Starry starry nights

Monday was  one of those days that seemed to go on forever but for a day that started badly it ended beautifully.

Without knowing the shape that our day was going to take Abs and I had booked a star gazing tour in Atacama at 9pm on Monday evening, something that I've been looking forward to since I left England. 

We had a few hours to kill and after checking in to our respective hostels we met up with Martin & Jeanine, Ben & Phoebe and Gabby & Anthony in the Plaza de Armas for a couple of beers, lunch and a Pisco.

The events of 10 hours before are long forgotten.....

Les, who was the Astonomer and Guide on the Space Obs tour was both funny and interesting, there were a number of telescopes set up so that we could see amongst other things, Sirius the sky's brightest star which is beautiful when you look at it through a telescope and the 'Spider' constellation, which is without a doubt the sparkliest most appealing spider that I've ever seen.

It was so interesting to learn a little of the 'history' of stars - the tour finished with a cup of hot chocolate and bed just before 1am.

It was a long day and one that will stay in my memory for lots of reasons, primarily because it was the first time I'd seen Sirius up close - truly an amazing and captivating sight.

Raine x

Our driver's been drinking all night????

As we were sleeping in a dorm as soon as Martin's Swiss Army Knife App alarm went off at 4:30 we were all up and trying to dress by the light of a head-torch without exposing bits of ourselves.

I thought  it was strange that there was no one in the kitchen making breakfast when I went to brush my teeth (in the shared bathroom) at 04:45am as breakfast was due to be at 5am. I mentioned it in passing when I got back to the room and Jeanine joked about the fact that the previous night she had bet that we wouldn't leave before 7am.

Then a little after 5am Israel was banging on a door down the hall, clearly without much success as about 10 minutes later he told us that the lady who was supposed to be making our breakfast had overslept and that we would get breakfast at the Hot Springs which was going to be our first stop of the day followed by the Geysers and then the Green Lake before being dropped at the border for our crossing in to Chile.

Shortly after that I commented that I hadn't seen any of the drivers and Richard went to see if he could find them, returning five minutes later having seen no sign of them. A few minutes later I went to see if I could find Israel or the drivers to find out what the plan was.... no sign of anyone..... It's important to remember that we were in the middle of the desert more than 2 hours from the border with Chile and 8 hours from Uyuni with no mobile or radio communication....

As I was about to go back in to the refuge a 4X4 pulled up with six people in it, I was looking to see if I could see our drivers in the car when the driver got out and stumbled towards me saying "Tienes un Problema?" (Do you have a problem?) I responded sarcastically saying "do I have a problem?" and then realised that probably wasn't the best thing to do, he was falling down drunk, as it turns out were all of the other drivers who quite literally fell out of the car behind him.

Then I'm not quite sure what happened next but our driver from the previous day walked up to Israel our guide and poured a can of beer over his head, Israel lamped him and then there was blood everywhere and we changed from tour group in to UN peace keeping mission trying to negotiate a good outcome for everyone - it's not easy to negotiate with angry drunks. 

Ben, Emanuelle and Martin took the lead in trying to negotiate our collective way out of the situation, 

Abs, Phoebe and I walked the length of the refuge (four other buildings) asking if any cars were going to Chile with spaces but there weren't any. Then we found two men at the end of the block who we offered $300 dollars to but they claimed not to have any petrol. 

Ben, Emanuelle and Martin, in between stopping the fighting offered to drive the cars themselves, tried to bribe the drivers and at one point we seriously talked about the possibility of tying the drivers up (I am not joking) and taking the cars.

Eventually another tour group who were on their way to Uyuni offered us their driver to take us to Chile and then return to take them on their tour which was incredibally kind, they were 'paying it forward'.

The two hour trip to the border was quite stressful, there were too many people in it, there was too much luggage on the top of it and the driver was going too fast which made for some hair-raising moments on the bends. I don't think any of us thought we were going to make it, apart from Martin who in his lovely Swiss way kept trying to help everyone through the trip.

