The Great South American Adventure

I´ve been up to a lot recently, hence the long wait between entries, both due to the increased demand on my time and to having a lot more stuff to write about, making the prospect of doing so even more daunting. However, I have summoned up the inspiration and have managed to free up some spare time to devote to my beloved readers, if they haven´t given up on checking already. One of the things that has happened is I have had my camera, iPod and PSP stolen out of my locked bag, from between my feet on a bus from Nazca to Ica, so to see the photo´s that go with this section of the blog you will have to check out hutchi´s flicker,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8075577@N02/sets/72157600767324997/

monkey´s blog

http://randomphotomonkey.blogspot.com/

and this site which has photos of us riding down the worlds most dangerous road, the password is "photos"

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/sign_in.jsp?aid=768a5498cf40ad58caed

and for some photos of Lima taken with my new camera, check out my flickr at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12875483@N00/

Anyway, after Cusco, Hutch, James and I headed to Copocaban to check out lake titikaka. From Copocabana most people take tours on the Island of the Sun, which they reached by ferry. However, we figured we didn´t need any fancy, motor powered ferry to get to the Island of the Sun, so we hired a wonderful little sail boat for the very economical rate of 30 bolivianos (about AU$5) per hour. We later named the vessel crapsack, soon after we had given up on ever reaching the island. When we left port, the wind was heading more or less straight back into port, making it very dificult for us to leave, to the great ammusement of those watching from the shore. However, after a while the wind started to turn around and we started to make a bit of ground. We ended up making it around a point, which we had taken as our new goal after conceding that the island of the sun was out of reach, so we decided to turn around and head back in, only to find that the wind was then blowing into our faces again coming from the direction of Copacabana, our intended resting place for the night. With my sailing savy, I reasured the guys that we should be able to zig zag back in without any problem. However, poor old crapsack was not the best boat at pointing upwind, not actually having a centerboard, and we were finding it dificult to make ground. In fact we were getting blown back around the point we were so proud to reach. We decided to row back around the point, then hopefully the wind would somehow be different and we could sail back in. Rowing proved to be more dificult than expected, until we moved the oars from the front to the middle of the boat and took the sails down. It was good to finally put all those rowing trainings to good use. All the five ergos I did were not done in vain. Pretty soon we were back around the point, and with the sight of Copacaban so far away we decided to try the sails again. We broke the paddle off the end of one of the oars while moving them back to the front of the boat, so we had no other choice but to sail in, or so we thought. As soon as we put the sails back up we were getting blown backwards and the waves were washing us into the rocky shore, so we "decided" to beach the boat just as it crashed sideways into one of the bigger river rocks, as if we had any other choice. So we took the sails down, pulled the rudder in, jumped out and started trying to pull the boat up onto shore. Luckily for us, a much more sea savy kid came along and started to help us out, first advising us to stop trying to pull the boat sideways over big rocks and push it around them instead, and showing us a good trick using the broken oar handle to slide the boat on up the beach. After we got it far enough out of water he asked for money then left and we started our long walk back into town. I was worried and thought we would be thrown in gaol for destruction of private property or something, but as we were about to get into town, the guy who had sent us on our journey came out to meet us on his push bike. He asked us where the boat was, we pointed and tried to explain, then he said we owed him 70 bolivianos for the extra time we had the boat. We paid and asked how he was going to get it back. He was going to ride out and row it back in. We explained that an oar was broken so he turned his bike around and started to ride back to his storage shead. I could not believe our luck and felt bad that this guy was going to row back by himself in the dark. He didn´t even charge us extra for the time it would take for him to do it. We figured that 70 bs would be going straight to his pocket, which is a fair bit for locals, but we still felt bad but helpless and lucky at the same time. Anyway, it´s a funny story. That´s all for now folks. Signing out, Marc/Plummers.

It´s been a while, but here is all the places I have been since Potosi.

So, after Potosi I went to Sucre, which is a pretty nice city. Went out to Joyride, a total gringo hang out, a couple of times. Had a shot drinking competition with the table of travellers next to ours and won a nacho eating competition by because a friend emptied my bowel of crumbs while no one was looking. I also went looking for 7 waterfalls with 2 guys called Anders and Nick and an english guy called Dan. We didn´t find it the first day we looked for it, partly due to my misinterpretation of spanish directions. So we just followed the river for a while, suppoing we would find the waterfalls, without drinking water, because why would you take srinking water to waterfalls. But it was the dry season so the river was low and full of algae, so we didn´t risk it and went thirsty, walking up a massive ridge, which was meant to be some kind of shortcut and to get better view of the area, and eventually giving up our search for the waterfalls and heading toward the closest settlement, where we were ill recieved by the local street dogs, given strange looks by locals, who probably weren´t expecting to see 3 blond foreigners and one 6´3¨ guy in boardies with towels, and unable to buy any water. So we settled for a few mandarines and caught the next mini bus back into town. The next day, with better instruction in english, we managed to find the waterfalls, which are on a seperate stream that joins the one we walked along, and had an awesome time rock climbing our way to the last (7th) waterfall, where there is a natural waterslide, which we enhanced by dambing upstream then unleashing a torrent of water to aid your ride down. Then we had to jump of the 6th waterfall into its pool to get down, because it would be too hard to climb down, so I threw my shirt and wallet down without any problems, but my beloved calculator watch, which I had just meanded with superglue specifivally bought for the job, caught the wind in the wrong direction and bounced off a rock into the pool, where it shall forever rest in peace.

