepresenting the weight of their bread.

Well, that´s everything... we´re finally up to date on our blog.  Woohoo!

Hola,

On our last night in Peru we went to the artesenal markets as our guidebook told us it was one of the best places in SA to buy alpaca stuff.  I (Regan) bought a cool hat with ear flaps (see last photo).  Erin bought a green jersey (you can just see it in the first photo below).

We decided to take a ride in a Trici-taxi powered solely by a wheezing peruvian.  Despite the wheezing he did pretty good.  Erin felt a little guilty about making him do all the work so we gave him a tip at the end.  These trici-taxis were everywhere.

Early the next morning we boarded a bus for Copacabana.  Our ticket was originally for one night there and then on to La Paz the following day.  However, once we arrived we decided to carry on to La Paz because the weather was pretty crap.

On the way to Copacabana we crossed the border.  At the border we exchanged our Peruvian soles for Bolivian bolivianos (sometimes called pesos).  It was a fairly easy and painless experience, except we were surprised to find out that we were only allowed into the country for 1 month.

The trip from Puno to Copacabana was a relatively short one.  Once there we met this monkey. It was near the bus stop in Copacabana.  It had a leash attached to it´s tail, but the other end wasn´t attached to anything.  Despite that, it didn´t seem to stray too far.

From Copacabana we travelled for about an hour to a small place we have forgotten the name of.  To continue towards La Paz you have to cross the narrowest stretch of Lake Titicaca by barge or boat, this includes the bus itself!

This last photo is of me (Regan) in San Pedro on the other side.  Notice my gnarly hat.

We arrived in La Paz.  The driver of our bus very kindly dropped us off outside his brother´s hostel (no, we don´t really know that for certain but my guess is he gets some sort of cut from every tourist who goes there from his bus).

Instead, we wandered the streets for at least 2 hours looking for a cheap hostal.  The prices were all much higher than our guidebook lead us to believe and that was for some pretty dingy looking dives.

In the end we decided to leave the next day, and so settled for a cheap and only slightly dingy place.  We had a room with a private bathroom, however it was so small if you turned on the shower it fell in both the handbasin and toilet at the same time (we are not joking!).

The next morning we quickly checked out the markets in La Paz, they are actually quite good, if terribly disorganised.  It seems the prices here for stuff ain´t bad.  We plan to come back and buy us some cool stuff to send home and/or the UK (i.e. blankets for 40 bolivianos... approx NZ$7).  The only real problem is the cost of postage.

After that we headed to the bus station and bought a ticket to Sucre, an overnight trip that only leaves after 6:30 at night.  We stowed our bags with the bus company and wandered around aimlessly (looking for food, internet, etc).

As it turned out our bus left one hour late (inexplicably).  It made it´s first stop in a suburb of La Paz called "El Alto" where many people got on, some were passangers, some were selling food and drinks and one was stealing our bag.  That´s right, he hopped on the bus, asked us to open the window.  While our backs were turned he took my bag from under the footrest, under my feet.  Shortly after that he left the bus and it wasn´t for another 20 minutes that I noticed my bag was missing.  We searched the entire bus (the other passengers were very helpful and seemed genuinely upset).  It was then that we remembered the strange man asking about the window (when it was actually quite a chilly night) and we put 2 and 2 together to make "the bugger stole my car... I mean bag". 

Needless to say the rest of the trip wasn´t much fun because I had lost my PDA (containing my books and music), our IPOD and some of my warm clothing including my lovely new hat, my gloves, and my scarf (from Cusco).  Not to mention that they got my Leatherman too, which will prove to be a real pain to be without.

Upon arriving in Sucre after a loooooong trip (14 hours) we went straight to the police.  Luckily we met an American girl on the bus who has been living near Sucre for the last year and could speak fairly good spanish.  She kindly agreed to help us with the police and we spent the rest of the morning trying to convince them to provide a police report of the incident.  In the end we finally got a report, only to discover that we had to pay 10 bolivianos for it.  Don´t you love Bolivia!

Last but not least the American girl (sorry, forgot her name) took us to a nice and cheap hostel called "Residencia Bolivia" where we decided to stay, at least until we figure out what to do next.

Hola,

Mum (Sue) these photos are for you.

From Puno we booked a two day tour of the lake including Los Uros (the floating islands), Amantani and Taquile. 

