Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

Well it has been a while. So I arrived in Cuzco about 2 in the afternoon. After finally finding a hostel, this cute little place that looks ancient on the inside. I set about wandering around the city. It is a really amazing place. I have to admit very touristy but so much history. There are a number of large plazas in the center of town that are ringed with huge old cathedrals. When the Spanish built them they used a bunch of Inca ruins to construct the bases so the foundation of most of these old buildings are made from giant stones perfectly sculpted to fit against one another. Everywhere you step is a piece of ancient history. After a bit of a walk which involved finding the central market, I seem to have a nose for finding markets now. (the central market here is awesome so much food and fruit shakes, I have been getting a mango, banana, ginger and milk shake every morning.) I finally wandered back to my hostel which is up hill from the center of town, good for me but very tiring. I met this other couple who were staying at my hostel and ended up going out to a party at another hostel in town. We definitely whopped it up and didn't get back until the wee hours of the morning. The next day I was more than a might bit hung over and took myself out for a big old breakfast at a gringo place then got some coffee and finally met up with Anna who had arrived in late the night before and found a different hostel because she didn't know where I was at. Life without cell phones is definitely different when it comes to organizing meetings. We mostly just explored the city some more and I chilled out read and got over my headache.

The next day (being April 20th) Anna, I and the couple from my hostel went out for breakfast at the market place, went for coffee and then again just explored the city. It is hard to explain how everything here is done so differently not many people have cell phones so there are always people wandering the streets with cell phones you can pay to use, like mobile pay phones. Driving is something else. I cannot even explain how much I hate getting into a vehicle, they drive like maniacs and don't stop for anything. I have seen so many close calls I hardly even blink an eye anymore.

The next day we finally set off for something new. Anna and I caught a local bus to a near by town named Pisaq. It is basically the first town in the Sacred Valley that leads to Machu Picchu. There are so many Inca ruins throughout this whole area it is hard to see them all. Pisaq turned out to be a really cute little town. It had a big center square with a big old moss ladened tree in the center. The whole square was taken up with stalls selling all sorts of crafts and jewelry etc. We stopped and got a coffee and ran into a guy we had met on the Bolivian salt flats, Eliott. So we talked with him and his friend for a while then set off to find a hostel. We found a cheap place dropped our stuff off and headed down to a local cafe that looked really great. It was run by a German lady and was totally a gringo hangout but had amazing food and drinks and great atmosphere, some times you really miss that cafe atmosphere that you can find on almost any street in Canada (especially Victoria). Finally after lounging around for some time we decided to hike up to the Inca ruins that lay on the mountain that over looked the town. First I should interject and explain that of course the sacred valley is really a valley. It is flanked on either side by crazy steep mountains and there is a big river that flows right down the center of the valley. It is an amazing sight, very idyllic. there are alot of westerners living in the valley especially near Pisaq because it is so beautiful. At the base of the hike we had to buy ¨tourist tickets¨ that allow you to get into all of the sacred valley ruins (but not Machu Picchu of course that is more money) the tickets are not cheap and Anna and I talked our way into getting student tickets which are half the price. Then up and up and up. We were really sweating and huffing and puffing by the time we neared the top. It was a steep route, I have come to a very decisive conclusion that not only were the Incas the most fit people in the history of the world but they were also a touch mad! The Pisaq ruins run for quite a distance along the ridge of this mountain that has one point over looking the town. It was amazing! Machu Picchu as I will talk about later is spectacular but I really liked these ruins too. they are pretty large as well with lots to see and hardly touristy at all. At certain points Anna and I seemed to be the only people up there. Well we had no idea how big the ruins were and we had gone up way to late in the day to see them all. There is an agricultural area, a temple area, a fortress area and a bunch of other clusters of buildings. So we saw as much as we could but as dusk set in we had to start down the path again because in the best of conditions it is a steep unforgiving route and in the dark with no light it would have been worse. We reached the town just as dark set in and headed back to our favorite cafe for dinner (which was as Clare would say taste-tacular!) Every time we went to that cafe we seemed to randomly meet some new and interesting person, we met this one woman who had sold everything she had in Canada to move to this valley and start a treatment centre with a friend of hers, we met this very lovely Israeli couple with an adorable young son who lived on a kabutz. Everyone was very inspiring and seemed to be doing exactly what they wanted to be doing. The next day we decided to stay in Pisaq instead of moving on. We spent the morning looking around the market, which was even bigger than the day before, then we took a cab up to the other end of the ruins. This time we gave ourselves most of the afternoon. Something interesting about the ruins down here is that they are so different than any historical site in Canada, you really seem to be able to go just about anywhere you want, they are not really roped off at all and there are no real guards. Anna and I found ourselves a nice comfy place on one of the huge terraces and sat and read and slept with a incredible view of the valley bellow and off on one of the ruins there was a flute player who just filled the air with the most magical music, and again we were practically alone. It was almost as if you could imagine being back when this was an actual community. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring. They let you climb all over these ruins, and much of it can be very dangerous, the liability in Canada would be out of this world but here they just seem to trust that you wont fall some great distance and kill yourself. And most people are fine, it really makes you question how overly concerned with safety we are in Canada. At dusk we climbed down again into the town for another delicious meal and then to bed. ( I have been seriously catching up on my sleep lately, early to bed and late to rise).