In Sucre, I got in touch with Hutchi and decided to head north to La Paz with the intention of meating up with him further north. La Paz is a pretty cool city with lot´s of stuff to do, but the first time I was there I just chilled out and waited to hear from Hutch while he was coming down from Quito. When I did get on to him, we decided to meat up in Cusco, so I got on a bus the next day, and twelve hours later I was in Cusco, Peru.

I thought Hutchi and James were getting there the night after I did, so I just went to watever hostel I could find the evening I got there, then decided to look for another place the next morning before they arrived. But after I found a place then came back to the first, who should be in reception but my old friend Hutchi, James amd two Columbians they shared a cab with. A little surprised and unprepared, I told them, to the disappointment of the receptionist, I had found another place and off we went. Cusco is a bit of a party town, with all the gringos, and there are four bars with totes out the front handing out free entry (yay) and free drink cards (now we´re talking). So we had a pretty big night the first night, which was fun. I can´t really remeber too many details so it must have been good. The next day we sorted out how we were going to get to Machu Pichu and the next morning we were off. Unfortunately the Inca Trail hike was booked out till like september at that stge so we decided not to do one of the alternate hikes, which didn´t really compare because none of them go via any other ruins and they all arrive at Machu Pichu by train then bus (or you could walk along the rails then the road, awesome). So we decide to skip the stroll around the country side and take the train an bus anyway. On the way though, we went to some other Inca archeological sites, Morray and an Inca salt farm, which were cool (photos coming soon). Machu Pichuu itself was pretty awesome. We were actually there on the winter solstace, which is pretty cool, but I think all the cool stuff had already happened at sunrise. Me and James climbed up Waynapichu, which is the big hill in the background of most of the photos of Machu Pichuu, while Hutchi, who was feeling a bit under the wheather, slept like a baby. It was a pretty crazy climb, then we went like half way down the other side to the temple of the moon, then had to climb about 3/4 of the way back up before heading down to Machu Pichuu again. We were ruited so unfortunately we couldn´t be bothered to climb this other hill called Huchupichu on the way back, despite it sounding like hutchi. After the climb we saw the few last things we wanted to then got the bus back into Aguas Calientes, which means hot water. It is named such because there are ¨hot¨ springs, which we went to and decided would be better described as luke warm springs, but it was still nice to relax after the big day. We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo the next day then got a taxi back to Cusco. That´s enough word nourishment for now, more to come later.

After Uyuni, I went to Potosi, the highest city of it´s size at an altitude of about 4 and a half thousand meters. On the bus I met a nice canadian/english couple and a cool family of four, who were travelling around the world together, who I stayed with in an awesome hostel called the Koala Den, the first Bolivian hostel with 24h, real hot water (pre heated, not electric) and comfy beds at the very economical price of 30 bolivianos per night, about AU$5. During the Spanish rule of Bolivia, Potosi was the richest city in all of the America´s, comparing to cities like London and Paris in population. All because next to the city is a large mountain that was once filled with pure silver, Cerro Rico. However, nowadays there is hardly any pure silver found and government mining operations have ceased. But cooperations, ranging from 5 to 40 miners, still mine there of their own accord, providing all there own equipment, including dynomite, which is sold freely in markets in town, and they just split the money they get from the minerals they extract, mostly a mixture of zinc, lead and a little bit of silver. These mines are also the main tourist attraction in Potosi, apart from the excellent colonial architecture from more prosperous times. We did a tour of one of the mines, which included buying gifts for the miners, soft drink, coca leaves and dynomite, and taking a stroll/crawl/climb around the interior of one of the mines to see the miners at work. We didn´t really get to see them actually digging but we saw them coming past with carts full of the material they had removed. Our guide was very insiteful about the mining and other aspects of bolivian culture and history, which made up for not really seeing that much. To put it nicely, the working conditions in the mines are very uncomfortable. Hardly any miners live past sixty, if that, because of the harmful fumes they are always inhailing, not to mention the accidents that often happen. At the end of the tour we were all very happy to be out of there, and to make us feel better we got to blow up two sticks of dynomite, which the guide lit, pretended to smoke like a cigar, then passed around for people to take photos, before his assistent took it off to a clearing on the side of the road, where it made more noise than I expected, causing me to jump and take a crap picture. That´s pretty much all I did of interest in Potosi, then I headed to Sucre, where I parted ways with my friends to find cheaper accomodation, but more about that later. Over and Out.

