Pampus and Jungle, Amazon Basin, Bolivia

We ventured into amazon to see what the hype was about. The tour consisted of 3 days in what they call the Pampas, 2 days jungle. There was lots to see and I´m less than well after last night so we´re going heavy on the pics and light on the text in this one.

PAMPAS

First day 3 hour drive out to the pampas in an 89 jeep on a dirt road.. soar ass. Hop in a long boat, start cruising down the river checking for wildlife.

First sighting is turtles, they like each other...


This becomes a familiar sight inside 10 minutes. Without notice the guide stops the boat, throws it in reverse and backs up to a bush on the side of the river. He points inside the bush, we look... an alligator 4 feet away. We´re in awe. We praise the keen eye of our guide. Little do we know there´s another gator every 40 feet on the bank.

apparently it´s within bolivian safety standards to nose the boat into the bank as close as possible to the gators.

Spot some monkeys in the trees. We pull up, they get curious and come down.


This area is also home to the world´s biggest rodent, the capybara...

It starts pissing rain, we get to camp, set up, have dinner and pack it in. Next morning we hike the flats beside the river in search of an anaconda. Our guide ditches us on the side of this lagoon to go dive his arms into bushes searching for an anaconda, he´s a braver man than I. This search takes him into those bushes in the background and out of sight for a good half hour. During this time, we contemplate our future should he not return.

Hike drags on for 5 hours. no anaconda.

Post lunch we head out to a bay on the river to do some swimming with dolphins. Our guide assures us that should an alligator decide to get frisky, the dolphins would take care of business. With little belief in this statement, we decide to go swimming anyways.
Next morn we wake up early and head out to a field in the pampas to check out the sunrise. It doesn´t disappoint.

After breaky, we go pirahna fishing. Our guide shows us how. Turns out it´s not georgian bay, I´m just bad a fishing. Our guide however cleans up with 5 pirahnas inside 5 minutes.

On the way home, we spot at bird taking down a fish.

JUNGLE

We take a boat out from the central town, Rurrenabaque. 3 hours, pretty scenic.

Get to camp, lunch, siesta and start up on a jungle hike.

We thought T had conquered his fear of heights on death road.... we were wrong.

We find a plant whose leaves the natives would squeeze to get juice for face paint. Lindo finds another use more fitting for himself.. rouge.

There were big trees.

Watering hole.

This is a walker tree. it can break and regrow those roots to move up to 5 meters over 2 years.

There was a chick in our group allergic to bees. Unfortunate for her..

We got back from the jungle, had lunch and hopped on some bike taxis to the airport. Flights were delayed a day ´cuz the grass runway was to slick for landing after rain.

one love,

mark

Death Road

Mountain biking down death road wasn´t exactly my activity of choice being that i am not comfortable of heights however it turned out to be quite an experience.

This one lane dirt road was major transporation route up until 1.5 years ago when it was replaced by a new highway. Biking down we dropped roughly 3200 metres with a 400 metre drop at times on your left. When it was used as a transport road 300 to 400 people died on it each year making it the most dangerous stretch of highway in the world.Lindo continues to look great and he also managed to score us a free place to stay in South Africa from our mountain guide.

The weather change was dramatic with freezing tempurates at the top to hot humid temps at the bottom.Marks thyroid issue persissted however he was able to battle through it on the ride, what a trooper.

Thirnan

Lake Titicaca, Bolivia side

For all those that are wondering Mark´s thyroid saga continues. We had a travel day from Machu Picchu to lake titicaca what was supposed to take 10 hours ( train and bus). We payed a little extra to be on a more reliable bus. Money not well spent the bus broke down anyways. Bus drivers in South America drive nuts by the way.

To pass the 3 hours that we were stranded in the middle of knowwhere we played a little disk. The locals on the bus started demanding that they get their money back and there a was a near riot.

We hopped the border to the Bolivian town of Copacabana located on lake Titicaca. Bolivia has a bit of a bum wrap but the people are really nice and things have been great so far. We spent a night on an island located on the lake called isla del sol. It was and awesome place.

This little girl was selling straw Lama dolls randomly on this path and we felt that we should buy one. I gave her an extra Canadian flag that i had. We later realised that her parents were hiding behind the bushes feeding her sales pitch lines. Great pic

We have decided the straw lama will be our mascotte for the trip. We named it Cloudia after the little girl.

Maenchu Pichu (as T would say)

Now that T has arrived, the trip has started, for all of us. I needed someone to fill the void left by Marieke and T stepped up to the plate (see below).


This is machu picchu. so are the rest of the pictures. enjoy.


before I continue sidenote, the story of Paul (Lindo) Cole: the help at our place in cusco once described this young man as ¨lindo¨ - a complement of beauty having no comparison. Since then, he has received free shots and a contract offer to model for paint stores in bolivia.

we arose at 5 to hit the ruins before the crowds could swarm. Lindo looked as good as ever. We climbed Waynapicchu when it opened at 7. It´s the peak in the background of all the classic pics. Incase you haven´t seen enough in the past, here´s an original.


The hike was steep, with minimal guardrails. Peru´s safety standards are a little different.


