capybara (looks like a ginny pig/ rat
Howler Money
Parates
A last minute camera click as Fredrico Lunges at me almost taking my hand...
Bad..Bad... Fredrico
Isla Del Sol, Lake Titicaca
The Donkey that would not shut up (kara had never heard a Jackass before)
Well we left you off back in the Capital of Bolivia (Sucre). Since then we have put in our fair share of bus time, 13 hrs here 5 hrs there and a 20 hr we hope never to repeat...EVER! From Sucre we finally made it to La Paz after Kara got over her ´bug´. We connected with some old friends and immediatly bought 4 tickets to the BOLIVIA vs. ARGENTINA ( ranking- argentina second to the top and bolivia second to the bottom) so Bolivia had a lot to prove. We grabbed a taxi and drove across town only to make it about 8 out of the 20 blocks. Infront of us stood hundreds of people wearing the green jerseys (Bolivia) and a few wearing white and blue (Argentina) who were walking off to the side of the streets hoping not to be stoned. As we walk around the corner and the stadium came into site it wasn´t hard to see how prominant a role Coca Cola played in their culture, there were dozens of huge inflatable drinks, soccer balls, shirts, banners, flags.... an much more. We manuvered our way through the crowd and into the stadium and found our seats which were located about 13 rows up and near the home opposing goal(Prime Seats!). The game was incredible Bolivia outplayed Argentina in every way. We were amazed that Bolivia wasn´t ranked higher. When all the fans stomped the stadium shoot and the chants grew louder and louder. After an amazing game Bolivia won 5-2.
The following day we left for Rurrenaburque on a cheap flight we had found. We arrived at the airport and soon after took off. It was a beautiful flight, for we saw the sunrise and were flying at the same level as all of the snow capped peaks, which were not more than 500 yards away. All of sudden we banked hard left and turned around. We found out later that since the runway in Rurrenaburque is dirt and there was recent rain, it was too muddy to land. After getting back to the airport and waiting another 4hrs we were finally clear to go. ROUND 2- was a go, we blasted off in our tiny twin prop 15 seater. About 45 min later we flew over i guess what they considered the landing strip because they started to bank and turn around after flying over a little town. Flying straight now they started to decend, kara and I looked out the window wondering where the strip could be, lower and lower, the plane dropped, we were only 20ft above the tree line. Kara and i freaking out now, wondering were the strip was. All of sudden we could see grass and little patches of dirt below us with only about 20+ ft of clearance on each side of the plane. The wheel touched down and we immediateley started to swerve violently to the left and right teasing the edge of the forest with our wings. Another couple hundred yards down the road the plain thankfully came to a stop and the Pilot turned around with a wide grin looking at the 15 white faced, horrified Gringos.
The following day we grabbed a Jeep transport and headed out on a 4 hr ride to the Madidi National Park (Amazon) . (The park is about 5,750 square miles which covers everything from mountains to the jungle, it is one of the largest protected areas in in the world.) The ride was rough and the road was bad, but nothing much else to report. On arrival we met our guide, Jamey, a native to the jungle and a real character. Our group consisted of us and 3 other Kiwi´s who were a riot. We all loaded into a long canoe and headed up river for 3hrs. On our journey we saw dozens of species of birds, pink dolphines, and a bunch of monkeys. We were there for 3 days and 2 sleepless nights (warning kiwi´s snore like no other). We did a wide range of activities like walking through the jungle, searching for anacondas, swatted at millions of mosquitos, swam with the dolphines, and swam with an 8 ft camon(named Fredrico) that was on the enbankment only 15 ft away ( one eye on the water and one on Fredrico). Fredrico almost got a tasty little hand. The guide and I were teasing the Camon so i could take pictures of it, so my hands were out infront of me clicking away when the guide caught my attention for a moment, making a funny face when all of a sudden his eyes got wide and out of the corner of my eye i see nasty Fredrico lunge out of the the water toward me. At the last second I lunged backwards with Fredrico clamping down inches away from my right hand. Lesson learned- Do not tease the Camon.....