Sorry about the long wait again. There are new photos at

www.flickr.com/photos/12875483@N00/

check them out in all their Bolivian glory.

To make it to Bolivia before my Argentinian Visa ran out, I undertook a mamoth bus journey from Puerto Iguazu to Pocitos, on the Bolivian border, via Tucuman. This meant that I missed out on seeing Salta, which was a shame, but I saved getting fined 50 pesos. Anyway, from Pocitos, I was escorted over the boarder by this great guy who carried my bag for me while I went through Argentinian immigration, gave it to a friend of his on the Bolivian side of the boarder, then told me he needed 50 pesos to pay the immigration officials, which they must have forgot to ask for on my way through their office, plus a tip for carrying the bag. I had just been on a bus for 30 hours and wasn´t thinking very clearly or particularly in the mood to argue, so there went the 50 pesos I didn´t get fined. Anyway, Yacuiba, the town on the Bolivian side of the boarder wasn´t very pleasant so I got the first bus I could to Tarija, the capital of the region. So the mamoth bus journey became even more mamoth after an hour longer than expected wait in extreme cold at the Yacuiba bus terminal cause Bolivia is an hour behind Argentina.

Tarija was a nice place. I chose a place to stay out of footprints due to it´s description as having hot water and my need to shower after travelling by bus for two straight days. Unfortunately this description was unaccurate and my room had an ellectric shower, which only has on water handle, for cold water which is supposedly heated by an electric device on is way through. Basically your passing water through some kind of insulated toaster (safe), which barely warms it before it gets to you anyway. However, my need to clean out wayed my discomfort of having a cold shower, and in the end I felt better for having it. I had a bit of a walk around town and while I was there there was a sort of demonstration and a march through the city, comemorating the Chaco War, where Bolivia lost a fair bit of it´s territory to Praguay a while back, so that was interesting. I also got some decent food which was nice after the long journey. Tarija was a really pleasant place, especially after Yacuiba, but there didn´t seem there was that much to do there, so I decided to move on to Villazon, another town on the boarder of Argentina, where I would take a train to Uyuni, the first place I had previously planned to go to in Bolivia, from where I would take a tour to the famous Uyuni salt flats.

My bus from Tarija arrived around 1:30am, friday morning, despite the bus drivers best effort to get there quicker, despite the treachorous, cliff sided, one and a half lane, windy road which we took to get there. After finding a place to stay, I went to the train station the morning after to find out there was no train on friday. I had already known this, but in my rush to keep moving forgot before I left Tarija, and I shouldn´t have, given the immense supperiority of Tarija over Villazon in general niceness, things to see and places to eat. Villazon is a hole and the only thing I managed to do there was get the shits from eating in a dodgy restaurant. I don´t like Boliva/Argentina boarder towns. So I got the train on Saturday afternoon, which had a toilet, thank god (bolivian buses don´t), and got to Uyuni about midnight. The first place I tried to stay at wouldn´t answer the doorbell. The second place I looked at cost US$20 a night, a far cry from the 35 bolivianos I had been paying. So I ended up staying at the third place I came across, which only cost 15 bols per night, but exagerated my bad neck from the train and only had electric showers, which I gave a second chance, to no avail. In Uyuni itself there wasn´t much to see, but I was able to get my clothes cleaned, which was desperately needed by that stage, I organized to go on a salt flat tour and I changed to a hostel with hot, not electric, showers (between 8:30 and 9am).

The Salt lake tour was awesome. We headed out to the Salt lake first, which was amazing, check out the photos. On the salt flats we went to the Hotel de Sal, which has walls, furniture and beds made out of salt. Then we stopped for lunch on this island of dirt, rocks and cacti, called Isla Pescado, which just sticks out in the middle of the huge salt flats, surrounded by a sea of white. From there we left the comfort of driving on the flat salt and hit the markedly less smooth dirt roads, heading towards volcanos and lakes coloured strangely by the different minerals they are full of. We stayed the first night in San Juan de Rosario, a bizzarly lage town, given its location in the middle of nowhere. The second day we hit up a few of the lakes and volcanos and stopped a few times to change a couple of tyres and then we stayed inside the national park in extremely basic conditions. I slept in all my clothes and a beany, in a hired sleeping bag, under the blankets of the bed, and struggled to stay warm. On the third day we went to a hot spring, which was wonderful to get the warmth back into the extremeties. We had breakfst there, then went to Laguna verde, the most spectacular of all the lakes, a rich green lake in the forground of a conical volcano. After that we headed back to Uyuni, with a stop at a river to have lunch with some Llamas and at a small town with an old stone church.

