Happy Monday - La Paz to Uyuni, Bolivia

Hola!

After our post last week, we ended up staying in La Paz for an extra day to give the strike in Oruro a chance to clear. When we finally did set off south, we had a very interesting journey. We were told that the bus journey from La Paz to Oruro would take about three hours, after three and a half hours on a shabby smelly bus, we appeared to stop in the middle of nowhere for no reason. After pulling out the phrase book and trying to speak to a couple of local passengers, it transpired we had broken down! After all of the men hopped off the bus in a failed effort to help the driver jump start the bus, we found ourselves being ushered off of the bus and our bags being turfed off too!

Thinking that we must to close to Oruro by now, a taxi seemed like a good option, so imagine our shock when we discovered that we were still a two hour drive from Oruro! There had been many road works and minor diversions meaning that the usual three hour journey was now five hours.

Stranded in the middle of nowhere, the only option was to hitch hike another bus, which with the help of a nice young local chap we managed to do, hurrah! We were on our way to Oruro again!

Our relief and excitement was short lived however when we discovered that Oruro is probably the dullest place on the planet! It's quite a sizable town, with lots of buildings, but during our stay hardly any shops were open and the only restaurant we found (and were forced to eat at twice) was awful! 

We wanted to catch a train to Uyuni, but the train only leaves twice a week, so we were in for a two day stay in Oruro. So we ate bad food, visited an old mine and told countless local women that, no we did not want to buy jelly and cream thanks very much.

Outside the mining museum

Finally we got on the train and were en route to Uyuni, such a scenic trip and our first taste of onboard dining.

View from train at sunset

Uyuni is small and touristy and exists mainly for people to base themselves before heading off on a tour of the salt flats, which is exactly what we did. On the first morning we bumped into three other travellers who were in need of two more people to join there tour, so, little persuasion needed, we packed up and headed off with them on a three day tour.

This was probably one of the best decisions we've made so far as the trip was unlike anything we had ever experienced. The salt flats are vast and beautiful, and made a good back drop for hilarious photos......

During our three day tour we saw some amazing sights. A railway graveyard, the salt flats, amazing sunset, hundreds of flamingos, lagoons, geysers and hot springs to name a few!

Us with Gus at Laguna Verde 

A flamboyance of flamingos

View of salt flats and Lisa from inside a cave

Rachel taking a break

Our guide was great, he explained everything to us in Spanish but slowly and clearly so that we could understand. For the three days he was our driver, tour guide, chef and photographer and we really could not fault the service. If anyone is thinking of visiting the salt flats in the future, we would highly recommend Quecha Connections! 

On our final day we were expecting a scheduled stop at the geysers and hot springs before a long drive back to Uyuni, but Gus had one more amazing stop in store for us. He drove us to an area which had been completely covered in solidified lava, the result of thousands of years of eruptions from the surrounding volcanoes. It was such a vast area of volcanic rock that it really left us dumb struck, the views were amazing!!

The road we had driven down 

The formations... Quiet and surreal

This week we will be making our way to Argentina, steak and red wine here we come!!

The weeks highlights:

Best view: The photos will never convey just how amazing the sunset we witnessed over the salt flats was. The colours were just incredible, by far the best we have seen so far....

Gus asked us to pose like the evolution of man... 

Best food: Given that the food we have had this week has been pretty poor, the meals we had whilst on the tour were really good, especially Gus' mums' apple pie, thanks Gus!

Love Monday Funday: Monday was the last day of the tour, and what a Monday it was! We started with an early 7.00am visit to some geysers and hot springs...

Bubbling mud and lots of steam at sunrise

A blissful 40 degree soak after treading on ice to jump into it

We then visited the lava rock site where Gus guided us up to a spectacular viewpoint.  

Panoramic shot- spot our 4x4

Colin had an ace time too, his favourite was posing on an abandoned rusty train and the lava formations.

Number of hours on buses: 5.5

Number of hours on a train: 5.5

Number of hours in a 4x4: way too many to count, worth every second!

Number of layers worn on night 2 of the tour: 5 blankets plus the clothes we wore during the day, hat and gloves too!

Much love Lisa and Rach xx 

Happy Monday - Puno, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia

Evening chaps!

Puno, Puno, Puno....what a funny old place. At a glance from the bus it's a sprawling colourful town, up close its a confusion of road works and crudely half built buildings. Houses, hostels and hotels have clearly sprung up over a short period of time to accommodate the ever growing tourism boom. Puno sits on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the worlds largest high altitude lake. 

Lake Titicaca's sapphire waters

During our time here we explored the town, visited a church and ventured out into the lake. We took a boat to Uros, a collection of islands that are quite unlike anything we have ever seen before. As we stepped off of the boat onto one of the islands we had the unsteady feeling of stepping on hay bails... Because the island is made of reeds. That's right a floating intricately woven mound of totora reeds. And not just the islands, the houses were made of reeds, the cooking stations and childrens toys were made of reeds and the boats which transport members of the Uros tribe to the main land are made of, you guessed it, reeds. 