The next day (april 23) we caught a local bus to the next town named Urabumba which the guide book describes as a ugly place but we both really liked it. It was not touristy at all. Most people to the sacred valley with a tour group and they mostly just go the ruins and skip the towns, especially this one, but it was great to be somewhere that was really just Peruvian. There was a great central market and we (after much searching) found a great hostel, eat some lunch and set off for the main drag where we after much arguing and bartering found a cabbie to take us to the local ruins that were to far out of town to walk to (the cab was also full of school children on their way home and we spent a funny twenty minutes trying to talk to them and telling them words they wanted to know in English ( on a side note they really crowd cars here in the cab there was Anna, I, the driver and 8 children, seat belts are not a concern. We also caught a collectivo between towns, which is like a vehicle slightly bigger than a mini van and it operates like a bus going between towns but you can get on and off anywhere and at one point there were at least 23 people in the mini van, it was intense, and that is not counting all of the stuff people have with them). These are the Moray ruins and they are very interesting. They are more terraced gardens but they are are circular terraces built down into natural indents in the earth, like mini canons. People are still not certain about their purpose but they have discovered that each level has a slightly different micro climate, they are all about 5 degrees different in temperature so it is thought they were used as testing grounds for crops to be used in the area or all over the empire. Again we were practically the only ones there. Catching the cab back, again i will not comment on the driving except to say that this guys seemed to consider driving on the right side of the road a mere suggestion) we got back to town safe and sound. After that we wondered around for a bit and started to notice there were these brooms with red plastic wrapped around the ends sticking out like flag poles from lots of the houses. We got curious. At one Anna kinda stuck her head in and this man promptly invited us in. We soon discovered that these were Chicha houses ( I have no idea about spelling here) it is an alcoholic brew made from corn and an in this case strawberries. It was really good. We got one is the huge glass out of this big pot on the floor. The room itself was crazy, it was low ceiling with on long table and some chairs and bags of who know what piled in one corner. It was dark, only the light from the door illuminated the place and there were about 8 locals in there drinking. Our host was pretty drunk and we found out he worked as a porter for the Inca trail. It was fun and mostly everyone just laughed at us trying to speak Spanish. After about 3 giant glasses between the two of us, Anna and I were definitely feeling it. Politely we declined more and stumbled our way back to our hostel. Later after a nap we got some dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we were set to go all the way to Aguas Calientes which is the town that you have to go to if you want to go to Machu Picchu. Getting there is expensive and a pain in the ass. Either you can take the train right from Cuzco, which costs a lot of money or you can take it from Ollantaytambo which is the town at the end of the Sacred Valley and it costs less. There is not really a road to Aguas Calientes, I mean there is but it is very backwards and hard to use and at some points dangerous so we decided just to take the train. So after catching a ride on another Collectivo we arrived in Ollantaytambo an hour before the train, bought our tickets and waited. The train ride is spectacular, it is down along the valley as it descends into jungle. It takes about an hour and a half to two hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Aguas Calientes (which means hot water because there are hot springs above the town) is situated at the meeting of two valleys. It is a really lovely tropical spot alongside rapids. But the town itself is crazy chimerical because it exists to serves tourists going to machu picchu. We found an alright place that was much cheaper than we expected and I explored the town. There is for sure a locals area and a tourist area. The town is tiny though and really cant expand much because it is surrounded by vertical mountains, which are covered in all sorts of jungle fauna. We ate dinner and went to bed early because we decided that instead of spending the 12 dollars to take the bus up to Machu Picchu (on top of the 40 dollar pass you had to buy to go, on top of the train ride) we were going to hike up. So at 4:30 am we set off in the dark with the barest of descriptions as to where we were supposed to be going. We wanted to be up at the top for sun rise. But neither of us had slept well (my stomach infection seems to have reappeared) walking down some completely black jungle road searching for a path up a mountain seemed slightly foolhardy. But we found the tail and we climbed and climbed and climbed. There were about 5 other people we ran into doing the hike up in the dark and one dog that seems to follow people up daily just for fun. It was a hard hike, all up and all stairs and parts were very steep. I ended up vomiting because of my stomach but we finally made it up to the top only to be made to wait for the site to open. From this point you cannot see to ruins so we waited in great suspense.

After a small problem with Anna's ticket, we walked around the corner and Machu Picchu appeared in front of us. And it is unbelievable. It looks just like you are walking into a postcard, it is perfect. We climbed to a high point on one side (where most of the post card pics are taken from) and watched the sun rise over the far mountains. The site is as unbelievable as the ruins themselves. It is perched on a mountain that is ringed by other mountains and far down in the valley below ringed by a river. All of the mountains are severely steep and covered in jungle green. Far away on one side of the ruins you can see a snow capped range. As dawn broke fog fell then lifted from the valleys giving the ruins an even more mysterious look and swallows flung themselves around us in great numbers. We wandered all over the ruins. I have been obsessed with this place since I was a kid so it was just awesome to be able to see it all in person. It is huge and there are so many aspects to it you could take days really exploring it all. Anna and I didn't hire a guide but I listened in on lots of the tours for interesting facts. We went for a hike around back of the ruins to a place called the Inca´s drawbridge. It was a narrow path winding around one of the mountain sides that ended in a totally vertical stone wall that the Inca´s had built a brick road in front of but left one section open, only spanned by logs that could be pulled back making the way impassible. I also climbed up Huayna Picchu (which means young mountain where Machu Picchu means old mountain) which is the peak that over looks Machu Picchu in all the post cards. It was a hard climb up but the view from the very top was incredible. I could look down on all of machu picchu like it was little. They even built buildings and terraced gardens all the way up there. It was madness and there were so many places you could just fall right off the mountain it was intense. I finally, after a bit of a nap on a terraced garden, climbed down to Machu Picchu, did a bunch more exploring, they even have llamas wandering around it is hilarious. There are also so many amazing wildflowers up there, they really add to the magical feeling. I finally convinced myself to walk down at about 5pm. Exhausted I rolled into town ate some needed food (I did a lot of hiking) and then promptly fell asleep.