That´s probably enough for now, but I´ll update soon with tales from Potosi, Sucre and La Paz.

I know it´s been ages and I apologize, but I really don´t have that much to report. New photo´s again at www.flickr.com/photos/12875483@N00/ . From Cordoba, I went to Rosario by myself, where I really got off on the wrong foot. The bus left Cordoba at midnightish and was scheduled to arrive at Rosario at 5ish in the morning. However, Rosario was not the end of the line, so I didn´t really allow myself to properly fall asleep, for fear of waking up and finding myself in Buenos Aires. I hadn´t made any reservations in Rosario and when I arrived the tourist information at the bus terminal had not opened yet. So I found a kiosko, like a milkbar, that had computers, because none of the internet cafes were open yet, and started to look for places to stay. The second one I rang had room so I marked it on my map, which I had grabbed from the unmanned tourist information, and headed outside for to take a cab. I asked the cab driver to take me to Rosario Hostel. Instead he took me to Rosario Hotel. With much difficulty, I explained to him that this was not where I wanted to go. He seemed a bit thick and confused as to why I would ask to go somewhere I didn´t want to go. Then I tried to explain to him that the place I wanted to go was on the street ´urquiza,´ so he took me to Hotel Urquiza. When I explained to the bell boy that I wasn´t interested in staying in his hotel and that I wanted to go to Hostel Rosario, he translated my bad bud obviously understandable spanish into correct yet seemingly confusing spanish to the driver. I showed the bell boy the mark on my map and he gave the adress to the cabbie and finally he took me where I wanted to go. Not straight to the door but close enough to find with a bit of searching. I rang the door bell and waited. And waited, and waited, until a guy finally came and had a look at me, gestured for me to wait then left. Eventually he came back and let me in, made me pay more for my room than advertised up front, then showed me to a huge room with ten beds, of which the only one being used would be mine. At this stage I decided I would check out the other hostels later that day, but first I had a shower and a nap, after which I felt much better, had a bit of breakfast and headed out to see the city and find a new hostel. The first hostel I, which was the first I had called, went to looked quite cool and had a free bed for me the following night. So I reserved that and actually met some english guys there straight away, due to the fact the actually had no reception or apparent administration. I ended up staying in that place for about 2 and a half weeks. Activities mostly consisted of gowing out on weekends, which Rosario was quite good for, as it is renowned for having the prettiest and nicest girls in Argentina, a reputation that is well deserved. Apart from going out and practicing my spanish and dance moves with the local ladies, I also spent some time between monday and wednesday trying to see the local sites. Rosario was a nice city but it wasn´t exactly full of tourist attractions, which I didn´t mind too much cause it mean it wasn´t full of tourists. Of the few tourist attractions I went and saw the modern art museum, the flag monument, where the first argentinian flag was raised and I tried to go to the flea market and the planetarium but was too early for both. I also did a little bit of shopping and tried what is apparently the best icecream in argentina at Smart, Rosario, and was inclined to agree with its reputation. I also spent my birthday in Rosario and had a great night, including party hats and cake, although I did miss my family and friends back home.

Not long after my birthday I decided it was time to move on to my next destination, Puerto Iguazu, where I came to see the incredible Iguazu falls. The hostel I´m staying in here, Hostel Inn, is pretty nice. Well not really nice. It is a little too large for my liking and unfortunately I got put in a room full of israeli stoners, in one of four outdoor lodges, rather than in the main complex, near the showers which actually have hot water. However, it has a massive pool which I got to sunbake around a couple of days so that kind of makes up for it. As for falls, which I went and saw on the argentinian side a couple of days ago, they are absolutely amazing. First I went on a bit of a hike to a smaller secluded waterfall, which I was quite impressed by. Then I was completely blown away by the scale of the main falls and amplitude of water falling at one time. Absolutely amazing. Check out the photos. In the arvo I weant on a tour on truck through the jungle, pretty crap, not recommended, then a boat ride up the river to the feet of the various falls, which was pretty cool, although you couldn´t really see much when you got really close and were getting showered by the spray. Still, it was a very unique esperience.

Tonight, I am taking a bus around the southern part of Paraguay, cause you need a visa to go through it, to Tucaman in the North West of Argentina, where I will have about three hours to have some dinner tomorrow night and have a look around, before I get on a bus bound for Bolivia, which will arrive the morning after. Why such a large distance in one go you may ask? Well, my Argentinian visa last to the end of May. It sucks cause I am bypassing some cool places, like Salta, to make it and I just heard this morning that the fine for overstaying your visa is 50 pesos (like AU$20). But 50 pesos saved is 50 pesos earned and that should go a bit further in Bolivia, which is a fact I´m looking forward to. Hope everything back home is going well, keep in touch, and stay tuned for more TALES OF INTEREST!!!