Bolivia & Chile - Atacama Desert

From Uyuni we drove through another old mining town called San Christobal. It used to be located a few miles up the hill but the whole town was relocated when this American firm bought the mine and decided its inhabitants were better off in the valley than on a hill. mmm

Before we reached the Bolivian/Chilean border, we pasted through a series of lakes, that due to various mineral deposits were coloured either red, green, white, blue, etc. Laguna Verde being the most impressive, as it had a huge volcano directly behind it and it´s waters a brilliant blue/green. Another cool thing about them is the minerals in the water alow the temperature to reach even minus 20 and the water doesn´t freeze.

The Atacama desert stars immediately as you come down the high Altoplano, and it is supposed to be the drist desert in the world. I could see why, no a shrub of plant life anywhere, for miles! Only the odd cactus survives out there. Thank goodness our truck didn´t do a tits up on us!

The only real point of interest we pass on the way besides the lakes, was the town of San Pedro. It was pretty dry and primitive, but I managed to befriend a local guy and got to watch the Boks vs Kiwis game at his place. Sucks ass we lost it though, come on Bokke! I also picked up some bug in San Pedro too and spent the most part of two days throwing up and sick as a dog. Blasted bugs!

The border crossing into Chile was painFul to say the least. They had us unload all our bags and went through them, looking for awooden things and plants that weren´t allowed in. Pips had bough a picture in Copacabana and the frame had spiders in it, Luckily they just killed them and let us take it..

Chile = boring! We´ve arrived in Santiago now, but for the past week we have spent driving pretty much every day through baron wasteland, and there ain´t much to report on. We camped a few nights and the rest tried to upgrade to rooms, as winter has arrived and it´s blurry cold aye! We got to do some star gazing at an observatory in Vicuna which was pretty cool. The guide could have been Borats brother, v amusing stuff, is niiiice!

Santiago looks to be a pretty decent city, although the white fog has manged to entent it´s reach inland and we haven´t seen the sky for the past few days. The Dragoman trip itself has offically ended today, and most of us are leaving either tomorrow or the day after. Next stop - New Zealand baby. Watch this space!

Bolivia - La Paz, Potosi and Uyuni Salt Flats

La Paz is set in some of the most amazing landscape I´ve seen. It´s basically at the bottom of a valley but it´s surroundings are almost totally rugged looking sand formations. Like something you´d expect to see on mars! Incredible to think how they manged to built a city on it, let alone a world class golf course!

I managed to geta round of golf in at "The hightest course in the world" - La Paz Golf Course. 4300m up, the air be thin up there! Meaning too, I could drive the ball almost twice the distance - didn´t help though, played like a donkey!

It was the birthday of one of the girls on the truck, so as we do, partied till all hours at the Hard Rock Cafe. Hungoverrrrr the next day!

Shopping wise, this was the place to be too, you could buy virtually anything there, even llama foetuses. Niiice...

Bolivia also has to be one of the cheapest places on earth too, all good things for a traveller.

Next stop, the mining town of Potosi. Once famous for its silver mines, it´s now just a tourist trap. A few of the others did a trip down the mines but we chose to spend the day walking round looking at more churches, museums, and llama foetuses! Yum! Apparently they are supposed to be placed in the foundations of your new house for good luck. Riiight...!

From Potosi, we made our way to the world famous Uyuni salt flats. Highest in the world. I think Bolivia might have the flags for world highest everything!

Along side the slat flats is a train graveyard which made for some good pics. The salt flats themselves, really really cool. We had fun coming up with the most clever pics using the white of the flats, so heres a couple..





















Oh, Uyuni is also home to the Best Pizza in the world, ever! And you´ll find it at the Hotel Tortino. Top tip of the day!

Peru - Cusco and the Sacred Valley

Cusco - v cool. Scenic, lots of churches, lots of little old ladies with a Llama in tow, lots of camera shops, internet cafes, super cheap restaurants, nightclubs and of course - the main plaza with a gagillion pigions. We didnt explore much of Cusco to be honest, it was nice to see the churches from the outside and when youve seen one Inca museum, youve seen em all.

We basically spent our last solo days relaxing and making sure we had all our stuff in order. Living out of a rucksack gets tiresome after a while and although its great to be the master of your actions, we couldnt wait to join the Overland trip and let our lives be dictated for a while.

And so, we joined Dragoman Overland on Tues 5th June, the part of our journey that would take us from Cusco to Santiago in Chile - 27 days in total. Things immediately started to look up. We were moved out of our cheapo hostel into this 3 star Hotel just up the road - with hot water! A rare luxury over here.

Our crew consists of a crazy Irishman and a Swiss chick as the guides/drivers, 9 girls of various nationalities, and one English fella. Life is good! Most of them had been travelling on Dragoman trucks previously and we were the newboys on the truck. I have been corrected a few times now by means of nasty shots, for calling the Truck, a bus. Big no no in this world!

The Sacred Valley - sacred! Basically comprises of various Inca ruins that run from Ollantaytambo to Machu Micchu and as far as Urubamba - if Im not mistaken!