The next day we took the train back to the town where we boarded it and then grabbed a collective taxi (ie shared it with a bunch of people) back to Cuzco. One of the dudes was super chatty and told me he worked as a guide at Machu Picchu and all about being a porter on the Inca trail as well, he was very fit. The driver of the cab was a bit nuts, he almost drove straight into a bolder that had fallen in the road (we were on some narrow back road) when he was trying to change the radio station and passing on blind corners is a national past time here. We made it back to Cuzco safe and sound and mostly chilled out for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I visited Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman) an old Inca military fortress that sits high above Cuzco, it was pretty cool. And Anna and I booked our flight to the jungle, Puerto Maldonado. We are going to spend about a week there and then fly from there to Lima. We wanted to see the jungle one last time and we also wanted to avoid the insanely long bus ride from Cuzco to Lima. After that I am heading up the coast and then on to Ecuador.

Cocacabana, Lake Titicaca, The Island of the Sun, a floating island and one of the best places I have ever been!

So lets see I left off last time with getting back to La Paz. So we spent another day or two there and then we were off for Cocacabana which is on the Bolivian part of Lake Titicaca. We had to take a smaller bus because at one point we had to get off and take a ferry across this straight while the bus had to be loaded on to this raft like barge and boated across and a full sized bus would have been too big. We reached Cocacabana at sun set and it was just beautiful. It is a small, pretty hippy, touristy town, but it is beautiful and had such clean air compared with La Paz. We got a hostel and just crashed the first night. The next day was glorious. It was clear and the lake is amazing, Anna never having been to the great lakes couldn't get over the fact that it was a lake not the ocean because it looks so big. There are all of these trout stands by the shores of the lake, that is the major fish they catch here, but as it turns out it is not a native species but was put there by westerners. The trout was fresh caught that day and amazingly delicious. And I am not even a big fish person. Then we walked down the beach. Anna was feeling a bit sick so she stayed on a pier and I ventured all the way around this big point until I could see into the next bay. Then I sat in a cave and just stared out at the lake. It is a truly wonderful place. It kinda feels spiritual, I know that sounds silly but it does. Finally I ventured back, picked up Anna and we headed into town. We hung out there for a bit then we climbed up the steep hill that shoots up on one side of Cocacabana. It is hard climbing up anything at this altitude and it took us some huffing and puffing and a bit of time. But at the top there is this long line of giant crosses and a plaza. We sat up there and watched the sun set over the lake and the Island of the sun which you can see from Cocacabana. It was great. All around this area are ancient terraced gardens which people still farm. They shape all of the steep hills into puzzles of fences and ridges. I was the last person on the hill and had to climb down the steep and jagged stairs in the dark. I made it down safety found Anna and we went to dinner. Then we hung out at this pretentious cafe that I (obviously) didn't really like then went to bed only to listen to a huge thunderstorm shake the sky, I love storms. We woak up to a clear day and we were off to the Island of the sun, which is supposed to be the birth place of the first Inca and the first in a number of energy points that lead to Cuzco (which also includes the two islands I visit later). It is about an hour and a half boat ride to get there. I wrapped myself up in all of my layers and sat up on top of the boat, out side for the whole trip. The boat takes up to the north end of the island and you spend a number of hours working your way to the south end where the boat picks you up again. It was a great day, we saw a number of ruins and the island itself is spectacular. We ended the trip with a beer in the last village on the south end of the island. All towns in this area are built on steep hills, because everything is a steep hill, and this village was no exception. It was a long and steep decent to the boats. And as we walked down there were all of these women hauling up cement or brick building blocks up in their cloth packs. They haul up every single block to build the houses. It is a lot of work. The women here are really really tough, they do everything, they are always carrying these huge loads and do all of the cooking, looking after the kids and make all of the handy crafts and they run all of the markets we have every been to. It is really impressive. Anyway Anna and I took the boat back just before sunset, had dinner and chilled out. We were pooped and I got way to much sun and had really silly burn lines around where my sunglasses had been.

The next day we checked out of our hostel, Anna found another because she was staying in Cocacabana because she still was not feeling well, then we went out for breakfast and then trout ( I eat way to much!) and then I got on a bus to Puno in Peru. The trip went fine until I got to the border and it turns out I had to pay some sort of fine that I still don't really understand because I couldn't understand what the border guard was saying but I think I over stayed my visa. I was lucky I had some money on my at all, barely enough. Then back on the bus and into puno. Puno is no Cocacabana, it is a work a day town, not pretty at all. And I guess in Peru people don't have to pay as much tax on an unfinished building so most of the new buildings are never finished completely so they don't have to pay the tax, but it leaves the town with a very unfinished look. Well I found a hotel, settled in and booked an Island tour for the next day.