The first stop was Los Uros.  These islands are made entirely from reeds which grow in the lake.  The people collect the root base of the reeds and then lay the reeds themselves flat on top of them.  Over time they build a 2m thick island of reeds.  They anchor the islands to the lake bottom using ropes made from (you guessed it) reeds, and rocks.  In a big storm the islands pull free from their moorings and need to be towed back into place by boat.  The islands were originally closer to the Bolivian side of the lake but are now only 40mins from Puno by boat.

Things are pretty basic on the islands and they are very dependent on tourism for income. However they are much more advanced than you might think (note the solar panel).

The native wildlife includes many birds. Their diet consists of (you guessed it) reeds, birds and fish.  They trade these items for fruit and vegetables.

Some more shots of the islands.  Walking on the islands is reasonably stable, except near the edges where if you stand in one place for too long you will get wet feet.

On the way to Amantani we picked up a hitchhiker and gave him a lift most of the way across.

On Amantani we stayed the night with a local couple.  Their five children all live elsewhere i.e. Lima, Arequipa, and Puno.  They must leave the island to study in order to get work for money.  The islands do not really use money, but need it to purchase clothing etc.

Simon and Mariela

The view from the house, our room and the cooking fire in the kitchen.

The church in the main square.

The pre-incan ruins, a square temple dedicated to Pachatata which they pray to for rain.

The view of the lake from Pachatata.

The round temple dedicated to Pachamama which they pray to for good food, good health and good lives (we think).

On the way back down.

That night we had a fiesta, it was a cheesy (only for tourists) thing.  We got to dress up in traditional clothing and a local band played local music.

The next day we went to Taquile, an hour by boat.  On this island they still practice the 3 incan rules.  No lying, no stealing and don´t be lazy.  Everyone has to work, all the time.  So, the women spin wool and the men knit hats and small bags.  There is no such thing as divorce and marriages are conducted only once a year in May.  The clothing they wear signifies marital status.  A man wearing a white belt is unmarried.  A man wearing a colourful belt and a pouch for coca leaves is married.  A woman wearing dark skirts is married and a woman wearing bright skirts is not.

From here we returned to Puno.  A 3 hour boat ride.

Hola,

It just so happened that the weekend we were in Puno it was it´s anniversary of sorts.  They are celebrating the mythical event where the South American "Adam & Eve" emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca.

In South America they will use any excuse to have a big party and get drunk, so, that´s what they did. Along with a parade where we took these photos.  They love to set off tom thumb fire crackers, it´s deafening.  The bands played all night... loudly... ah well you can´t always have your cake and eat it too I suppose.

This is how the local... poorer people carry their young children.

Hola,

From Arequipa we took a bus to Puno, on the shores of the lake Titicaca (which isn´t a Spanish name, it´s actually Quechua. Titi meaning puma and caca for lake... we think).

From Puno we took a bus and then a colectivo (cab) to Sillustani to see some pre-incan ruins, believed to be funeral towers. It was just our luck that shortly after we arrived it started to rain and blow a gale. Ah well, we have some nice photos anyway.

The biggest and most impressive tower.

It´s insides.

Other towers.

This is how they were constructed - using ramps of stones which were later removed. They´re not sure why they didn´t finish all the towers.

Hola,

We took a day of rest after Colca Canyon, then disaster struck in the form of a bad empanada which kept me (Regan) in bed for a full day.  I won´t go into any details but it wasn´t pleasant.

After recovering sufficiently for another outing we booked a trip to "El Misti".  US$50 per person, and we just knew the food was going to be a problem with Erin unable to eat wheat.

We gave them ample warning so that they could find alternate food; they assured us they had, but it was not to be.

A shot of "El Misti" from our hostel on the morning we left.

After an hour in the 4x4 (cuatro por cuatro) on a very bumpy road/trail we arrived at the base of the volcano. A height of 3500m (apparently the sign is incorrect).

Looking up the beast on our first rest stop.

Our 2nd rest stop.

Some shots of the terrain and native fauna.

After 5 hours of very slow walking (I could practically feel Erin seething) we arrived at our camp site at 4600m.  A total climb on day one of 1100m.

Sunset over Arequipa (yes, it´s a 2 day trek!)

Our tent was a little on the old and partially had it side.  It was also kinda tiny.

Day two began at 2am.  It was very cold and still dark (oddly enough).  Sunrise on day two.

This is a shot down on the landscape around the volcano.  "El Misti" used to be covered in snow however some time ago it all fell off causing these large gouges in the ground. (Erin thinks that´s called a lahar or something).

The climb was much steeper.  We walked just as slowly as on day one.