When we arrived one of the tribe elders sat us all down and explained in Spanish just how they achieved such an amazing community. Luckily he accompanied his explanation with lots of gesticulation and visual aids as our 'poco' Spanish only helped us out so far!

Boat made of reeds

From Puno we took a four hour bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. Copacabana also sits on the edge of Titicaca and is a lot like Puno, but with much more charm and better food! While here we found an amazing restaurant run by a fiercely efficient chap, who was born in La Paz but grew up in Washington DC so spoke with an old school American charm. On our first visit, we knew we had made a good choice as within half an hour the place was full! 

While here we also walked a steep hill to the highest point in the town with amazing views over the lake...

After a few days in breezy Copacabana , we headed further into Bolivia to its capital (very high capital, highest city in the world!) La Paz. When we arrived and found a hotel the lady at reception said that she would put us in a room at the back of the building, 'because of the parade' we didn't really take much notice of this comment, but the next morning over breakfast all became clear. It turns out that we had arrived in La Paz on the weekend of El Gran Poder, the festival of folklore which is the biggest parade in Bolivia. Over the course of the day 40,000 performers made their way through the streets of La Paz, all in colourful vibrant costumes dancing and marching in time to a band of drummers and other percussionists. We had a great view from the top of our hotel and had much fun trying to explore the city while it was going on, but felt very privileged to be able to witness such an event.

La Paz is a huge city, which we spent a good few days exploring. On Sunday we had brunch and took in a few of the sights and a couple of museums. 

Tomorrow we plan to make our way south to Oruro, but after being told today that the city is closed due to strikes, we may well be stranded in La Paz a few days longer. We'll let you know how it goes next week... Lets be honest though there are worse places to be stuck!

The weeks highlights:

Best view: The view of Gran Poder from the top of our hotel...

The picture does not do it justice!

Best food: The two meals we had in La Orillo, Copacabana were both delicious and warmed us up in the cold evenings! We also had two amazing meals in La Paz, Tambo Colonial, rare llama, quinoa soufflé and chocolate mousse are standouts!

Love Monday Funday: We had a very enjoyable 'touristy' day today. First of all we visited the cities cathedral in the San Fransisco plaza, which had really cool views of the city from its bell tower....

We then wandered over to 'the prettiest street' in La Paz...

After a coffee and cake pit stop we made our way to the other side of the city. We wanted to find Mi Teleferico, which translates into My Cable Car. This is the worlds longest and highest cable car system which only opened in La Paz about a week ago. The line connects La Paz with the neighbouring city of El Alto. Lots of El Altos citizens work in La Paz, but because it is set high up in the mountains, it's a difficult daily round trip for the workers as it involves a very crowded 40 minute minibus journey up the winding, steep roads. Mi Teleferico was built to tackle this major commuting issue and is set to transform the daily routine of thousands of people. We took the cable car to the top and back again and experienced some amazing views over La Paz...

Number of hours on a bus: 7

Number of borders crossed: 1

Number of glasses of wine drunk: 10 (it's cold here so we've moved on from beer!)

Much love Lisa and Rachel x

Happy Monday - Lima, Peru to Puno, Peru

Good evening everyone,

So... When we last spoke we were in lovely Lima. We decided to fly from there to Cusco instead of taking the winding, mountainous 21 hour bus journey. And we're so glad we did after hearing horror stories about the overland route. After a short wait at the airport and a mere 1 hour 20 on the plane, we touched down in beautiful, colourful and cold Cusco!

Cusco sits 3400m above sea level so we were advised to take it easy for the first couple of days to let our bodies adjust to the altitude. Luckily neither of us suffered any major ill effects, but we made sure to load ourselves up with coca leaves and sweets just incase altitude sickness struck!

Cusco is steeped in history and walking around it's cobbled streets reminded us of our time in Flores, Guatemala although a little chillier! After 2 months in Central America with unrelenting heat and humidity, it was nice to reach much cooler climes, although our time in the heat seems to have softened our British skin as we are finding it a little difficult to adjust to the freezing nights! Probably because they don't have heating, just sheets and thick woolly blankets... In fact it very much reminds me (Rachel) of sleeping up in my grandparents farm, except Nanna was there warming the bed up first with an electric blanket... Funny how you're reminded of such experiences!

Cusco night view from our hostel

On our third day in Cusco we went on a short walk uphill to the ancient ruins Saqsaywaman, a sprawling site with amazing views over the city....

View of Cusco

Cross at the viewpoint

Saqsaywaman ruins

We broke up our time in Cusco with an over night trip to the South American travellers Mecca that is, Machu Picchu!

