The Highest Capital City In The World

Leaving Cuzco was sad becuase I liked it so much there. But our next stop was Bolivia and we didn't want to put it off any longer.

On our way to the boarder we drove past Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world. Saw it at sunrise and it was pretty beautiful. It is so big, it looked like a sea. We crossed the boarder - another stamp in my passport - and had to wait for a couple of hours in Copacabana. Saw the lake a little but Amina wasn't feeling well that day so we just sat in the shade waiting for the bus.

sunrise over lake Titicaca

Now we arrived in La Paz on a Sunday. For those of you unfamiliar with Latin America, Sunday is the day where everything stops. There are so much less cars on the roads and less shops are open, and you will never find an open bank. So we arrived and saw a few cars but didn't think La Paz was as crazy as we had been told. Spent that evening with some other Project Trust volunteers that happened to be staying in the same hostel as us. We went out to an English pub and I had my first deep fried mars bar! I'd been told that I wasn't really Scottish until I'd had one. It was alright.

Full day one in La Paz and it was very crazy. So many cars and minibuses on the street. I'm pretty sure we spent most of the day getting lost and looking around the markets. We bought some cosy alpaca jumpers and we saw the Witches market. Saw all the llama foetuses. Felt a bit better about them when we learned that they didn't kill llama babies. When a llama is pregnant they have 6 or 7 babies, but they can only carry one to full term. So they get the others as they fall out of the mother, and they are burnt and used as an offering to Pachamama. (Mother Earth to the indigenous people of the Andes.)

 Llama foetuses

Another day we went to the Tiwanaku ruins. They were a civilisation older than the Incas. The capital city was called Tiwanaku. There's not a huge amount of ruins uncovered yet. Coming from Machu Picchu where everything is pretty much in perfect condition it was a little less impressive. But it was still interesting to see. Had a great buffet lunch and talked to a couple from Holland.

 the puerta del sol

 there were over 150 heads carved into the underground temple

Draco Malfoy with his cronies

 

Spent another day going round the markets again. I like La Paz because you can just step outside and find something to do. We went for a fruit drink, actually found the main plaza this time and watched a band playing Bolivian floklorica music. It was really good.

the main plaza and cathedral

 

We were supposed to be moving onto Cochabamba after a couple of days but we wanted more time in La Paz so we're not going anymore. One day, we went to a little village about 3 hours away from La Paz to go on a zipline. It was actually three ziplines that go over rivers, coco plantations etc. It was really fun. I was a little scared to start with but it didn't last long. You had to hold onto handles as you were going down, then as you approach the end you have to apply the break. The first time I was too frozen to move my hand to apply the break, so I ended up crashing into the big pillow. But the second and third times I was fine :) The climate down there was so different to La Paz. Saw mango and banana trees and some really pretty bitterflies.

Us after the zipline, thankfully still alive

We spent another day talking to people in the hostel and sending stuff off in the mail. I spent ages wrapping up a big package in sellotape, got to the counter, and the lady said she had to see inside! So I have to unwrap it all. Our last day, we spent the morning packing our stuff, then met up with one volunteer Ollie, who was still in La Paz. We introduced him to fruit drinks then went to check out this absailing thing. You could absail down this really tall building (and 5 star hotel). We went up to look but decided it was too scary (on my part) and too expensive (Ollie and Amina's view) to do. But we did enjoy the view of La Paz and the hotel was really fancy. Had lunch in a nice cafe. Ever since Danay made me that HUGE lemon pie for my birthday I've been so addicted to it, so I had some at the cafe. Mmmm. We said goodbye to Ollie and went to take the bus to Sucre.

 La Paz

Really enjoyed my time in La Paz. It's such an interesting city. Every day we said we would go to a museum... but somehow that just never happened. I feel I should point out the problem with this blog title. Sucre is technically the capital city of Bolivia. Congress etc. moved to La Paz after the civil war between the two cities  making it the political capital of Bolivia. But Sucre still holds the official title as capital of the country and the people won't let you get confused!

Machu Picchu

Wow.

We took the bus and train to Aguas Calientes in a day and arrived with time to look around. It is a nice little town where there are no cars on the roads. I suppose there aren's really roads. The only vehicles you see are the buses that take you up to Machu Picchu. outside our hostel was a big stadium and it was really sweet to see all the kids running around playing.

the Sacred Valley

Machu Picchu

The next day it was an early start to get an early bus up to Machu Picchu. We could have walked but we had the bus tickets included as part of the package and didn't want to waste the money (/we were feeling a little lazy). We arrived and found our tour guide. It seemed like it was quite busy even at six in the morning but it wasn't really that bad. By a happy coincidence we happened to be on the same tour as some of the other volunteers so we got to catch up with them.

