So, after finishing in Pachachaca, I did Christmas in Lima, including a visit to the famous Polvo azul (Blue powder) market. The picture below may not actually be it, but the idea is similar. You can get 10 DVDs for 2USD!
I then set off south to see my lovely friends from the retreat (Yunia, Silviu and Bogi - see their excellent blog). Was perfect as I arrived in Cuzco just before Yunia and Bogi were being shown around a wonderful organisation set up by a dutch woman, named Yolanda. Who just like me, was treated the same day to the magical hands of Silviu - thanks again my friend. People who just use a spare hour they have to do a comprehensive healing treatment blending years of training with a strong spiritual presence. Without thought of material reweard. Wonderful times.
Moved by the plight of street kids, Yolanda effectively adopted 12 of them!!! Very hard work. Since then she has gone on to open some beautiful hotels (above) to fund her organisation which now focuses on supporting kids who come to one of three centres before or after school, providing them with a good meal, activities and much more. This is very much along the lines of what I would like to do. With so many years of dedication, they are at a level way above where I would start but it was really inspiring to see. If you have been wondering what charity deserved your money in 2012, with 5 euros a month, you can make a real difference here.
After 22 hours bus to Cuzco from Lima, it was another 11 to Copocabana, Bolivia then a boat across Lake Titicaca to the Isla del Sol (highest navigable lake in the world, birthplace of Inca civilisation in myth). Amongst the huge amount of useful info the two girls gave me was a tip to stay at the refugio. It was full but the blow was softened by the sight of the beach (above) where I found accommodation.
I met a lovely group of people from England, Germany, Argentina and Colombia on 31st and we just sat on the beach chatting and then just generally hung out until they were a bit drunk, I was really sober and it started raining - hard, so I went to bed - at 11.30!!! Rock on, Steve. The next day we set off to see the ruins on the island. A stunning walk (above and below).
Even though it's beautifully sunny in this pic below, it was raining and very cold most days from 9pm to 10 am - 13 hours!!! Which effectively scotched my plans to hike to the southern part of the island.
The next day, I went for a walk on my own and practised my poems with a beautiful view of the ocean. Lots of energy! I have now memorised all the poems from my two zines - a second has followed on from the first one I did in 2009. (Self) publication to follow in 2012! I also got to climb/clamber up onto some rocks, as you can see below!
From there, it was on to La Paz, during which journey I read quite a lot of "The Celestine Prophecy". Got that wonderful feeling with a book that makes it feel like the person wrote it for you or with you in mind!! The centre of La Paz (altitude 4200m!) is quite cool and compact. This funky bridge below is very colourful. You can see the houses clinging somewhat precariously to the cliffsides behind. The city is in a bowl of beautiful mountains with peaks up to 6000m!!!
Lovely colonial square...
And another one...
Then it was 18 hours of the most terrifying bus ride of my life. I would happily have done almost anything to have got off, but there was no way out! It was fine in the first 100k, but the 50km between Coroico and Carenavi, if I'm not mistaken, loses 25 vehicles a year or month. Any road, I saw one which had gone off the road that morning!! At times, the dirt road was about 8 feet wide with hairpin bends, a bit muddy and seemingly at times unstable/landslide-prone at the edges and with sheer drops between 10 and 100m - into a river. All this in a double-decker-height bus which actually did lose wheel traction at one point i.e. wheels spinning in the air, cartoon-style. The reward, however, was a day and a night chilling in Rurrenabaque before leaving the next day in a boat and arriving 3 hours later at the stunning Madidi national park for the three day "jungle" tour (all inclusive - 90USD). Amazing. Below is the tree that "walks"!
Here's Dave from Newcastle, Australia measuring a track left by a tapir. Think stocky and between the size of a big dog and a pony. Also nocturnal so we didn't even get close to seeing one. As Dave was one week shy of going home he very kindly donated me his shoes that he was just going to throw away. They're going great guns, thanks mate! even went for a run in La Paz this morning.
These are wild peppers growing just near the hut I was staying in.
My hut is the second one of the two.
It doesn't really show up on this photo but this tree was almost glowing with verdant phosphorescence. A big part of the reason I was in the jungle was to soak up the energy of the place. With the idea in mind of setting up my own education charity, I'm going to need all the energy I can get.
As it was full moon, the nocturnal animals weren't really about. A few brave souls went out but I was still shattered, despite having the classic 7pm on bed conversation in Rurre the night before - so where shall I go for dinner...zzzzzzzzzz wake up at 2.30am then pass out again till 7am. Still, the bone shattering night on the bus plus the extreme fear was probably to blame. Did I mention that the driver could have shown Michael Schumacher a thing or two? Was honking the horn like a loon and driving up the exhaust pipe of other vehicles to try to pass them on this death road!! Avoid Trans totai bus company is all I can say.