Waking bright and early the next day (after some unexplained middle of the night yelling) I was ready to go. A mini bus came and picked me up and then a bunch of other people and we ended up at the docks and got onto a pretty nice boat and we were off. The first stop was about a half and hour out of Puno harbour (now remember this is all on Lake Titicaca as well) we went to these floating islands. Which are crazy and an incredible human invention, but oddly placed in sight of this grubby working town, but they have been there forever since Inca times. These islands are built on the floating roots of the reed that grow in the area. On top of the floating roots people place layer after layer of reeds, until you can build on it and it feel pretty sturdy although when wave pass under it you can feel the whole thing go up and down, kinda like a water bed. All of the houses, which are tiny one room places, are also built from reeds and they have reed boats as well. It was an amazing sight. So cool and our guide explained the whole history to us it was very interesting. These islands are about two meters thick and they float on more than 15 meters of water. And we got to go for a ride on one of the reed boats. After that we had a three hour trip out to the island that we were going to spend the night on. Now this island is a regular old rock island but it was amazingly beautiful. Of any small place (ie not big city) I have seen I would choose to live here. It was incredible! The island has about 4000 people on it and has not one car. All of the people there are basically subsistence farmers who work the islands hundreds of terraced gardens. When we got to the island we were assigned the families we were going to be staying with. Me and this Israeli couple stayed with this family, Maria and Martin who had two kids one was four and the other just a baby. They were very nice, and they made us lunch and dinner that day and breakfast the next. We ate pretty typical food which they grow there, mostly potatoes and quinoa. It was tasty. We also had this tea made out of this type of mint that grows there, I loved it I wish it grew at home.

I spoke more Spanish than the Israelis, although they mostly speak a native language on the island. But I tried to talk to the couple a bit, Maria turned out to be 29 which was crazy to see some one of a similar age but totally different life. She cooked over an open fire in a clay base in this little separate house that was the kitchen, the fire is in this tiny alcove that she has a seat so she sits there as she cuts up veggies, cooks and stokes the fire. It was great to stay with a family like that and really get to interact with them. I would have liked to get to know her better she was very a interesting impressive person. After lunch and resting for a bit we set off to climb to the top of one of the hills on the island where there was an old temple ie rock wall enclosure to the Earth father, on the opposite hill was a temple to the earth mother who is most revered in this area. We watched the sun set from the top of the hill and then went back for dinner. After dinner the family dressed us in traditional outfits and we went out to a party with a band and everything. I did a bit of dancing but it was hard at that altitude as well as with how tight Maria had tied on my skirt. Finally we wandered back with the moon showing us the way. It was perfectly quiet, no cars, no lights just animal noises. I fell asleep pretty quickly, I wanted to also because if I had to go pee they wanted me to use a chamber pot and I just wanted it to be morning so I could use the outhouse.

The morning brought a wonderful breakfast and a goodbye to the family and we were off for another island. Similar to the one we had just been on but smaller. I cannot emphasise enough how beautiful these places are, with everyone just walking everywhere and the noise of sheep in the air. The whole island is carved up into these ancient terraced gardens. We walked up for a while until we reached the main plaza where we hung out. Everyone here still wears the traditional cloths and all the woman are constantly pulling wool on these spools. We had a lunch of trout and then we did some more hiking and finally we were off for Puno, three hours away. Now I am back in Puno and I have booked my bus tomorrow, very early for Cuzco and I am excited. I have heard such great things about the city. So much history. Hope you are all well!

extra

publish pictures from this computer and I didn't take any of the highway for death but I found some on the Internet that are closer if you are interested.

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/russ/page-8.html

This guys blog has some pictures of the road if you go down it a bit. But also remember even the pictures he has are not as bad as it got. Imagine that but narrower and with a straight drop down the one side, no vegetation what so ever.

http://www.break-fresh-ground.com/photos/1250/1111/14/46641.jpg

here is another one. there are lots of death road on the internet and then just picture worse and not rock!

Where to start: One infected stomach, Biking down Death Road, The REAL Death Road, A Jungle tour and madness!