Instead of the classic Inca Trail, we were doing this alternative option called the community walk. 4 days and 3 nights of hiking between local community schools and spending time with them and learning their ways etc. V cool. Finishing off with a visit to Machu Picchu. Sweet!

Our trip started with a visit to the ruins of Saqsaywaman, just outside Cusco. Our first introduction of Inca architecture and the amazing amount of work put into building them. The size of the stone blocks they carried and sculptured is just mind boggling. From there to the ruins of Pisac. Built on the side of a mountain, Pisac is split into three sections which basically were living, food storage and religious ceremonies. As with all the Incan cities, it was constructed in such a way that on the 21st June, the sun would fall on a certain rock, indicating the change of seasons. Then on the 21st December again. Very clever. You just cant believe how advanced their way of building was and their knowledge of the stars etc.

Moving on, from Pisac we drove through some winding valleys, volcanoes and lakes to our first campsite. A local school in the middle of nowhere! As we arrived the locals ladies set their stalls up, funny, and the kids came out to play football. Obviously the thing to do when the gringos come! Dinner was followed immediately by bed, a very tiring day. Baring in mind we were camping at 4400m, it was muy cold!!!!

The next two days involved lots of hiking up steep mountains, to a max height of 4700m. Got some amazing pics which reminds me, I need to upload! Night two we camped at another local school, and night three was beside a river in a valley that lead into the ´sacred valley´. So beautiful, but once again v cold! The company that took us on this trip treated us like kings too. We had our tents put up for us, morning tea to wake us up, a massive breakfast, élevensies, lunch, afternoon tea and then dinner. 5 star! They´re called Andina Travel if anyone is looking for a tip.

So day 4 was a pretty flat if not downhill walk of about 11km to Urubamba. Hard going on the old knees! From there we caught a bus to the town of Ollantaytambo. Another old Inca city built on the side of a mountain. The ruins are all still v intact so made for some great pics and hard climbs!

Next day - Machu Picchu baby! Absolutey stunning. You see it in the postcards all the time but actually feating your eyes on it is something else. We did a two hour tour round most of the ruins and then had a few hours of free time.

So myself and this other Welsh guy decided to climb Waynapicchu - the big mountain you see behind the ruins. It half killed me but the view from the top was priceless. Highly recommend it.

From there we made our way back to Cusco and into a 24hr challenge - basically to stay awake until about 6 the next morning. Not as easy as it sounds as we were quited shattered from the 4 days of walking, etc. But, of course we did it and were broken springs the next day!

Next stop was Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side. Nice little place, a few cool bars and shops. We did a morning trip out to the famous floating islands. Basically everything is made out of reeds! The platforms themselves, the houses, the boats, quite amazing.

Onwards into Bolivia and to the town of Copacabana. It´s main purpose seems to be to serve the islands nearby with tourists and souvenir shops. We visited the Isla del Sol (Island of the sun) and did a walk from the north side to the south side. Very scenic and cool to see all the local villages on the way.

We only spent a couple of nights there before we relocated to the capital - La Paz. We arrived a few hours ago so not much to report as yet. It´s located at the bottom of a few towering mountains so looks very picturesque.

Pics to be uploaded soon . . .

Peru - Lake Titicaca

We leave Cusco and make ourway down to the shores of Lake Titicaca on our new form of transport - the Dragoman truck. Our new home for the next 3 weeks. The driver is a very cool Irishman called Martin and his assistant driver was a new starter from Switzerland called Tamar. Both a hundred times better than our guide through Africa. The rest of the truck was a combination of English, Ausi and Swiss. Great bunch.

Before we arrive in Puno, we stopped of at these old Incan ruins that were the site of their burial chambers. They looked like large kilns just placed on top of hills. V odd! This site was called Sillustani, and if I have to honest, worth a skip!

Puno is not the most exciting city but set on the shores of Lake Titicaca, it makes for a good pic. The harbour has unfortunately been covered with this carpet of green weedy stuff, but that fades out as you head into the lake. Town fun factor - zero!

Before leaving, we did a morning trip out to the famous "floating villages". Everything is built out of reeds and the village itself litterally floats on a bed of packed reeds. Strange they chose to still live out on them but I think they´re basically there for the tourists. They had options for tourists to sleep the night in one of the huts but I like the idea of solid ground under me, thanks!

Next stop is the small but scenic town of Copacabana. We spent a couple of nights there in a hotel that looked out directly onto the lake. Our view from our room got us some very nice sunset pics! We did a day trip out to the Isla del Sol and walked from the north beach to the south. It only took a few hours and compared to the Inca trail - piece of piss. Got some very nice pics in of the bays and distant ice capped mountains. Defo worth a visit.

Before leaving Copacabana, it is tradition that the truck and it´s passengers be blessed by the local priest. We had out truck decorated in an array of flowers and fireworks then were sprinkled by the holy water. Supposed to bring you luck on the roads - and over here you need it! The roads are bad news! Just down the way was what is offically known as The Worst Road in the World! Speaks for itself!

After a very effortless border crossing, we made our way to the East Shore of the lake via a dodgy as hell ferry. Legend has it the lake has claimed an overland truck by tipping over of of those ferries. Great!

So we leave Lake Titicaca and make our way to the unoffical capital of La Paz . . .