Here's Masha, the first Russian I had met on my trip. Really nice girl. Political journalist from the Komersant newspaper. With having 7 frenchies in the group, it meant speaking all my four languages. Which was quite a mental workout. My Russian was still pretty strong, but my French has definitely suffered a bit.
Floyd from... you guessed it, Newcastle, Australia (pure coincidence), closer than I wanted to be to this spider's web.
As a good vegetarian, I declined the pirhana fishing opportunities.
The boys from Newcastle did their best, but, gladdenning my vegetarian heart in an ironic sort of way, the carnivorous fish just got a load of free meat to eat. Apart from this one, who got a hook through the eye before being put back, oh and one other who got chopped up to use as bait.
Xenon the guide had to make a swift descent from this strangle fig when he ran into a bees nest. Didn't stop Floyd having a crack at it though.
Here's Dave drinking from the water vine. Masha only had two days in the jungle before going to the Pampas for three days so our intrepid group was down to three. This was a real privilege as the guide was excellent. He had grown up as a boy being dragged all around these parts by his Dad, learning all the stuff you need to be able to hunt. The water tastes delicious and can save your life if you have run out!
Here he is imitating the distress call of a young capuchin monkey to try to get them to come our way. Every time he did it, they rushed out on to their branch to have a look, but didn't buy it as they had either smelled or seen him. Back in the day it would have been good enough to have shot the monkey for food though. Very glad his skills are now put to a much better use, but wonder where the next generation of Tacana guides (local indigenous folk) will come from as they are growing up in the town of Rurrenabaque these days and would just get hopelessly lost in the jungle.
From the boat back to Rurre, we saw this wonderful creature, the capibara, one of the world's largest rodents.
Then next morning it was 3 hours of tailbone shattering jeep ride from Rurre up to the town of Santa Rosa for the three day pampas tour. From Santa Rosa, we took our time in a boat ride up the somewhat foetid smelling river (due to rotting vegetation, giving it a tarry appearance and oily-rainbow slicks). We got to see a mix of wonderful animals and birds on the way, including this Hoatzin. There were loads of them and with good reason, as every time we saw a pair they seemed to jump into the act of making more! Apparently they are also known as stink birds and have a dung-like odour which fortunately, we couldn't smell.
We stopped off at a bit of dry land in the bewildering swamp to see capibaras, but only managed to see some capibara poo.
The net day we went anaconda hunting. With wellies, but the water was deeper in the part you see below, hence the, "do I REALLY have to do this", expression!
Can you see any anacondas? They're only a metre or so long and I didn't get so much as a sniff of one.
This is what I was walking through. A great opportunity to really concentrate and flow into the moment to avoid ending up in the drink. I absolutely loved being in this distinctive, pristine environment.
Seeing these squirrel monkeys was a real treat. In the wild, from the boat, without the feeling of disturbing them too much. We had been close to these in the jungle but hadn't seen them before they ran away so I was really pleased with this. We also got to see howler monkeys again who I'd woken up to every morning of my week in Palenque, Mexico but had never seen. We saw them from afar in the jungle, but in the pampas we got a better look. Amazing.
Floyd, who had also booked the 3 days in the pampa, swimming with pink river dolphins. Unlike local humans who have to be nice to the tourists, the dolphins feel no such necessity and nipped at the feet of various bathers. Just enough to draw blood, although clearly they could have done much more.
Devilishly difficult to get a photo of a dolphin surfacing but did manage to get this video. It's 18 seconds of your life to watch it, but I think it's worth it :)
This was sunset on day 2 - a beautiful spot with a volleyball court and a football pitch. Needless to say I spared the south americans the embarrassment of being shown up by my superior football skills :)
Having been so terrified on the way over, I got a taxi over the dangerous bit of the road on the way back, still a lot cheaper than the plane which a lot of people take. Being 16 months into the trip, the budget for flights just isn't there...
No rest for the wicked! The next day after getting back to La Paz, my poor posterior was suffering another hour and a half on the way to Tiyawanaku, the capital of the ancient Tiahuanaco culture which dominated a lot of Bolivia, southern Peru and northern Chile for best part of a thousand years before mysteriously disappearing in around 1200. This is a view over the altiplano on the way.
And here I am. In front of the pyramid reconstruction. Obviously the Spanish nicked a large amount of the stones to use to build churches. Bloody Spanish, you'd never catch the English raping countries for their resources like that.... Hang on!
This is the famous constipated chief accountant of the Tiawanaku people.
And this is the front door of his house.
These are Andean crosses or chakana which symbolise twelve months of the year, four compass points and the three realms of air (condor), earth (puma) and underworld (snake).
And then it was back to La Paz, to the Carretero hostel, also known as Little Argentina. As with every other night I've spent here, it's wall to wall singing, bowls of mate, beer, fernet, smoke, beards, beautiful girls, Che Guevara lookalikes and me in my room meditating or writing my blog :))
That's it for now, lots of love,
Steve
xxx