well well well. I am not even sure where to start because it has been a wild ride and it has not stopped for some time now. To begin with Anna and I spent about a week in La Paz. It is an awesome city, huge and old and crowded and exciting but I was quite sick and could not really enjoy the fun. I had been feeling sick, all bloated and unable to keep down much food for a while, about two weeks but it just got worse in La Paz, I wasn't able to eat at all and really only felt up to lying in bed. So finally after one very horrible sleepless, sick, feverish night I decided to get some help. I would always feel OK in the morning before I would eat anything or did anything. So the next morning feeling better Anna and I set off to find the Canadian embassy to ask them where I should go to get help. The embassy was awesome they are all so nice, helpful and friendly. They had all of these photo books on Canada which made me feel pretty homesick. Anyway they gave me a list of doctors and let me call my mom for free and then we ran into the Consular and he just sat and talked to us about his work and travels for a while as well as printed us out a copy of the news feed he got so we could read some international news. From there we set off to the private clinic (which was very expensive in Bolivian terms, I am sure very few can afford to go to the private clinic). They were nice there as well and the doctor kinda spoke English which was good because I don't know any of the Spanish words for what I was feeling like. After some tests and such they decided I had a stomach infection and that I needed an IV and an Antibiotic drip so my first IV was lying in a Bolivian clinic while nurses would come in and start talking to me and asking me things in a language I didn't understand. Finally they let me go and I just have to take some pills everyday. The next day I was feeling better and was starving because I hadn't eaten in a week. So I proceed to not follow the doctors orders and eat little by little, instead I chose to eat a lot by a lot, finishing the day with a bowl of Indian curry (the first curry place we have found and I couldn't resist) We also spent the day booking our next activities. One of the things to do around La Paz is to mountain bike down the so called Death Road. It is this very dangerous highway that worked its way from La Paz to city called Chulumani. The highway is mostly a single lane and runs up the side of a steep mountain. The road has no railing and in lots of parts the drop off, straight down mind you, next to the road is 300 feet. It is intense and crazy. And very dangerous, there have been hundreds of deaths on the highway including bus loads of people whose drivers just fell asleep (they drive crazy hours) or just made some small mistake and drove right off the road (easy to do when your margin of error is less than a foot.) There are also waterfalls that fall right on to the highway and all that delightful jazz. There is a new highway now that is much safer but some people still use the old one because it is a half and hour quicker, craziness!!! I really cannot emphasise enough how nuts this road is. Now the road is mostly used by bikers biking down it, which is still an intense experience.

I end up not sleeping at all after eating the curry which just set my stomach off and ruined all of the doctors good work. I felt like shit when I woke up and got ready to go on a down hill mountain biking adventure. We started early getting to the La Paz office by 7:15 am. We ate breakfast there ( I didnt really because I felt like throwing up the whole time) And then we set off. We drove up the new highway and started up very very high in a dense curtain of clouds. We got out of the bus (there were 5 of us in my group plus the guide and the mini bus driver). We got suited up in rain pants and top (it is very cold up there, my fingers went numb very soon on and damp and we were going to be biking under those prementioned waterfalls later). I felt terrible at this point and found a somewhat secluded (which is hard in an alpine plain) place to throw up a couple of times and then we were off. We were biking down the new highway at the beginning, which is nice and smooth and paved and only alittle scary when cars and trucks pass us, but I am pretty used to that from biking at home. The bikes are awesome and we just fly down hill, hardly braking at all. It is amazing scenery, Andean mountains and plains and a snaking river and little villages. And we were just blasting down the hill. The first stop was a check point, there are lots of these in Bolivia, I am not completely sure of there purpose but soon we were off again. This part was great smooth and a bit like flying. Then we reach the 8 km we had to bike up hill. Now it was not particularly steep or long but being as high as we were any kind of physical activity is damn difficult. I managed to bike most of it but had to walk up the last hill. But this expense of energy really set me off feeling pretty sick again and my stomach was none to pleased with my decision to bike up hill. After the uphill section we were off again on another down hill ride until we reached the begining of the old highway, aka Death Road. It was much different from the new highway. It was gravel and steeper with sharper turns and if you missed them you would go shooting off into space and die, more than one person a year does that while biking on this road. All over the place there are crosses and memorials to the people that have died on this road, and the guide would say things like ¨This is Italian corner because an Italian biked off here two years ago etc, etc, etc.¨ How delightful. Now I tried to take the road as fast as possible but I believe I have a very strong desire to live and thus was not at the front of the pack. But it was an unbelievable ride. We descended into jungle territory and the road snaked along this insanely steep mountain that shoots right down into a spectacular gorge. As we descended out of the clouds it was a clear day and the temperature kept getting hotter and hotter. It was crazy to see the ecosystem and environment change so drastically on one bike ride. And man was my heart in my throat for the whole thing. We got to bike under water falls and stop and look out at some amazing views and it was so much fun to just glide down hill for so long. But by the end of it my stomach had gotten the better of me and I was just trying to finish without dying. We finished the bike ride by riding down into this small tropical village with chicken, dogs and children everywhere. Now Anna and I had planed to continue on and do a jungle tour after this so we needed to get to Rurrenabaque first which is a small town in the Bolivian area of the Amazon basin. We were told by the Biking company that we could buy are tickets for the bus (which was a lot cheaper than the plane) in this small town. And thus we did. We booked with this woman at the local store and she didn't even bat an eye at us only asking if we preferred the mountain side or the valley side. We decided that the valley side would probably be much more beautiful so we stuck ourselves there. We were even pleased to find out that the bus could pick us up right outside the door of the country hostel we were going to stay at that night (it was were the bike tour ended with a big old lunch). Well everything just seemed to be turning out for us! So we headed off to the hostel, which was idyllic and in the country where it was hot and there were beautiful flowers and banana trees everywhere and even a pool. Anna and I spent the rest of the day lying about and enjoying the rest. The hills around there were amazingly steep but there were all of these terraced farms up so high on these hills in these tiny patches of order. I don't even know how people walked around on these hills they were so steep and they have little houses up there and everything.

