Tim and Patrices Travel Blog
Tims amazing weblog, so you can see what he’s up to.Into the Jungle
Well, we’ve had a think about our ‘ethnic’ experience and decided that perhaps we are not as die-hard as we thought. we looked at their web-site. It was full of 20 something hippie types sleeping anywhere and eating anything. Bruce Parry – you can keep it. We signed up to a Jungle tour though. Similar place – deep deep (at 00 lat and 64 long). We are day two of getting to the rendezvous town.
Yesterday we hired bikes to get us out of Banos. We arranged for a nice chap to take the bags on the bus and meet us at Puyo – 64km away and 1km downhill. Now if it were a straight road at a 1:60 gradient it would have been fine…..
The road was fantastic. It clutched to the edge of the valley most of the way. In places engineers had built long tunnels to upgrade the route. Cyclists had to take the old road as it weaved and scratched it’s way around the side of mountains, under waterfalls etc. In places recent washouts meant carrying the bikes across small rivers. After about 20 km the gradient unfortunately flattened as we entered the jungle. Swathes of damper warmer air hit us as we descended. We dodged a tropical deluge for 45 minutes in an abandoned wooden hut and continued on our way.
64km should not have been a problem – this was our average in France with 15kg panniers. Memories stay longer than fitness. By the time we reached Puyo we were knackered. Six and a half hours – the last 40km undulated a fair amount. We found our man, swapped bikes for ruc-sacs, had dinner and caught a bus to Tena.
Tena is a nice little town by the river. Due to a genetic disorder many of the ladies of the town suffer from incontinence. Not really but I did wonder if the WI here are called Tena Ladies. Today we catch another bus for eight hours into the jungle from where we have a five day jungle adventure!!!!
Banos
Another leap and we are now in a town called Banos. It took us a couple of bus journeys to get here. The buses are very entertaining they never really stop en-route, just slow down to collect or drop off. Age or gender doesn’t come in to it. Ocegenerians still need to be able to jump from a moving bus at 15mph it they want to go anywhere. Most people seem to take about 10 metres after jumping off before they stop running. Thankfully tourists are given more liniency.
Banos is a nice Spa town, very touristy. It is built on the edge of an old lava flow at the foot of an active volcano. Nice to visit, wouldn’t want to live here. It last erupted in 1999 and again in 2006 – very active. Today we hired a Quad bike and expplored the foothills. We came across a Cannadian woman living in a hut teaching English to children. She told us about a village in the jungle not far from here which accept visitors to live with them for a while. Patrice and I were looking at going to the junlge for an ‘expirience’, the touristy ones are around $600 each for 5 days. This will be a fraction of the cost. Bugs, anacondas and eating monkey’s. Here we go then……. We leave on Saturday.
North Peru and Ecuador
We have spent the past few days hopping on and off buses heading further northwards. We spent two nights in the town of Chiclayo. We went on a tour of some local archaeological ruins. In around 300 AD the locals were busy making clay bricks and building huge pyramids out of them. Even today they are an impressive size. We went to Sipan where only a few years ago a huge gold horde was discovered with the graves of a warrior priest and nobleman. The accompanying museum was awe inspiring. The following day we caught a bus across the last of the desert to the border town of Tumbes. It broke several new records for us. Town most devoid of anywhere to eat, most mosquito infested, most nail bars, most barbers and most cockroaches. Only staying one night we got a cheap room with a door with a gap under it. Mistake. Cockroaches in my rucsac, in my boots, bloody everywhere. I don’t like Cockroaches. Horrible. We left Peru’s most rubbish town and caught another bus to the border. Formalities over and we were in Ecuador. Once out of the Ecuadorian border town (which looked like Tumbes) we could see that Ecuador is a much more prosperous country. It has dual carriageways! The country looked much greener and jungle-like almost instantly. We swapped buses and climbed 2530m to the city of Cuenca. On arrival we were really surprised. The contrast between Tumbes and Cuenca couldn’t have been greater. It was like comparing Delhi with Barcelona. Cuenca is great, great sights, great Cathedrals, great restaurants and we have a lovely room overlooking a church from which we get nightly Gregorian chant. We spent a day sight seeing (including a collection of shrunken heads from the jungle) and getting laundry done. The bus total ??? It now stands at over 191 hours. That’s more that’s nearly eight solid days of being on a bus. FACT. Birthplace of the Panama hat is Cuenca and not Panama.
Lima
We arrived in Lima after a four hour bus ride. I must say we are getting quite good at sussing out a place as we arrive. Lima was big, very big, with sprawling slums surrounding it. Towards the centre the middle classes lived in gated communities with security guards. On every street corner we saw security and police. Every wall had broken glass concreted on the top of it. Fences had rotating spikes. I concluded that Lima may have a crime problem. The guide book bestowed the virtues of the city centre but warned of crime. We quickly found a lovely oasis of a hotel, a small colonial building in a quiet cul-de-sac. The owner was keen to absolve himself of all responsibility should we consider venturing out of the door. We ventured out quarter of a mile to the bus depot to get tickets for the following day. On the way back we had dinner in a local’s restaurant. I think we were the first gringos to have ever been in there. We even went to an ATM. We returned and bolted the door. Frankly similar delights to those of Lima could be sampled elsewhere.