The lip of the crater was tantalizingly close, at this point we were still 60 minutes from the crater, and then another 40 to the peak.

Me at the lip of the crater, dead... tired.

The view from the top was worth the 14 hours it took to climb (if you ask Erin).  Height 5800m.  You can see a volcano in the distance, it is apparently the most active in Peru.  Another shot shows another less active volcano nearby.

What took 9 hours to climb up on day two, took 40 minutes to slide back down.

From our campsite it took another hour and a bit to walk/slide back down to the 4x4.  Another bumpy ride back, this time with music played at full noise.

p.s. The Peruvian method for climbing hills is to switchback from left to right taking the smallest steps possible.  In this manner even if your legs are absolutely buggered you can keep climbing for several hours more... we know, we´ve done it... three times now (Machu Picchu, Colca Canyon, and El Misti).

Hola,

From Arequipa we took a 2 day trip to the Colca Canyon - the deepest canyon in the world.  We took a 6 hour bus trip to Cabanaconde.  At times the road was closed... for no apparent reason, so we drove offroad styles (lleno de baches).

Cabanaconde was a very friendly place, so friendly that we had 4 people from 4 different hostals trying to get us to stay with them.  We spent an hour looking at them all before picking ... the cheapest one.

Our room was tiny, but that wasn´t the real problem.  The problem was the water pipe coming through the corner of the ceiling from the floor above which sounded like a river running through our room.  In addition as we were late rising there was no hot water left.

The next day we started our trip into the canyon.  This was the view of the path from the top (you have to look closely to see the trail).

At the bottom of the canyon, on the river are some hot springs and geysers (though only small... no real erruptions).

We stayed  in a "lodge" on the river.  It was very tranquil given that it takes 3 hours to walk there and everything is carried in on mules.  The "lodge" had hot springs which were nice.  Our room was made from mud bricks and bamboo.

That night we went fishing in the river.  This is a view of the river from the lodge.

From there we walked along the other side of the canyon (from Cabanaconde) to the oasis.  Here is a shot as we got close.

It was a blistering hot day and we had walked a total of 3 hours so far so we stopped for a couple of hours and swam at the oasis (in a pool).  From there we had to climb back up the canyon to Cabanaconde.

The view on the way back up.

We decided to stay at a new hostal that night.  This one owned by Pablo, who could actually speak a fair bit of English.  We splashed out and had dinner at his resteraunt, it was very nice.

The next day we travelled to the Cruz del Condor to see the condors.  We spent 2 hours sitting, watching, waiting for a condor which was sitting on a rock not too far from us.  At one point another condor flew past but we got no good photos of it.  Finally the first condor (a juvenile) took flight and graced us with 2 flybys.

There were the customary hordes of locals selling all manner of things.  They start them really young, as you can see.

We waited, and waited, and waited for our bus. It was 1 hour late.  After another 6 hour bumpy bus ride we made it back to Arequipa.

Hola,

We arrived in Arequipa from Cusco after another overnight bus ride.  We checked into a hostal called "La Reyna".  Our room was on the top floor.  This was the view:

For something cheap to do we wandered through the streets of Arequipa up to a church.  From there you get a picturesque view of "El Misti" through the arches.

Arequipa, like most places here really comes alive at night.  Who needs that many taxis!

The high rate of illiteracy here means that a person who can read, write and type can make a living typing documents for other people... at 9pm at night.

Our hostel was across the road from the Santa Catalina Monastery.  This is a small part of it.

Another view of the monastery, someone´s rooftop garden full of geraniums.

Hola,

For our last day in Cusco we decided to be a bit more touristy and visit the ruins closest to town. You start by taking a bus to the 4th ruin, Tambo Machay a spring/shrine. Here are the 2 best photos of it.

Next was Puka Pukara a red fort, most likely to be a "tambo" or post-house. The photo of me (Regan) shows the countryside/view from the fort.

On the way to the next ruin we encountered some wild life, these photos are for you Ross. Some burros and chanchas.

Third ruin, Qénqo (or Kenko) was a temple. It is a worn rock hillside/structure with many tunnels/paths beneath it.

Last but most certainly not least Sacsayhuaman (pronounced like "sexy woman") is believed to be a temple to the sun. The ruins are almost as large as Machu Pichu and more is still being uncovered. The massive rocks weigh up to 130 tonnes.

Sacsayhuaman was by far the most impressive of these 4 ruins. From here we went to Arequipa...