We we spent the morning doing some more nothing. Our bus wasn't supposed to arrive until 3 pm and so we just hung out. The drive to Rurrenabaque was supposed to take around 15 hrs or more so it was going to be a long over night haul but I was ready for just chilling out and listening to my i pod etc. I have gotten used to long bus rides. We were told that the road was pretty crap but that really isn't anything special in Bolivia. We were expecting the usual crap, gravel roads, rivers over the road, lots of ruts and stops. Nothing that we haven't experienced many times before so were not worried in the least. Sitting out on the highway we waited to flag down our bus as one just whipped by us. It wasn't labeled with the same company name as the bus were were looking for, however this is a very common occurrence, and we started to get worried that our bus had passed by. What were we going to do? But never fear our bus came rolling right along and stopped for us, no problem. It was a tall bus up on huge off roading wheels, the kind on many buses here because of the roads they drive. It is the kinda bus that feels pretty top heavy because everyone is sitting up so high and under us is only the baggage storage, no bathroom mind you, not for a 15 hour journey, come on in Bolivia two stops is considered more than sufficient. We climbed on finally finding our seats that had been taken by others and we sit down. I am stoked and just stare out at the beautiful scenery. Anna is sitting in the window seat and I on the aisle. Well about 20 mins into our journey my whole perspective changes. We are driving on the craziest, stupidest most fucking (and I need to swear in this section to get my point across) insane road that I have ever been on. Now the day before on the death road we had made many comments like, man you would be crazy to drive on this road, it is pure madness and insanely dangerous and listened to many stories about buses driving off the road and all that. I really believed that since it had its name and reputation the Death Road was the worst road of its type in Bolivia and they had a new highway so it really wasn't so bad. Was I ever wrong. The Death Road was actually just the best known of such highways and I was now driving on to another. I have NEVER been so scared in my entire life. It was the worst experience I think I have ever had. I was totally consumed with Terror and I am not over exaggerating at all. This fucking top heavy bus lumbers its way on to the most insane road (even more than the death road) I have ever seen. It was suicidal. The road was cut into a mountain side that was basically straight up and down. It was a one lane ridge that just clung to the mountainside above a more than 300 foot straight down drop into the gorge below. Now this road wasn't even cut into rock like the death road but this red dirt that is everywhere here and erodes like crazy so the edge of this narrow one lane road was totally eroding away. There are no barriers, there is no wiggle room, you either do it perfectly or you die. We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. There were sections of this road where the bus was right up against the mountain on one side and had less than 4 inches between the outside wheel and the abyss of death. From where I sat I couldn't even see any road out the window only the river winding its way along way down below us. I almost started to panic as the bus would lumber its way onto these sections of road that were in no way flat and would sway percarioulsy out back and forth out over the edge. My heart almost stopped. We passed tiny settlements on this road, a couple houses here and there tucked along the road in the barest tiniest more precarious of spots. I almost made Anna get out at one because I didn't think I could keep going. It just seemed so stupid to risk your life in this way. But then what we would be stuck there and this bus did this everyday so we decided to stick with it. There were points that it was so unbelievably bad Anna couldn't even look so she would bury her head in my shoulder and we would hold hands. I couldn't really move with the terror of it. I just put on my ipod, stared straight a head, gripped my armrest like it would some how protect me if we fell 300 feet and prayed to every deity I have ever heard of. I didn't take any pictures sorry. I had no desire to lean out the window and face the insanity of that road full on, I wanted to do no leaning out over an abyss at all. Also, vehicles drive on the left, as opposed to the right like the rest of Bolivia. This gives the driver in a left-hand-drive vehicle a better view over their outside wheel, making passing safer. At one point we reached one of the rare sections of road where there were two lanes but there were two dump trucks what needed room to get by and to maneuver this we had to back up, god damn reverse up along this narrow narrow highway of death. I couldn't hardly breath as they did this little maneuver. Then later while picking are way along one of the more dangerous, eroded and narrow parts of the highway we hit a couple of really deep pot holes that caused us to sway erratically and dangerously wide out over the precipice. Now the Bolivians on the bus were all treating this like it was nothing, this is the only highway to tons of little and not so little towns in the jungle so they had just accepted the danger of it as if it were nothing. Yet as we hit those pot holes there was a collective intake of breath across the bus. It was beyond terrifying. And not only was this road narrow but it was super winding so we were always going around insanely sharp blind corners, not so fun. We finally descended and followed the river at the base of the valley which was still a damn scary ride but nothing to what we had been through. Reaching our first stop, a town of at least a couple hundred people (now remember all supplies etc have to come in along that fucking insane road) and getting off and I nearly kissed the dirty ground. We had dinner, food never tasted so good. I had been sure I was going to die so this was a nice change. I got to talking with a couple from the bus, mid thirties and the guy told me he had jumped out of planes and done a lot of crazy things but he had never been so terrified in his life. I agreed. The rest of the long and bumpy bus trip was scary and windy and dangerous and then dark, but nothing as bad as the first two hours. Although in the dark you just couldn't see the abyss, which doesn't really make it better. It was a very very very bumpy ride with the bus swaying side to side with the huge pot holes made it feel like we might tip over at any point. I didn't sleep a wink.