The day we left the Pampas (the section of the amazon we were in), was when our road adventures truly started. When we awoke it was relentlesly pouring rain. We packed our bags and got in the canoe to do a very wet 2 hr canoe ride. Once at the take-out we loaded up our jeep, which was 2hrs late. Our driver was laughing and laughing saying, ´ready´...´are you sure!´we hopped in and within seconds we found out why. The roads coming in when it was dry were terrible but now with almost 7 hrs of constant rain, the roads were lethal, despite the fact we were in a 4 wheel drive jeep with big treaded tires. We were all over the road, it was like driving on pure ice. twice we almost rolled the car with the left wheels taunting not to return to the road. In addition to the road conditions our car kept breaking down every 30 min. What took us 4hrs before took almost 8 hrs to return. It was truly a ride to remember.
The following day all flights were cancelled because the runway was too wet and the forecast wasnt looking good. So, we made the decision to take what was a 14hr bus but, would be a 20-24hr bus because of the roads. For the sake of the relationships some of the readers have with us we are omitting this story. But, to sum it up i can honestly say that this bus trip scared me far beyond anything i have experienced before, fortunately kara was knocked out due to her mega strong sleeping pills.
We arrived back in La Paz around 6am and hopped a bus straight to Copacabana, which is an island on Lake Titicaca, right off of Bolivias mainland. We hopped a boat out to Isla Del Sol (island of the sun) and spent the day hiking from one end of the island to the other.
That night we snuck over the border into Peru because we had both been robbed and had no money...(just kidding). We crossed over trying to save time and utilize our days more efficiently. Using Arequipa as a place to store our bags, we hopped a 5hr transport to Colca Canyon, which is more then twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but they look nothing alike. Colca Canyon does not have the vertical walls like the Grand Canyon does. From were we started our decent about a half mile outside of the tiny town we dropped over 3,000 ft to the river bed. The trail was quite steep and zig-zagged down the mountain side. Unfortunately we were given bad directions and did the treck backwards. We decended just over 1,000 ft per hour and were very thankful to reach the bottom. I must say Kara was a Champ!! and carried our overnight bag down the whole way because we were afraid of my knee. ( the pics are not ours, unfortunately our camera got stollen on the return from this trip) We continued up the river valley about 4km. We reached the village just as nightfall set in. Kara and I were very happy at this point not to be hiking. For a total of about 5 dollars kara and i had an amazing Alpaca stirfry and a good nights sleep. We awoke the following morning about 430am to try to beat the heat as we climbed back up towards town. Unfortunately, that never happened because first we got quite lost after we found ourselves a local who offered a donkey ride to the top, which we denied so he messed with us and sent us hiking off in the wrong direction. We cursed his existance for hours as we finally got to were we started our climb 3hrs late and at the beginning of the heat. It was a long 4hrs up over the 3,000 ft we had decended the day before.
From Arequipa we went to the coast. After so much traveling kara and I decided we needed a vacation from traveling so we found ourselves this little beach hotel en route to Lima and relaxed by the beach and read for 3 days.
After that much needed rest we headed further north to the Nazca Lines. The night before our flight over the lines we went to the planitarium where we saw a presentation on the lines which gave us a much better understanding and appreciation for this phenomenon. We were told not to eat the morning of the flight and Kara and I were VERY happy we didnt. The plane banked so hard left and right circling round and round over all the figures that we would otherwise had been in trouble. The flight was totally amazing. We saw a total of 12 figures. There are many theories behind the origin and motives of the lines. Researchers postulate that the lines and designs were created over 800 years.
From Nazca we headed North to the City of Ica. Ica is surrounded by sand dunes, actually the worlds tallest dunes. In the middle of two massive dunes on the outskirts of Ica lies a desert oasis called Huacachina. It has become a touristy little spot, but is a lot of fun. Our last day there we did a tour on a dune buggy and went blasting out over the sand dunes. The ride was much like a rollercoaster with sharp turns and they would slowly crest a massive dune that shot pratically straight down for a 1,000ft. We found a fairly steep dune and were dropped off at the top to ´sandboard´down. Sandboarding is much like snowboarding but slower and harder, most peope opted to lay on their stomachs and descend the hill in this manner.
We have to be in Lima on the 30th to fly to Cusco so the next 6 days we will be taking another vacation from traveling and reading on the beach....LIFE IS HARD!!!!!!!!