With the border in sight we breathed a collective sigh of relief but when we pulled up, the bus driver who coincidentally was our 4x4 drivers boss insisted that we pay $200 and he spoke to the border police who wouldn't stamp us out of Bolivia until we'd paid it - we initially thought it was a scam but it wasn't it. Any way to cut what is becoming a long story short we paid our money, got stamped out of Bolivia and arrived in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, somewhere that I'm really looking forward to.......

UN Peacekeeping Mission

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Raine x

Your driver's been drinking all day????

On day two of our tour we were up early for breakfast and back in the 4X4s to visit the lakes and rocks and flamingos it was an interesting day, made all the more so by the insight and information that Israel was able to share with us, he's a geologist and having him there to answer questions like; why does the salt form perfect cubes? Because of the crystalline structure known as infinite lattice and Why are the salt flats covered in hexagonal markings? Again, because of the 'infinite lattice' structure of salt.

It was hard for the second day to compete with the first, having never seen or experienced anything comparable to the Salt Flats I was blown away by them and whilst the lakes were interesting; The Red Lake (because it was) and the Stinky Lake (because it did) and the Flamingos (they really shouldn't thrive as well as they do in the altitude) - in my opinion the second day wasn't a patch on the first (just wait until you hear about the third!).

Red Lake

Stinky Lake (and flamingos)

A Rock....

We had been warned that our accommodation on the second night was going to be more basic, and it was. We were staying in a refuge with several other tour groups and we were sleeping in a dorm, something that Abs and I have been able to avoid up until now. But it was fine, it was only going to be a few hours in bed as we had a 4:30am start on Monday....

As an aside to my story, another group of four young girls arrived at the refuge just as we were sitting down for a drink, they were all very upset as their driver had been drinking throughout the day and was now drunk and they were scared to continue the tour with him the next day.

As a group we comforted them, shared our drinks with them and collectively came up with options for them for the following day. 

And when the girls were out of ear shot we smugly talked about how clever we all were for doing such thorough research, paying a bit more (because you get what you pay for, don't you?) and going with Red Planet, we laughed a lot about this later!

Friends, a word of warning - never be smug......

Raine x

I thought I felt tall in Ecuador.......

After a fairly mediocre and over priced breakfast at a hostel in Uyuni we walked to the pick up point for our three day tour. It was here that we met the rest of the members of what I have to say was a great group.

Israel our tour guide arrived and we were split in to two 4X4s for the tour, Abs and I were in Car 1 with Martin & Jeanine and Emanuelle who were all Swiss and Israel our guide.

Car 2 had Phoebe & Ben a great couple from Australia who are on a 6 month honeymoon, Richard & Koji who'd met at La Paz airport and decided to travel together for a few days and Gabby & Anthony from London.

Our first stop was only five minutes away at the Train Graveyard,the final resting place for the steam locomotives that many people believe were game changers for Bolivian industry, now left to rest and decay in the salty flats of Uyuni - not far incidentally from where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid died/were killed/committed suicide.

Where dead trains are laid to rest.

Sala de Uyuni is the worlds largest Salt Flat at 4,000 sq. miles - it also contains 70% of the worlds lithium reserves, unsurprisingly a business that all of the locals are trying to get in to - there ain't no money in salt that's for sure, 1 Boliviano for a small gift bag, that's about 8p......

Next stop was a small village where we saw how they refine and manufacture the salt for domestic use and saw some of the ornaments and tourist tat that the villagers produce - one of the many benefits of travelling for 6 months is that it's fairly easy even in our limited Spanish to explain that it's pretty impractical to buy gifts of salt or indeed a foot tall ornamental owl made of salt, so don't worry, although economically it would have made sense and I did consider a small gift bag of salt for each of you whilst it's cheap it's heavy so you aren't getting salt or salt based gifts.