The view from ontop was insane. We watched the fog roll out over the course of a couple hours.

As you may be able to tell we like cliffs.. and the back of our heads, so expect many more pics of both.

The Yanapay School, Cusco, Peru

Although we did not get to volunteer as long as we would have liked (the school wanted us to have a little spanish under out belt first), we spent the last week helping out at a school in the afternoons. The kids in Cusco generally go to school from 8:00am to 1.00 pm. Many of the adults of poorer families will work until dark,or later, and are unable to come home and look after the kids. The idea of the school is to give the kids somewhere to go to help with their homework, improve their reading, writing, math, do arts and crafts, play, make friends, and keep them from wandering the streets. A local guy here (Yuri) started up the school after he graduated (i think he´s in his late 20´s). He funds the school through a restaurant that he started to support the project. He´s currently in the process of opening up a hostel and a second school for another 40 kids (current school is about 60 kid). The theme of the school is love. As soon as you walk in the door, every kid greats you with ¨Hola Profe¨and a kiss on the cheek. Some of the cutest kids I have ever seen.

On halloween, we took the kids out into the town. Yuri likes the kids to give as well as receive on halloween, so last year he had them all out in the main square with signs giving out ¨free hugs and kisses.¨ This year, his idea was to have the kids hand out candy, especially to adults who dont take part in halloween. Of course after the kids all got their fair share of candy too.
Definately a very rewarding experience, and Yuri was truely one of the most inspiring people I´ve every met. The webiste is below if you want to read anymore about it:

http://aldeayanapay.org/

Tipon, Pisaq, Sacsayhuamán, Peru

Some other day trips and hikes from Cusco. Tipon is a set of massive terraces p on a hillside. The ruins were pretty cool, but the views of the valley are what make the trip worthwhile.

Pisaq holds one of the largest markets in the area, happening every tues, thurs, sat. A lot of traditional peruvian clothes, jewelery and nick nacks. Also a lot of junk geared toward tourists. The highlight was how cheap everything was. Alpaca sweaters starting at 30 soles ($10). If only we didn´t have to carry our stuff for another 9 months!

Sacsayhuamán (pronounced almost exactly ¨sexy woman¨...no joke) is a set of ruins set ona hillside directly above Cusco. Some think the walls were for protection, some think it is a religious site, and some that is was used to form the head of a puma if seen from above. The method for the precise joining of the massive rocks is still unknown.

Cusco, Peru

Our last day in Cusco, Thirnan joined us today. Cusco is a lovely city high up in the mountains (3200m i think) After our aformentioned issues with the elevation and food, things have been great. The school we great, we had some really good teachers, and picked up enough spanish to get by pretty well, and hopefully improve upon as we travel more. The family we stayed with was also great, very freindly and always helping us improve our Spanish. The mom (Marina) would always give us shit if we tried to speak in English, which was pretty hard at first, but is definately the way to learn. Before we left we made her a sign for the wall the read ¨Ingles es Prohibido¨so for the next students she can just point.

Very few of the houses here have hot water or any form of heating. Despite this, almost every house has hired help to cook, clean, etc. Kind of strange.

Mark tried to go for a run up a hill behind our house one day, and got chased by stray dogs. He was helped out by an old lady who litterally threw a log at one of them. We also had a standoff with a psycho dog parked right outside our friends house. While most dogs will back off if you step towards them, this one just barked louder and stepped closer. The standoff ended with my throwing a piece of rock hard bread at it and us booking it.
The city has a population of about 300,000 and runs largely on tourism as it´s the jumpoff point for Machu Picchu. If you can make it off the ´gringo trail´, the food, booze, and entertainment are cheap. And you can catch a cab anywhere in the city for 2 soles, which is about 70 cents. We went out with some of our teachers one night to a funky bar with some great live music from a local band. Very cool.

The center of the city is Plaza de Armas, which is a beautiful plaza surrounded by bars, restaurants, and hostels, and also has the largest church is town. After moving out of our house we spent 2 days in a hostel called The Pointe (a couple blocks for the plaza), which is basically known for as a party hostel. And it did not disappoint. They threw a massive Halloween party...probably about 200 people there I would guess. Mark and I found a store that rented traditional Pervian outfits for 7 Soles, and we dressed up as Peruvian women. Priceless costumes for about $2.50. We walked the streets for a little bit which was halarious, nobody really dresses up here, so the locals got a bigger kick out of it than anyone. If we stood still for more than 10 minutes, a crowd would gather just to see what the hell we were up to.

Another very different thing here is there cemetaries, which look almost like an outdoor morge. All the sites are in walls, outdoors, and each row has names like streets. Your family may be in San Juan, E-3. Very different. In the front of each is a small shrine in which they put small items which symbolize things in the persons life. For example, for anyone who was a lush, they had tiny little beer bottles, or for a kid their favourite toys. On the 2nd of novemeber, it´s day of the dead, and they have a big party IN the cemetary to honor those who are burried there.

Tomorrow heading to a town called Aguas Calientes (hot waters) which got its name for its natural hot springs. From there Machu PIcchu is a day trip, after which we´ll be heading to Puno.