Next town please.
We spent 9 hours on a bus from Lima. We went executive class. Great, only three seats wide in the downstairs area of the coach. I liked my supplied dinner, Patrice did but it may have had something else in it mine didn’t. She was quite ill last night. Today we are at the beach at the small village of Huanchaco. A place for surfers apparently. We’ll keep you posted
Humboldt Current
We spent a night in a weird desert oasis village. It was surrounded on three sides by huge 200m high sand dunes. sand-boarding was the thing to do. We didn’t – too expensive and too hot – reaching 35 degrees by noon. We again packed and headed for the town of Pisco. Out two year old guidebook couldn’t mention the 7.9 earthquake Pisco suffered in Summer 2007. We thought we would go and support the tourist effort. We arrived, it was mainly flat. 56000 people before. It was a very sobering experience. We caught a taxi for the 6km ride from the bus which now only stops on the pan-American highway. There was really nothing for a tourist to see. Old colonial buildings had been reduced to rubble. As the taxi driver slowly drove through the town I saw a new whitewashed wall appear on the right. It had huge gold letters across it and at first glance looked like the gates to a 5* Hotel… Town Cemetery. This was quite a moving experience. The taxi driver, good to his word stopped in the town centre. ‘The Town Square’, he announced with an air of pride. Even a 7.9 earthquake can’t do much to small statues and trees. It had survived relatively in tact. We quickly made a decision and asked if the local seaside resort was better for tourists. The taxi driver drove on.
10km down the coast is the village of Paracas. The deviation up the road seemed miles away. Paracas is next to a nature park situated on a penisular jutting out into the Pacific. Here the Humboldt current emerges from the deep bringing with it huge quantities of plancton. Plancton=fish. Fish=birds and sea-lions. Birds and sea-lions=tourists. Simple really. And there were loads and loads of both. So many bird in fact that for hundreds of years bird poo is harvested from the islands, bagged and exported as fertiliser. Up to 50m thick in places. That’s a lot of poo.
We had a great two hour cruise around the islands after which we caught another bus to Lima.
Nasca
We’ve moved on again. 16 hours in a bus. 16 long sweaty overnight hours. We got about 4 hours sleep each. We arrived in the desert town of Nasca at about 0930 in the morning. Nasca has two very good things going for it. It is very famous for the Nasca lines and it has a bus which leaves for somewhere else every half an hour. Other than that nothing much. The heat difference in fours a couple of thousand metres is amazing. We left a spring like English day in Cusco and arrived in a Mediterranean desert town. It is hot.
The only way to see the lines is by plane. $50 each for 35 minutes (each). As we sat in the mini airport with Cessna’s leaving every 5 minutes or so we watched a quick documentary on the lines. They are over 1000 years old. They are produced by removing igneous rocks from a barren landscape. The rock, being igneous retain moisture overnight which increases cohesion and thus long term movement. In addition heat given out during the day produces a mini wind shield which again slows erosion. Tyre tracks in the desert made in 1920 are still visible from the air! There are hundreds of figures made in the desert. I first came across them watching Arthur C Clark’s Mysterious World. What Arthur didn’t say was that a team of 6 or so could produce a geolith in about 48 hours. A communication with the Gods? Space aliens? Just a bit of a laugh with the lads? From my surveying days I know how satisfying setting things out can be. Once a civilization has enough time on it’s hands it can get up to all sorts of fanciful stuff. Who knows?
Machu Picchu
Well, what an amazing adventure we have just been on. We arrived in Cusco on Saturday and quickly booked a tour starting the following day. On Sunday we were dropped off at the top of a mountain pass at 4350 m. Below us lay 37 km of road winding it’s way into the jungle.
Four hours and a lunch later we were cycling through dense jungle along a dusty track stopping off to see Inca ruins. We stayed the night in a small village called Santa Maria at 1430 m.
The following morning we started a days walking with out guide Willie. There are over 600 tour operators in Cusco. We were very lucky. Willie was very knowledgeable and we were the only two on our tour. We followed the river Vilcanota up stream. It was flowing fast.
After two hours we started climbing steeply up through the jungle. After about 400m of steep climb we followed an Inca path across the side of a steep cliff. To our right was a drop of hundreds of metres to the valley floor. After this we descended to have lunch and a lie down in a hammock. After lunch we followed the river to our final river crossing. This was a small metal cage no bigger than a shopping trolley with 30cm sides. It was attached to a metal cable spanning a 50 metre torrent of water below. A frayed rope attached to either end of the trolley allowed people to push and pull you across. Yahoooo!
Once across we came across some hot springs and a 4 star hotel. Time for a dip, then onto the town of Santa Teresa for out second night.
