Paulie and I are currently resting back in civilisation in our quaint little 1 bedroom apartment after an exhuasting 10 hr overnight bus ride from the town of Uyuni (quite a desolate place and was only notable for it´s airport and train cemetery) to La Paz which is the 2nd capital of Bolivia. According to the safety pamphlet, the total distance between the two towns is only 560Km, so here I was thinking it won´t be as long as our previous overnight ride but as we soon discovered, our ride was over uncovered roads!
The first 3 hours of the ride before the bus hit sealed roads was something similar to flying when the pilot says put your seat belts on due to turbulence! Lucky I had charged my Iphone at the bus depot so was able to listen to a few trance sets, imagining the dimly lit green lights of the bus shaking were like lasers in a club, else I would´ve had a massive headache :) The rest of the trip was fine though I was constantly being woken up by people going to the toilet at the back of the bus. We felt sorry for a Belguim couple since one of them got carsick and they asked if they could swap with us right at the front. I hope our generosity is paid back later in the trip!
So what have we been doing for the past 3 days, you might ask? Well we have trekked across the driest desert on earth - San Pedro de Atacama, with our spanish-only speaking tour guide/driver Fabio and saw spectacular natural scenery all unscathed, and without the use of the satellite phone I insisted on having as part of the tour.
There were giant volcanos towering over numerous coloured lagoons, stone rocks that were the inspiration for Savaldor Dali, geysers that bubbled up smelly gas (which of course I blamed on Paulie), and the Salar de Uyuni which is the blinding white salt flats that strech for miles in the distance and make you lose your sense of direction. We even managed to go swimming twice, once in a lagoon that was unique for the fact it had a higher salt concentration that the Dead Sea (so we couldn´t sink no matter how hard we tried) and could stand in the water upright, and another at a thermal hot spring.
We saw so many lagoons that they all start to blur together however it was seeing the flamingos (that weren`t statues in front of someone´s garden or golf course) that impressed us. Considering we were in a desert and there wasn´t much wildlife around, the sheer number at the lagoons were such a sight that both Paulie and I were a little trigger happy with our cameras taking up close shots/videos of these birds (so much so, we`ll probably have to cull a few to have enough storage space for the rest of our trip).
The next chapter of our journey is on to Copacabana, (not the one in the Barry Manalow song) but the Bolivian town where we head into Lake Titicaca, and then onto Cusco where the real trekking begins. All I can say is that I´m lucky to have Paulie as a travel partner and hopefully she won´t leave me on the side of the mountain :)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
The first 10 days (Paulie´s version)
Dave wanted to upload his post first, so you can read his take of the holiday in the previous post, below is my recollection of our holiday thus far...
We have now overlanded into Chile and after 10 days we finally got to sleep in and not wake up in a mad rush to make our next connecting flight or bus ride. Ahhh bliss to enjoy a coco leaf tea that Dave went to brew this morning, time in front of a proper PC to finally respond to emails and write in this blog, and some time to reflect on our incredible trip so far.
The first few days of our holiday were spent in airports and on planes but it was all worthwhile when we finally arrived at the desert oasis of Huacachina and finally took to the sand dunes in a wild and bumpy buggy ride. The driver purposely drove over stomach-dropping hills and troughs and laughed when we all screamed in fear. We finally arrived at some sand dunes where we could sandboard down at terrific speed, controlling the direction of the board with our feet, trying not to eat too much sand on the descent. We purposely chose the afternoon sandboarding so we could enjoy our first sunset in the desert.
The next day we took a ferry ride around Isla Ballastos, touted as a mini-Gallapagos with sea lions, pelicans and beautiful coastline. I was able to enjoy about half the ride before seasickness struck. The combination of sea lion stench and choppy waters made me feel sick. As everyone else was admiring the view, I hung my head over the boat and puked. With my head in my hands, I thought the tour couldn´t get any worse until I felt a plop on my head. The seagulls overhead decided to bless me with some good luck...dave tried to make me feel better by saying it was lucky I was wearing my hat...I say it was his good luck he didnt have to clean out the poop from my hair.
The best part of that day for me was getting back to the oasis and finding a shady spot on the grass. We lay on our backs looking up at the palm trees and laughed at the absurdity of the day whilst taking silly photos with a little mascot we picked up at Sydney airport dubbed ´Rosie the Dinosaur´. I did have a reason for picking Rosie up, which I will reveal when we head into the Chilean desert in a few days time.
