The Second South American Inquisition Part 2
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Thu 17 Nov 2011 19:01
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I was struggling with the altitude in Peru and so
Jo's plan was to go even higher and go to Bolivia.
The capital of Bolivia is La Paz. I am sure you all
knew that but it was news to me at the time. And to get there from Arequipa in
Southern Peru took us via yet another bus trip, across the Lake Titikaka. I
didn't know much about the lake save to say, I liked its name and it titillated
my fancy alittle.
Lake Titikaka is on the border between Peru and
Bolivia. It is a huge lake, almost an inland sea, at an altitude of over
3800m (12500ft in old money). It is regarded as the highest commercially
navigable lake in the world. In itself, that is not a truly fantastic
fact but what was fascinating, were the people who lived on islands made solely
from reeds.
The main island was called Uros. And yes it was an
island, made solely of reeds, floating on the lake. The inhabitants of this
island lived in reed houses, they fished from reed boats, wore reed skirts and
lived entirely from eating reeds. Alright, I lied about the last part, but this
was a fascinating and truly bazaar place. Why on earth would people choose to
live on a reed island when there is the perfectly good town of Puno just
down the way a bit. The answer came when the chief of the island explained that
if you dont get on with your neighbours or your family, or even your wife, you
just saw off a piece of the island and push it off with them on it. Now there is
a lot of merit in that. It also explains the numerous little islets
floating around occupied mostly by ugly ex wives and battered
lovers.
   Uros, the reed
island.
Reed
boats
Chief of Uos
And so the trip to Bolivia involved a bus trip, a
boat trip and a bus on a boat trip. Yes that's right.......the bus had a boat
trip too, Bolivian style.
    Bus on a
raft
Our ferry
boat
Reed fishing
boat
Map of lake Titikaka
We got off the bus and took a dodgy little ferry
across a small part of the lake. While we did this, the bus was driven down
the beach and onto an even dodgier raft with a ropey outboard motor. I was
convinced that was last we were going to see of that bus and our luggage. But
no, it made it ok and so did we........ It was our first taste of Bolivia
and the future promised to be nothing but intriguing.
La Paz is a busy metropolis clinging to the
hillsides of the snow capped mountain 'Illimani'. It is the highest
capital city in the world at over 3600m. It reminded me of
Istanbul.......without the mosques, minarets and the altitude........so it
was nothing like Istanbul really. But there were loads of shops, markets, street
vendors, bars and restaurants. Plenty of places to explore......except, at
that altitude, you got out of breath going to the corner shop. But we had
to acclimatise ourselves to the altitude, so we darn well had to get
used to it.
   La
Paz
La Paz street
vendors
La Paz street walkers
We liked La Paz. The hustle & bustle, street
vendors and markets made the place quite vibrant.......but most of all, there
were curry houses, serving proper 'English curries', if you know what I
mean.
After a few days sampling the delights of La Paz,
we figured that we may be ready for another excursion. So off to Tupiza in
southern Bolivia to join a 4 day jeep trek over the Andes mountains to the salt
plains near Uyuni. Aha....a jeep trek........like music to my ears......didn't
sound like much walking to me. So in keeping with tradition in this part of the
world, we took taxis, buses and the wackiest overnight train ever, to our start
point of Tupiza.
  The train to
Tupiza
Uyuni train station
This train was wider than a normal European style
train but the gauge of the rails seemed to be based on a model railway,.... they
were only about 2 foot apart and apparently laid on soft sand. Consequently it
was not safe going faster than about 30mph especially around the bends. But even
at these slow speeds it was still so uncomfortable being shaken around in
your seat that your brain hurt from bouncing off the sides of your skull. As you
might well imagine, the buffet car was a complete joke. How the chef managed to
cook the food I dont know, but to his credit it turned out ok......that is, of
course, if the steward managed to get it on your table without throwing in
your lap. Then eating it was a near impossibility. If you managed to get some
food to stay on your fork, you would only stab yourself in the eye trying to get
it in your mouth. We decided there and then.....we would take the bus
back.
Finally, we arrive in Tupiza and as it was like a
dusty old Arizona cowboy type of town. Jo thought we should go horse
riding and really see what the Bolivian wild west had to offer while
we were waiting for our jeep trek to start. Well, Jo has done a bit of horse
riding in her time and can do the trotty gallopy gallopy thing but me,......
me and hoses just dont get on. I could never understand why an animal
stuffed full with hay was so damn hard and uncomfortable to sit on.
   Horse rider
Jo
The Bolivian Wild
West
Horse sitter me
But, I have to admit
it.......we both thoroughly enjoyed the horse ride. On these sort of
horse trekky things you normally get some knackered old nag that has done the
trip a million times before and reluctantly walks out and enthusiastically
trots back. There was none of that. We were off from the start. And just to make
things interesting, my horse was not having any other horse overtake. So as soon
as someone behind kicked on, mine was off whether I liked it or not. Jo thought
that was hilarious watching me hold on for dear life.
We met our travelling companions at the hotel. He
was an Italian and she French. They were a nice couple and interestingly
the spoke to each other in English. Neither were prepared to lower themselves to
use the others language and so they elected to speak English......youth of today
eh? . They were good company and so were the jeep driver and his co-host,
his wife, chef and chief washerupperer. And what a splendid job they both
did. He drove very fast but safely on dodgy mountain tracks and
she prepared great food under the most demanding of
circumstances.
   Wacky rock
formation
Mountain
lake
Flamingo lake
We spent 4 days and 3 nights touring the most
dramatic scenery in the world.......Red lakes, blue lakes, green lakes and a
combination thereof with pink bits (the pink bits would be flamingos). There was
also interesting wild life......chinchillas, llamas, vicunas and pumas,
who eats all three, so I have been told. There were active volcano's
with sulphur pools bubbling ominously amongst splendid mountains and rock
formations, in an other worldly like fashion. All in all, a very
interesting 4 days culminating in a visit to the Salar de Uyuni, the vast
salt plains of Bolivia.
   Volcanic sulphur mud
pool
Chinchilla
Llama
These salt flats are the largest in the world
and are rich in Lithium. They also make a great wacky photo
opportunity.
   Wacky
photo
The
jeep
Wacky photo with Ceasar
Everything there is made of salt. We even stayed in
a salt hotel, slept on salt beds and ate salt sandwiches for tea. Sorry, I cant
help myself, I lied about that last bit too. But the salt hotel and salt beds on
salt floors is completely true. It is absolutely freezing at night
and always will be, until someone invents a heater that is
powered solely by salt.
   Salt
beds
Salt table &
chairs
Adonia trying to keep warm in bed
As previously suggested, we took the bus back to La
Paz where we prepared ourselves for the next dare devil
adventure.
Obviously, we were becoming quite confident in
our fitness and ability to handle the altitude because our next trick was a
death defying challenge of outrageous proportions. Even the great endurance
explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes would not attempt this one...........And that
will be covered in 'The Second South American Inquisition Part
3'.
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