Day three we caught a taxi and cheated. This was to skip more valley floor. It dropped us off at 10am and we were soon walking along a rail track towards and around Machu Picchu. We arrived at Aguas Calintes for lunch and had an hours rest. In the afternoon we set off to climb Putuicusi. This was a 500m sheer block of granite surrounded on three sides by the river with almost vertical sides. As I stretched my head skywards I wondered how we could ever climb such a steep face without ropes. as we climbed through the jungle we saw the answer. Patrice swore. The first of 5 wooden ladders was about 60 metres in length. You couldn’t see the top. It was like the beanstalk. It was abut 80 degrees from vertical and the cross bars were hammered into place by what appeared to be 6 inch nails. Some cross bars were rotten, some loose. We held on and climbed, and climbed, and climbed. This made Tryfan look like a sandcastle. The jungle stopped and we crossed a dizzy arrete, the river on both sides. Forty minutes later after a steep climb up a granite staircase we were awarded with fantastic views of Maccu Pitchu across the valley. Well worth the climb. We decended shortly before dark.
Day four and we had decided to skip the hours walk in the dark to M.P. and caught the bus. It was just as we had envisaged. A great historic village surrounded on all sides by jaw dropping views. It was also a tourist circus with little space to relax. all nations were represented. At noon we walked down and in the evening caught the train / bus back to Cusco.
Travel tips.
www.machupicchutrek.com well reccomended.
$185 each seemed to be a reasonable price. Others we met paid between $120 (student) to $250. All had similar meals, accomodation and itinery.
Basic meals and accomodation, enough food, warm beds, sheer drops and great views. Do it.
Lake Titicaca
We arrived at the Military base as requested only to be informed that the flight had been cancelled due to bad weather. The landing strip in the jungle is a grass one and cancellations are frequent. We looked at other ways of getting there and even considered an 18 hour bus ride including the world’s most dangerous road. However after looking at the weather forecast we decided that 5 days of thunder storms in the jungle was not our thing. We cancelled our jungle adventure and instead headed up to lake Titicaca. On the night before departure we went to the Chilita wresting show. We had seen an article in the magazine Wanderlust and apparently the female wrestling of La Paz is famous world wide. It was quite a show with a number of wrestlers camping it up in the ring. Pure dramatics. One ‘fight’ included a midget in a tag match. He ended up being killed and placed in a small coffin. Bizarre. Then it was the turn of the Chilitas, complete with skirts and bowler hats. Quite honestly the most bizarre and poor taste evening we have had for a while. Great.
A three hour journey look us to lake Titicaca and the town of Copacabana. The beach resort in Brazil is named after this little Bolivian lakeside town. Barry Manilow’s night club (the hottest spot on old Havana where music and passion were always in fashion) is named after the Brazilian beach. This was first.
The lake is 3800m high and a 160m climb up a small hill nearby to see the sunset was hard work. The UV levels up here are harsh. We took a boat to the Island of the Sun. According to the Inca’s this was the centre of the universe. They didn’t get out much. Never the less the views were great. It was a bit like the Greek Islands.
This is the end of our Bolivian trip. Great people, great value, amazing scenery. Well recommended. Next we hit Peru.
La Paz
So here we are in the highest capital in the world! We had an overnight coach trip and arrived yesterday. The place is awash with market stalls and little fat ladies with bowler hats which are too small for them. We marched out of the bus station and soon found our accommodation. It´s set in central location, simple but has everything you need. Yesterday we bought a plane ticket to the jungle. It´s only a 50 minute ride but 22 hours by road! Once there we hope to take a 4 day tour to look at Anacondas and stuff. We are returning to La Paz next Friday so are able to leave some of our stuff with the trustworthy owner of the guest house.
We are flying with TAM the comercial arm of the Bolivian military. We land on a grass run way. Just departing from 4000m should be fun.
Patrice´s cold sores are on their way out and we bought a ring today.
Speak soon
Still in Bloody Surce
So, picture the scene, bags packed – check, bus tickets in pocket – check, not sure if there is an ATM where we are going – check, get some more money out – get the money, get a receipt and the card fails to come out. I can see the little blighter and it´s trying but it´s slightly bent. After ten seconds of swearing and poking about the machine claims it´s new treasure. Sunday ! Carnival week ! Banks not open until Wednesday!
So we found a new hotel – a bit cheaper. I would like to write about the amazing things we have done since then but frankly there is only so much festival you can take. Every single day, hour after hour for six days. The place looks like Beruit. Going for a cup of tea was like a scene from Saving Private Ryan. Wzzzzzzz, wzzzzzzz, close but no cigar. How a group of young men can throw twenty water bombs at two moving targets and miss is beyond me but they did (probably drunk). So we stayed in – a lot. And watched cable – a lot. So we both feel like you do at Christmas where you really should have got out and had some exercise.
Finally the Carnival stopped today. Shops and banks opened. We got our card back and booked an overnight bus north. The Butch and Sundance thing will have to wait until another time. We have saved some money, have square eyes and are ready for some more adventure.
Goodbye Sucre.