We took an overnight bus into Arequipa after this desert oasis, a stark contrast to the sleepy little town we spent 2 days in. We did the traditional sightseeing around this colonial city with beautiful architecture influenced by the Spanish, built with white stone from the nearly volcanoes. We wandered about the streets, spent a few hours in the famous Santa Catalina monastery that was so big it had its own winding streets and buildings. The view from the top of the monastery was beautiful, as were the bright blue and red painted stone walls that lined the citadel.
The next 2 days were spent heading into Colca Canyon, reaching altitudes of 4910m. Surprisingly Dave did not suffer from any altitude sickness, a fact he kept exclaiming throughout the trip. He even enjoyed a pisco sour that evening while everyone else nursed their headaches! To all those disbelievers out there (including me!), I dont think Machu Picchu (at 4400m) will be too painful for him. We spent the evening in a natural thermal pool relaxing in waters of 40 degrees...a nice way to cap off a long day.
The next morning we set off for the canyon to hopefully see the flying condors native to that region of Peru. There is no guarantee of seeing the condors in their natural setting and in the first half hour of waiting in the freezing cold and seeing a couple gliding in the distance, we thought that was the best we would see. To our surprise, we were treated to an amazing aerial show that was the highlight of our trip so far. It took our breaths away to see these huge birds dipping and diving so close to us.
So where to from here? We still have a packed adventure ahead of us, including a trip into the San Pedro de Atacama desert to see some stunning geysers, lagoons and the constellation unfettered by city lights. We are overlanding in a jeep through the desert from Chile into Bolivia for 3 days through freezing temperatures and altitudes of 5000m, it´s going to be physically difficult but as I keep reading, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
We have now overlanded into Chile and after 10 days we finally got to sleep in and not wake up in a mad rush to make our next connecting flight or bus ride. Ahhh bliss to enjoy a coco leaf tea that Dave went to brew this morning, time in front of a proper PC to finally respond to emails and write in this blog, and some time to reflect on our incredible trip so far.
The first few days of our holiday were spent in airports and on planes but it was all worthwhile when we finally arrived at the desert oasis of Huacachina and finally took to the sand dunes in a wild and bumpy buggy ride. The driver purposely drove over stomach-dropping hills and troughs and laughed when we all screamed in fear. We finally arrived at some sand dunes where we could sandboard down at terrific speed, controlling the direction of the board with our feet, trying not to eat too much sand on the descent. We purposely chose the afternoon sandboarding so we could enjoy our first sunset in the desert.
The next day we took a ferry ride around Isla Ballastos, touted as a mini-Gallapagos with sea lions, pelicans and beautiful coastline. I was able to enjoy about half the ride before seasickness struck. The combination of sea lion stench and choppy waters made me feel sick. As everyone else was admiring the view, I hung my head over the boat and puked. With my head in my hands, I thought the tour couldn´t get any worse until I felt a plop on my head. The seagulls overhead decided to bless me with some good luck...dave tried to make me feel better by saying it was lucky I was wearing my hat...I say it was his good luck he didnt have to clean out the poop from my hair.
The best part of that day for me was getting back to the oasis and finding a shady spot on the grass. We lay on our backs looking up at the palm trees and laughed at the absurdity of the day whilst taking silly photos with a little mascot we picked up at Sydney airport dubbed ´Rosie the Dinosaur´. I did have a reason for picking Rosie up, which I will reveal when we head into the Chilean desert in a few days time.
We took an overnight bus into Arequipa after this desert oasis, a stark contrast to the sleepy little town we spent 2 days in. We did the traditional sightseeing around this colonial city with beautiful architecture influenced by the Spanish, built with white stone from the nearly volcanoes. We wandered about the streets, spent a few hours in the famous Santa Catalina monastery that was so big it had its own winding streets and buildings. The view from the top of the monastery was beautiful, as were the bright blue and red painted stone walls that lined the citadel.
The next 2 days were spent heading into Colca Canyon, reaching altitudes of 4910m. Surprisingly Dave did not suffer from any altitude sickness, a fact he kept exclaiming throughout the trip. He even enjoyed a pisco sour that evening while everyone else nursed their headaches! To all those disbelievers out there (including me!), I dont think Machu Picchu (at 4400m) will be too painful for him. We spent the evening in a natural thermal pool relaxing in waters of 40 degrees...a nice way to cap off a long day.