After a lunch of Royal Quiona salad, steak and the most delicious apple pie I have ever eaten (sourced from a Swedish bakery in Uyuni) we headed to the salt flats which is an amazing place. I have never been anywhere like it and I have nothing that I can compare it to and I'm sorry but I fear that I'm not going to be able to do it justice with my words or my photo's.

It is massive expanse of space that feels like a giant optical illusion. Even though I knew that it was salt it looked like Sand and then Snow and then Ice, it really did mess with my mind, if it was sand it should have been soft and hot but it wasn't it was a solid formation and cool, if it was snow or ice it should have been freezing and slippery but it wasn't it was cool like marble and not slippery at all.

It's flat!

Because it's so flat it gives you a great opprotunity to take some 'perspective shots', we had so much fun taking silly photo's (see below) and filming a video (will publish to YouTube and send the link as soon as Wifi permits).

Abs and I Star-jump every opportunity we get.

I'm a giant in Bolivia....

Then we went to 'Fish Island' a strange piece of land covered in thousands of cacti in the middle of the salt flats which is actually the top of an ancient volcano before watching the sun set from the middle of the salt flats.

A cactus on Fish Island

Then it was off to our hotel for the night, a hotel made entirely of salt, including the beds, the dining table etc....   

Raine x

Plane, Train or Taxi......

We had three options to choose from to travel from La Paz to Uyuni...... We could fly and be there in an hour for about $100, we could take a 4 hour bus journey from La Paz to Oruro and then take a 7 hour train or take the bus all the way which would take about 13 hours. With time on our hands we opted for the Bus and Train (and as it turned out boat) combo.

The view across Lake Titicaca en route to Uyuni

Leaving La Paz we had the best seats on the bus, top deck front two seats which give you an excellent view of the traffic jams that you sit in for two hours as you try and escape the chaos that is La Paz! One notable cultural difference, the traffic was crazy and on top of that the driver kept stopping and very time he did the locals would start shouting "Vamos" and stomping on the floor of the bus - Abs got quite good a giving the driver this feedback after the initial hesitation that goes with our British reserve.

We made it to Oruro with about 30minutes to spare - we'd met a very nice Swiss couple when we got on to the bus in La Paz and hooked up with them to go in search of some food at a restaurant that had been recommended to us. We found the restaurant easily but service was slow and as we hadn't eaten by ten past three we asked for our lamb joint (no kid) and corn to be put into a takeaway container - imagine the face you pull at people when you're on the tube on your way home and there's someone next to you with an aromatic KFC - now imagine the faces of the travellers around us as we tried to devour our meat and one veg - it was very tasty but it will never be a contender for the Ronnie Mac's throne.

The train journey was fine, we were sat next to a couple of nice Irish guys who we'd met in the restaurant and they were good fun. There were on board movies, I gave the first one a miss in preference to listening to my music and watching the ever changing scenery fly past and the sun set then I watched the Total Recall remake which was very good.

At about 9pm we decided that it was beer o'clock - taking on liquid is a decision that is never lightly taken when travelling on public transport in South America and with only an hour or so of the journey left we figured that it was a risk we were prepared to take and shared a beer and played a couple of rounds of Shithead.

We got in to Uyuni just after 22:30 we hadn't booked a hostel and so followed Martin and Jeanine to theirs, we were able to get a room for five pounds each, our cheapest yet and it was worth every penny and not a penny more.....

Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats) tomorrow, where the fun begins.......

Raine x

The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

Big gaps between blog entries are a dangerous thing, you forget so much even though only a week has gone by.....

We arrived in what from now on I will refer to as the 'chaos that is La Paz' on Tuesday afternoon. 

The chaos that is La Paz - Aerial shot

We stayed in a B&B called Casa Hermanus Manchego which we'd selected as it was located in a quiet district called Sopacatchi away from the chaos that is La Paz and it was perfect. Fortunata the brilliantly named housekeeper with gold heart frames on her teeth (I wish I'd taken a photo) was fantastic helping us to get our jeans and bags repaired and making us breakfast.