We finally reached Rurrenabaque at about 6:30 am. and I have never been so happy to get anywhere ever. I really thought I wasn't going to see another day for points on that bus. We were planing on staying a day and finding a tour booking it and leaving the next day but there was a woman at the bus stop from a company we had heard of and they need people to go that day so we went back to her office. We unpacked some of our stuff, ate some breakfast, wrote a quick email and then we were off again. This time we piled into a 4 by 4 with five other people (4 kiwis and an Aussie) in the back and the guide, drive and cook in the front. Now the seats were pretty uncomfortable and were lining the sides of the truck so we were always facing sideways. We had to drive for more than 3 hours down this dirt road to get to the river to start our tour. It was a very dusty dusty road. Everything here is either dusty or lush. The soil out here in the jungle is fine and red and great when it is covered in jungle but just terrible and dusty as hell in road form. And as I mentioned before it erodes like hell. This road had the worst pot holes I have ever seen. They were at least 4 feet deep in some parts. Needless to say after not sleeping for more than a day this was a rough go. We finally reached the river where the Pampas tour was to begin. The pampas is an area that is basically like a huge marsh, mangrove style park with tons of wild life and huge trees. We then board this really long shallow dug out canoe style boat with a little engine on the back. We spent the next couple of hours boating through the Pampas to our camp. There were lots of other groups doing the same thing and about 5 camps. It was an amazing ( I know I say that a lot but lots of things are amazing) trip. We saw so many kinds of birds ( I always think of you Greenwood when I see all the birds knowing you would know what kind they are) some were big and some small, lots of colors. We saw hawks and birds of paradise and all sorts. We saw our first pink river dolphin but we would see lots but it is pretty fucking cool to see a dolphin in a river. We saw a couple kinds of monkeys, including these really cute little ones that were hilarious to watch. We finally reached our camp. A couple of thatched roof houses on stilts. We dropped our stuff off had a snack and then headed out to watch the sun set at another camp where you can buy cold beer, and it is still only about 2 dollars even all the way out here in the middle of a jungle swamp at the end of the craziest road I ever thought existed. Then as the mosquitoes came out we boarded the boat again and went to look at crocodiles in the dark. Their eyes turn red in the light so they are easy to spot. WE find a couple and our guide catches a small one with his hands and we all get to hold it and look at it before we let it go. The sky was also so beautiful. It was clear and you could see a million stars, I have come to be able to the recognize the southern cross. There were also tons of fireflies which kept looking like shooting stars in the sky. We finally headed back to camp and ate dinner and went to bed under mosquito nets, although I am pretty sure there were also bats in our room. Anna and I just passed right out since we hadn't slept in almost two days.

The camp kinda smelled moldy in parts because of the dampness. And man was it hot. It was unbelievably hot. In the sun it was blazing. We woak up the next morning had breakfast, all the food was pretty good actually, then we went out in rubber boots to look for anacondas. I guess it is a bad time of year to find them because it is so wet they are all further in the Pampas in giant swamps but as soon as we got to the swamp we were going to and exited the boat we ran right into one. It was big but not huge and we could get so close I pet it. It was very smooth but after a while it seemed to get pretty annoyed with us so we left it alone and went walking around the swamp for a while. We saw another bigger crocodile. Then back to camp to get in our swim gear, we were going swimming. Now this did seem a touch crazy and scary since we had already seen crocodiles and anacondas and we were going to go fishing for piranhas later but we were to swim with dolphins. We reached this circular open area in the river system where lots of dolphins like to go. The water is so murky that once you are in you can barley make out our hand below the water and seeing your foot or even waist is a lost cause. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins but this isn't the perfect situation. But with that bus ride under my belt not much can scare me now. I just compare the new activity with the bus ride and it comes out smelling like roses so I dive right in. There are maybe five dolphins in the clearing,you can see them when they surface, and the guides always throw in water bottles or balls for them to play with but other then when they surface you have no idea where they are and as a game they like to bite your feet. Now not through the skin mind you but it is shocking to have your feet bitten in this murky amazonian water. So it was a bit nerve wreaking but pretty awesome. They never bit my feet but I tried to keep them near the surface. We spent about 2 hours playing with the dolphins then it was back to camp for lunch. After lunch we rested in the heat of the day then we went piranha fishing. We had to reach this tiny river system down this rapids because I guess that is the best area for piranhas. Dolphins eat them so there are not that many in the dolphin areas thank the lord. You just kind jig for them with fishing line with meat on the end. I turned out to have all the luck and caught three piranas (two yellow and one red) and a sardine. The red ones were bigger and more dangerous and our guide showed us how they bite by having the red one bite a huge chunk out of one of the smaller dead yellow ones and it was scary. It took a huge chunk out of the other fish. And man does it have been teeth. We ran into a couple other groups, from one of whom there were two guys swimming, our guide told them it was a bad idea because of the piranas and also the crocodiles got bigger around there. Man boys can be dumb sometimes trying to show off. Anyway we went to watch the sun set again and sat in hammocks and drank really cold beer, it was great. Then we went back and eat dinner (which included fried piranha which was pretty good but really fry anything and it is good) and chilled out. We got up at 5:30 am the next morning to go out in the dark and listen to the howler monkeys which sound more like dogs or lions. Then we just paddled down stream listening to the jungle nosies as the sun rose. There was also a huge storm cloud in the distance that gave us a pretty amazing lightning show. Then back for breakfast, then out again to look at wild life and swim with some more dolphins, which was hilarious, they really do seem to have a sense of humour. Then back again for lunch, during which a pretty big crocodile climbed up right near the kitchen on the bank of the river and our guide fed him by hand a piece of meat and then he just sat around sunning himself for the rest of the afternoon. After lunch we were back in the boat with all of our stuff and headed back to the starting point of the river. On the way back we saw a bunch more wild life including a capabara, which is the largest rodent in the world and is pretty damn cute. Once we got back at the starting point and unpacked the boat the truck hadn't go there so we sat around in the shade and waited. It was so hot that you just sweated buckets in the shade not doing anything. Finally our truck arrived and we piled in for another hot and dust and bumpy drive back. The drive back took a bit less time because he went faster but damn I was exhausted by the time we got back. We were all tired, covered in dust with the sorest bums around. We had all planed to stay in Rurrenabaque for a night, wash up relax and then fly out the next day (no way I was getting back on that bus for hell or high water) But because you can never really plan anything down here we were told on our arrival that our flight had been switched to an hour from our now so hot, tired, dusty and dirty and sweaty as hell the seven of us had to run around pack the stuff we left behind, get our plane tickets from their down town office, get food and water, get a cab to the air port and catch our flight. It was a damn hectic 1 hr that we hadn't expected, we were all dreaming of showers. But we finally made it to the air port (the one building on a grass run way) after getting felafels from a crazy old hippy American dude who was living out in the jungles of Bolivia so the US government doesn't implant his skin with micro chips (insane but good food). We climb onto the little plane, dirtiest people around find our seats and settle in exhausted. The flight takes barely an hour and soon we are narrowing in on the lights of La Paz. We land, no problem, we are almost there, almost finished a very very long day when Anna mumbles something incoherent to me then passes out. Now we both knew she was bad with altitude and we had just gained a bunch in an hour flying from the jungle to La Paz. So I talked to her and made her wake up and talk to me but she was still kind out of it. So we waited to be the last to exit the plane, and the kiwis help me carry her stuff to the one room airport. We sat her down and waited for our baggage to arrive and then Anna got much worse. She couldnt breath right and started loosing consciousness and crying and wasnt able to talk then she just passing out for a while. I am trying to keep her conscious by talking to her and making her look at me, I got a cab to take her to the hospital but she kept getting worse. The air port people were completely useless and couldn't even figure out how to give her oxygen. These two Israeli med students stepped in and helped me, they said she was just hyperventilating and put a plastic bag over her mouth and told her to breath in through her nose and out her mouth. She was finally ok after a while but she was really in and out of it and it freaked the hell out of me because I didn't know what to do other than to keep her conscious and try to be calm. It was really scary. I am going to take more first aid when I get back because it is really shitty not to know what to do. And I didn't think she was hyperventilating because she wasn't even breathing that much. Well after all of that. We caught a cab to our hotel that we were staying at in La Paz and chilled out for the rest of the evening. Anna was doing much better and the Israelis said that all she need to do was take it easy I could have kissed them. And now here we are back in La Paz after quite the whirlwind of terror, adventure and excitement.