The next morning we set off for the canyon to hopefully see the flying condors native to that region of Peru. There is no guarantee of seeing the condors in their natural setting and in the first half hour of waiting in the freezing cold and seeing a couple gliding in the distance, we thought that was the best we would see. To our surprise, we were treated to an amazing aerial show that was the highlight of our trip so far. It took our breaths away to see these huge birds dipping and diving so close to us.
So where to from here? We still have a packed adventure ahead of us, including a trip into the San Pedro de Atacama desert to see some stunning geysers, lagoons and the constellation unfettered by city lights. We are overlanding in a jeep through the desert from Chile into Bolivia for 3 days through freezing temperatures and altitudes of 5000m, it´s going to be physically difficult but as I keep reading, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The adventure so far!
To all of Paulie´s devoted readers, her account has not been taken over by some crazy loon here to embelish her blog, rather I'm her new (some might say foolish) traveling partner on her great south american trek. I can surely say it has been quite an experience so far! It´s day 10 of our trip and today is the first day we have managed to get some down time at a place with internet access and reflect on the adventure to write in the blog. So far we have checked out 6 airports ( Sydney, KL, Taipei, LA, Panama city, Lima), numerous bus rides (one of which we lost our tickets temporarily just before boarding, gave me a mild panic attack), and one crazy ass taxi ride crossing the Peruvian/Chile border with 3 Austrian tourists.
In between all the exhausting travelling, the highlights have been so far: Huacachina - a small oasis in the middle of the desert where we experienced a beautiful sunset at the top of the desert dunes after doing a couple of runs of sand boarding... though lying flat on your stomach sliding down since it was too steep wouldn´t really be classified as that :) We also had our first proper Peruvian meals of deep fried chicken and beef with fried potatos and rice at the oasis. After this meal Pauline was craving some Asian food so the next day she decided to eat a Thai curry for lunch - against my advice, and boy did she pay for it. Lucky we had stocked up on Imodium back in Sydney so we were covered and spent the afternoon chilling out under the trees by the water.
The other highlights have been Isla Ballantos where I got to see some amazing wildlife up close of pelicans, peguins, dolphins and sea lions, and the condors at the Colca Canyon. The David Attenbourough documentaries didn´t do it enough justice. Unfortunately Paulie spent most of the time at Isla Ballantos with her head pressed against the side of the boat seasick and even had a massive drop of bird poo land on her head! Lucky I managed to get a lot of videos and photos so that she could catch up on what she missed out on.
So the adventure continues and my concerns about altitude sickness on the Inca Trail have faded as we have reached up to 4900 metres on our way to the Colca Canyon and I was fine! I even jogged a bit on the spot to which Paulie gave me the exasperated school teacher look of disapproval!
Now the pressure of writing the first blog post has finally been relieved, hope you enjoyed it and it lived up to your expectations OTFOM :)
ps. I can´t help fight this feeling wasn´t playing at any of the airports but was shown in a movie on one of the bus rides in Lima.
In between all the exhausting travelling, the highlights have been so far: Huacachina - a small oasis in the middle of the desert where we experienced a beautiful sunset at the top of the desert dunes after doing a couple of runs of sand boarding... though lying flat on your stomach sliding down since it was too steep wouldn´t really be classified as that :) We also had our first proper Peruvian meals of deep fried chicken and beef with fried potatos and rice at the oasis. After this meal Pauline was craving some Asian food so the next day she decided to eat a Thai curry for lunch - against my advice, and boy did she pay for it. Lucky we had stocked up on Imodium back in Sydney so we were covered and spent the afternoon chilling out under the trees by the water.
The other highlights have been Isla Ballantos where I got to see some amazing wildlife up close of pelicans, peguins, dolphins and sea lions, and the condors at the Colca Canyon. The David Attenbourough documentaries didn´t do it enough justice. Unfortunately Paulie spent most of the time at Isla Ballantos with her head pressed against the side of the boat seasick and even had a massive drop of bird poo land on her head! Lucky I managed to get a lot of videos and photos so that she could catch up on what she missed out on.
So the adventure continues and my concerns about altitude sickness on the Inca Trail have faded as we have reached up to 4900 metres on our way to the Colca Canyon and I was fine! I even jogged a bit on the spot to which Paulie gave me the exasperated school teacher look of disapproval!
Now the pressure of writing the first blog post has finally been relieved, hope you enjoyed it and it lived up to your expectations OTFOM :)
ps. I can´t help fight this feeling wasn´t playing at any of the airports but was shown in a movie on one of the bus rides in Lima.
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