None of our meals in La Paz really credit a mention they wouldn't score much more than an 'Average' Trip Advisor rating but they were ok, I do sincerely hope though that our wine choices perk up once we get to Chile.

For me the real highlight of La Paz was without a doubt the Worlds Most Dangerous Road (WMDR) bike ride. We  went with a company called Gravity - they have the fewest fatalities on their rides and we thought that was a good stat to go with. 

All joking aside the road has a very sad history, it runs from La Paz to Coroico (approx 70k) with none of it wider than 10ft, there have been politically motivated killings, Bolivias worst traffic accident where 100 football fans died and an estimated 400 people killed on the road in individual accidents each year. A new road was finally opened in 2006 and so the route we took is almost exclusively used by mountain biking tourists now and it is amazing........

64k downhill hitting speeds of  somewhere between 40 - 50k it was the best, most exhilarating fun.

Personal highlight: Five older Brazillian men were part of the group, all wearing Lycra and cycling tops, as Paddy our guide was kitting us out he asked one of the 'Pro's' if he cycled a lot to which the response was a proud "Yes, all the time", Paddy's response; "Right, erm, you've got your helmet on back to front"*.

I'm glad that I left my Lycra and London to Brighton race top at home and opted for walking trousers and boots, it meant everyone's expectations were lower - including my own and resulted in me having the most amazing day.

Personal Lowlight: I was a bit too enthusiastic and a couple of times took a few bits too quickly which resulted in a  couple of near misses, one with the cliff edge but the most frightening one was when I took a corner too quickly and came face to face with the cliff face - my sudden braking brought the back of the bike up and very nearly over... Like I said exhilarating.

Out take:

Bridget Jones - before and after the mini-break car journey

Next stop Bolivia - you don't want to miss that update.....

See you there.

Raine x

* The Smallest Print:  It would be disingenuous not to mention that half way through the ride after a break Paddy had to tell me that my helmet was on back to front but as I said, without Lycra the expectations were lower......

Her name was Lola....

Leaving Puno was a relief and crossing the border in to Bolivia gave me the usual tingly feeling of excitement, wondering what to expect of the new country, how would it differ from Peru (the ladies hats are different - but more of that later). It's a shame that our last stop in Peru was Puno, it does absolutely nothing for the country - thank god for the Peruvians that they have Cusco and Machu Picchu!

The border crossing was as straightforward as it had been crossing from Ecuador to Peru - the bus stops, we all disembark, we all walk to the two Peruvian offices to get stamped out and then walk a short distance past the 'Bienvenido A Bolivia' sign and get stamped in then everyone gets back on the bus and we're in a new country and on our way.

Adios Peru, Buenos Dias Bolivia

Abs and I had agreed that if Copacabana wasn't our kind of place we would stay for one night and then head straight to La Paz - turns out Copacabana and more specifically Hostel Olas is absolutely our kind of place! 

A couple that we met in Quito had recommended Hostel Olas and as with Killawasi Lodge in Yanque we had booked only one night and as with Killawasi, the moment that we arrived we knew that we wanted to stay for longer. The room was a beautifully designed split level 'apartment' with two bedrooms, a kitchen, small dining area, small log burning stove and private garden with hammocks and floor to ceiling stained glass windows - it was perfect. 

Room with a view..... and wine

Aside from walking in to the town to go to the market for quinoa, vegetables and wine we didn't leave the hostel - it really was idyllic with a stunning view across a deep blue and sparkling Lake Titicaca, so much more tranquil than the Peruvian side. It was an absolute treat to go to sleep with the curtains open and to wake looking at such an amazing place.

But, all good things must come to and end, we have Death Road to cycle (my insurance policy is with World Nomads by the way) and the salt flats at Uyuni to explore and so we must get the bus to La Paz.

See you there.

Raine x