Our tour guide was very good and told us lots of interesting facts about the Incas and Machu Picchu. We started the tour with a view of the whole city, standing on one of the terraces. Some of the terraces were for culñtivation but some were also to support the mountain. The Incas had to import food into the city becuase not enough was grown to support the whole population. Also the people that built Machu Picchu were not the people that lived there. People would come from other villages to pay their taxes by working for three months. They spent 60 years building the foundations of the city and then 40 years building the buildings. It was still under construction when it was abandoned. You can see the different quality of stones that the buildings are built of. The less important buildings are made with rougher, less pretty stones. The temples and other more important buildings are built with bigger, smoother, better fitting pieces. The stones come from the natural quarry at the top of the city.

notice the different qualities of stones

We walked around the city learning lots and getting a great view of the valley as well. I tell you if the city wasn't set where it was it would be so much less impressive. Huge mountains all around with deep valleys. It looks like a giant just ripped handfuls of rock out of the ground.

No one actually knows the name of the city. It's called Machu Picchu because it's built on Machu Picchu mountain. It's real name was lost with the Incas. It was lucky that the Spanish didn't find the city. They went around some of the other mountains and the shrubbery helped the city stay hidden for centuries. When the city was found it was so overgrown that it was unrecognisable. The Incas abandoned the city at the orders of their king as he wanted all his people in one place to help fight off the Spanish.

sunrise over Machu Picchu

When the tour ended we walked up to the gaurdhouse and got a great view of all of Machu Picchu and WaynaPicchu in the background. It was a bit strange to be there to be honest. It felt like being at any other ruin but then you'd remember that it was Machu Picchu and you's see the valley and it was just amazing. It felt very real being there. Much less fantastical than it always seems on TV.

The people that lived in Machu Picchu were the intelectuals. The women were chosen for their beauty and the men for their skills. The Incas never actually invented anything. When they conquered another civilisation they would send the intelligent people to Machu Picchu to teach the Incas. So it was a bit like a university city. Families didn't live there, it was only the people the incas chose to be there.

The Incas were vegetarian except for eating meat three or four times a year. Animals were not killed in the city apart from at these rare sacrifices and animals were not raised in the city. The people ate lots of natural foods and chewed cocoa leaves a lot. People were not buried in the city and the nearby river was pure as they would never pollute it.

There is a central plaza where people would meet for games or meetings. Up a little hill there is the sundail which was used to know when to plant certain crops or start harvesting. I learned so many facts. I think that's all of them.

We wandered around the city for quite a while. Had lunch hiding under a tree. It started off a little cloudy (we were in a cloudforest) but it got nice and sunny as the day went on. We were apparently the first day this year that it hadn't rained. We did hear some ominous thunder rumbling towards the late afternoon but nothing came of it while we were there. It was the busiest around 12 but apparently even then it wasn't that busy. By three it was quite empty again. We were going to stay for a little longer but I started to feel a bit ill. I thought it was the height (looking into the valley could be a little dizzying after a while) but then I started to feel really sick. We returned to Aguas Calitentes and hung around in a cafe for a couple of hours until it was time to catch the train. Oh what a journey. I was very sick. The other volunteers had told us that they'd all been sick and we'd thought we'd been lucky to avoid it. Shame we didn't. I ended up making a bit of a mess and they had to lock the toilet so that no one else would go in. Really glad this happened at the end of the day and that I'd had a great time in Machu Picchu first. It really was a great day.

The next day in Cuzco we took really easy as Amina was starting to feel a little ill as well. We saw a little of the city. It's really pretty. The prettyest place we've been so far. We went to the chocolate museum where we learned a lot about cocoa. First grown in Peru. Midges fertilise the trees (we did have a bit of a laugh when the guide said that midgets fertilised the trees). Met up with the volunteers again and we ended up going out in the evening for a birthday meal.

The day after I was feeling much better. We went on a free walking tour of Cuzco. Had lots of free food and drink and learned a lot. Cuzco is a heritage site. Eight years ago two guys were drunk and spray painted a wall. They went to prison for two years. Cuzco is really lovely. I didn't want to leave.

Sorry about the lack of pictures in this blog. This computer is really slow. I'll put some up when I get to a better computer. Done :)

A Whole New Horizon

Hey guys.
Sorry it's been a while but things have been crazy.

I guess I should start off by telling you all about the end of our time in San Pedro.

San Pedro de Atacama

We visited the Valle de la Luna one day, so called because it looks like the surface of the moon. We had to go through a dark cave which was a bit freaky. The guide said there were no lights so that it would be more of an adventure... So I took out my torch. I hate caves! But it wasn't for too long so it was alright. We climbed some rocks that were made entirely of salt. In fact there were intire hills that looked like rock but were actually salt covered in dirt. Because it hardly ever rains they stay dirty. We visited the grand dune, which was a huge 50m high sand dune. It was a pretty cool viewpoint. The wind would blow sand and it would really hurt your skin. We also visited Valle de la Muerte, which was supposed to be called Mars Valley but the local people didn't understand the Frenchman who said 'Mars' in French, they heard 'muerte'.

la cordillera del sal 

the great sand dune

sunset over Valle de la Muerte

Our last two days in San Pedro were spent in a lazy haze of walking around the village, plannng bike trips but not going on them because we were chatting to people in our hostel too much. We met some really lovely people. On our last night we had just had a big dinner of pasta, when we were told that the owners wanted to throw an asado for us seeing as we were leaving. Thanks to several months of living in Chile our stomaches have expanded enough that we were able to force some food down.