La Paz . . . what can I say you have to see it yourself

Lets see if I can recount the last little while. Volunteering at the orphanage was amazing. The kids were great and if anyone is ever looking for a cause to donate to this place is an amazing one that really needs it. I really learned about what a difference one person can make, Sister Josephine was very inspiring. We really didn´t get up to much else in Cochabamba. I did become some thing of a spend thrift and bought myself a very cute 30 dollar guitar that I am in love with but really don´t need to be carrying around. Anyway we just marketed it up and wandered around town. There was some huge protest going on the whole time we were there in the town centre that I never fully understood but there were always crazy crowds and people giving speeches and then a whole bunch of guys pretending to be crucified. I think it might have had to do with the referendum that is happening now. The country is basically on strike at the moment and it is hard to find bus companies that are operating through the strike, I am sure at some risk to themselves and their property. Anyway we left Cochabamba yesterday, March 31st the last day before the strike. It was an awesome bus ride out. All up hill into the mountains, spectacular scenery. We got up high enough that there was snow on the ground, and remember it is summer down here. Then we reached La Paz. Now I can´t really say enough about driving into La Paz, you reach the outskirts and the chaos around the airport and it is nothing really new, just lots of crowds etc. And then you reach La Paz itself and you are completely blown away. La Paz sits in this huge valley ringed by mountains, the entire valley basically leads up the foot of this immense beautiful snow covered mountain. So as the bus reaches the lip of the valley your eyes are greeted with this huge city that just fills the valley, all the way up the valley sides. It is almost like flying into the city because you are so high up to begin with. Words don´t really describe it, sorry it was just breathtaking. La Paz is an insane city. I love it. It is old and chaotic and hustling and bustling and every street is either straight up or down, which is damn tiring to walk around. I am staying in the area around the ´witches market´ where there are all of these stalls selling everything for potions, including llama fetuses and exotic things from the jungle. There are bad things about the city too including the fact that there is so much exhaust that settles everywhere making the air thick and kinda gross some times. And as I said the streets are crazy steep. But I haven´t really had much time to explore, Anna and I went out walking around today to just take in the sights and I started to feel really really sick. All nauseous and dizzy and ill. I went back and laid down and felt even worse. I was feverish and achy and very very ill. I had pretty serious altitude sickness, which I found weird because it hasn´t affected me before and I have been higher than this but I think that it was a really rapid altitude gain from Cochabamba and it kicked me in the ass. I couldn´t even get out of bed until our friend Madeline (from the salt flats tour we met up with her here) came to see me and gave me some altitude pills which have really helped but I still feel like crap. But I am sure tomorrow I will be doing much better. And I am excited to see more of La Paz. From the window of our room we can see out over the valley and the old church spires and roofs of the houses that lead up the base of the incredible mountain that sits at the end of it all. Just unbelievable. Miss you all.