This was without a doubt the highlight of our trip. We always knew that it would be   an unforgettable experience, but actually being there to see the sunrise was indescribable.....

After sunrise we had a guided tour around the site, which really helped us to understand the history of Machu Picchu and the reason for its existence. 

We had pre bought tickets to enable us to climb Machu Picchu mountain, a climb of 2000 winding steep steps which, in the growing heat of the day (even though Peru at this time of year is cold at night, the sun can still be scorching during the day) was a tough challenge! Don't get me wrong I'm sure it's not a patch on the arduous 4 day Inca Trail, but climbing that mountain at high altitude made us both feel incredibly unfit and more than a little worse for wear! But as we climbed and stopped for water and carried on climbing and chatted to other climbers about how hard we were all finding it, we all pushed eachother to carry on, and boy was it worth it! At the top we were greeted with this phenomenal view....

Panoramic shot from the top 

Proof that we actually made it!

After a very long day at Machu Picchu and a late train and bus back to Cusco, we collapsed in a heap and had the biggest lie in of our trip so far!

When we finally arose we spent a final day in Cusco wandering around, eating lots of good food and buying 100% Alpaca woollen garments...

On Monday we took a 7 hour bus to Puno, a town sitting on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the worlds largest high-altitude lake.

The weeks highlights:

Best View: Nothing will beat the amazing views we witnessed overMachu  Picchu...

Food: Inland Peruvian food has been a little hit and miss to be honest. The highs: Peruvian potato croquettes (simple but so tasty!), crispy wontons, alpaca skewers and lamb with gnocchi, all in Cusco. 

The lows: Cold alpaca pieces served with pasta spaghetti and about 6 chips, tossed in soya sauce and a couple of tomatoes for good measure... Random and definitely not tasty!

Lesson learnt: Always check the dates on the ticket you have just negotiated and purchased, it isn't always as you (or they!) intended!

Love Monday Funday: To be honest we were never going to top Machu Picchu this week - it was worth 10 love Mondays! Here's Colin also having an awesome time with us...

Number of hours on a plane: 1.2

Number of hours on a bus: 10

Number of hours on the best (& most expensive probably!) train we've ever been on: 3

Much love,

Lisa and Rachel x

Happy Monday - Santa Fe, Panama to Lima, Peru

Happy Monday!

After our rural retreat in Santa Fe last week, it was time to move on to a slightly faster pace of life, our next stop was Panama City. Panama City is an interesting mix, on the one side there are the battered apartment blocks and weathered churches of the old city and on the other side the shiny skyscrapers of the new part of the city....

Panama's new city 

Fishing harbour

The main attraction of the city is the world famous engineering marvel that is the Panama Canal. We went up to the Miraflores lock with the hope of seeing it in action, we just missed one ship go through when we arrived so had to wait around for three hours for the next one! But all was not lost as we wandered around the various exhibitions about the canal and then finally we saw this happen....

We appreciate that it was probably a lot more impressive in real life, but it was amazing to see how they moved the massive ships through by manipulating the water level of the canal.  

Our next move after spending a few relaxing days in Panama City was Peru! We flew into Lima on Friday and the first thing we noticed was that the climate was so much cooler than Central America, so strange after two months of shorts and flip flops to be able to wear jeans! 

Lima is a very cool city. When we arrived we were told that's it's always cloudy and virtually never rains! So much so that they have big water trucks driving around that city every day watering all of the trees and foliage.

Lima has a very European vibe, so our time here has felt more like a city break with walks through the park, lots of coffee and seafood, and browsing funky clothes stores. 

Lima's love park

Miraflores coastline 

Street art is quite popular

We almost had a disaster for our Monday funday... We accidentally drank too much on Sunday!! Oops...The beer was so cheap and we kept bumping into interesting people to chat to... What can you do hey?! But don't worry we ate some calamari and so Monday was saved.

Amazing calamari

Our next stop is Cusco. We decided to fly over as we did not fancy the 20+ hour weaving bus journey through the mountains!

The weeks highlights:

Best view: The view from the plane coming in over Peru, the snow topped mountains...

Best food: Would be rude to go to Peru's capital and not try the world famous ceviche! It's the best we've had yet! We also had the best pizza of our trip in Casco Veijo, Panama.

Ceviche, fish kebab and octopus (we didn't realise that we'd ordered octopus until it arrived as the menu was in Spanish, but actually it was nice and smoky!)

Love Monday Funday: We started off our day with a picnic in the park of love... We love a picnic at the best of times and so thought it would be a fitting start to our day.

Munching on corn

Lima is a huge city, so big that we could not possibly see all of it in a few days, so on Monday night we took a three hour bus tour by night to take in the cities sights. A beautiful place with amazing architecture! 

Limas central square

Enjoying the views

Random illumination

Number of hours on buses: 10

Number of hours on a plane: 3.5

Love Lisa and rach xx