Arica

We arrived in Arica and walked up the big hill there called 'el morro'. It gave us a great view of Arica. It's like the city is built in a valley, with big hills on either side. Saw lots of birds flying below us. We walked to the docks and saw lots of crabs, turkey vultures, seals and other birds. Amina has a thing about dead animals and made me take a picture of them all. This was sad when we saw a dead baby seal being eaten by the vultures.

Arica

The Pacific again

So much fruit!

We found the scariest family of manikins ever

"Why did the vultures have to eat the seal?!"

We found a desert puddle

We chatted to people in the hostel, I now know all about how trains work in Germany and where not to stand if you don't want to die in a train crash. We had some evening walks along the beach and saw the pelicans flying in the sunset. It was really funny to walk by the fish market and see the pelicans standing on the roof and being chased away from the fish.

Peru

I should probably mention that our plans changed in San Pedro. Meeting so many travellers that have been places we decided we just couldn't ignore thie country. So we moved back all our Bolivia hostel bookings and got on the first bus to Arequipa. Crossing into Peru was quite easy. We took a taxi from Arica to Tacna, stopping at the border on the way. We had to eat all our fruit standing in the customs queue. When we asked our taxi driver what we should do with our oregano, he said to put it down our trousers. 

In Tacna we had our first experience of Peru. First it is quite noticeable the difference in the econemy. Everything was just not as nice as in Chile and things were a lot cheaper. Lots of ladies were in the traditional dress which is really cute. Skirt, socks, top, cardi, hair in plaits and a hat. And we saw lots of people carrying stuff on their backs by tying a blanket around their necks.

 The bus to Arequpia was quite long. We didn't leave until an hour after we were supposed to, and the bus was searched three times on our journey bus customs officers. Apparently some people hadn't declared some new clothes or something. Bus driver in Peru are insane. It was pretty scary because we were sitting at the front and could see everything that was happening. Basically he had to overtake every vehicle that was in front of us. Sometimes you wouldn't be able to see around the corner and didn't know if there was traffic coming, but they would overtake anyway. Freaky.

Arequipa

We arrived in Arequipa around 10pm and it was raining. It was glorious! After two weeks in the desert you miss the cold and wet. So soothing for the soul. Took a taxi to our hostel and settled in. The next day we explored the city. The roads are full of taxis, there's basically nothing else. Makes it really easy to get around. The central plaza was really pretty and full of pigeons. We met up with some friends by chance and went out for lunch together. Me and Amina shared a meal of rice and chicken, while our friends had guinea pig! In mind of trying new things I tried a little bit. It was quite tasty, quite like chicken, but I could just feel Maisie turning in her little grave. 

Cathedral 

Guinea Pig :(

The highlight of our time in Arequipa was our trip to the Colca Canyon. At 4.5km deep it's the deepest canyon in the world (although not as striaght down as the Grand Canyon). We went on a trekking tour down the canyon. It was so beautiful. Very green which was a nice break from the desert landscape we'd been in for a while. There were six in our tour group and the guide and they were all lovely. We managed to get down the canyon in two hours which is 2km (seeing a condor on the way) and had a break to recover from our shaky legs. Then we walked a little bit uphill to get to a little village for lunch. I comp`letely forgot about the altitude we were at (around 4200m I think) and I tried to keep up with our guide. I was dead after 10 steps. You really have to go slow at that altitude. We had rice and alpacca meat for lunch and after resting for a while we continued on. The rest of the days trek was a mixture of flat and uphill. It was a bit freaky at times walking along and peering down the steep slope right next to you. I'm glad no one fell. We spent the night in an 'oasis' hostel which was really nice. Our room was lit by candlelight.

The next day we climbed out of the canyon. It took me just under three hours to make it up to the top. It was such hard work! I didn't think I could make it at one point but by resting a lot I made it. It got harder the further up you got as the altitude was higher. I think at the top the altitude was 4800 metres above sea level. We had breakfast in a small village and then started driving back to Arequipa. Along the way we stopped quite a few times to see things. One time it was to see the Inca terraces that are still being cultivated. It's really hard to describe the valley because it was just so huge. And long. You would stand there and be completely surrounded by hills and greenery and then in front of you was just this huge drop. So pretty.

Another time we stopped at 4900m up to have a snowball fight. We stopped in a little village to get photos with an eagle on our heads and we also went to a natural hot spring swimming pool. This was really nice and we used it as an opportunity to stretch our muscles and relax a bit. Lastly we stopped in a reserve and saw lots of llamas and alpaccas. They are so cute!

The Inca terraces

(If you think that's a lot of photos you should see how many I have on my camera.)

We're currently in Cuzco. We've explored a bit today and bought some mangoes. They are so cheap here! Cheaper than apples. I think we're just going to live on them. We went to a kareoke bar last night with an Australian guy which was fun, though Amina didn't sing. She did beat us both at darts though.

Really excited because we're heading to Aguas Calientes tomorrow and the day after we're going to Machu Picchu! I'll tell you all about it when we get back.