Lizzies mail from La Paz, 29 may 2003

Hello, I´ve a bit more time to write today. Its Thursday lunchtime here and we´ve been here since last Friday. We hadn´t intended to stay so long but in true Bolivian fashion absolutely everything shut down for the weekend so we had nothing to do but chill out. On Monday we went and booked our Gravity bike tour and went to the Qantas office to extend our stay here...very exciting i know, so we´re flying out of Santiago July 19th now, arriving in Sydney early on July 21st. (Sarah and Mari- I hope i won´t have missed ye).We didn´t want to stay that long but space on that route is very hard to come by. We´ve extended our stay because we´re doing more of Bolivia + Argentina now. At least it means we´re not rushing so much.

La Paz is good place to get stuck for a few days, great bars, loads of markets, nice people.(Except on Sundays cos the cops ALL have the day off which means its a crime spree free for all). We´re staying beside the Witches Market where they sell all kinds of weird stuff, including toads and dried Llama foetuses (ignore my spelling). La Paz smells pretty gross because all the market sellers use the street as a toilet, I think i´m getting used to it though. I´m also becoming used to seeing cops with huge machine guns everywhere, drivers who have no regard for their lives or anyone elses, and the slowest service in the world when trying to get food in a restaurant. (Dinner the other night took 2 and a half hours for 3 courses to be served and there were very few customers there!) People here live like we did a couple of hundred years ago.

We went to see Matrix Reloaded at the weekend, it was great but a bit too cheesy. We´re staying in a mainly Israeli hostel. Its great - theres a resaurant, tv room, library... the Israelis know the best value places to go cos they´re so unbelievably tight with money....every one of them will argue vehemently over 2cents or something! I think we´re among about 10 non-Israelis there out of 150 or more. We´re leaving La Paz today and heading for Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Probably won´t have internet access for at least a few days so.

The Death Road biking was fantastic, but i´m still achey and covered in sandfly bites - not pleasant - there are no mossies at this altitude so we hadn´t been using repellent but those sandfly bastards survive up here! Its also pretty hard to breathe here especially going up hill.

Gotta go now i´m afraid, hopefully i´ll have more cheerful news soon.

Deirdre´s mail from Puno, 28 May 2003

Hola folks! We arrived in Puno, our first destination
in Peru yesterday. Our first impression was get the
hell outa of this town, because the place is fairly
dingy and a man pulling down his trousers and pissing
in public and broad daylight only helped tenfold to
reinforce this impression. However as we walked down
Lima, the main pedestrian mall, i slowly warmed to the
place, the indigenous people do hassle you, for
instance they rushed after little dee into a shop
trying in vain to sell her socks, but they are
friendly nonetheless. Puno is a town in the
southeastern part of Peru and situated on Lake
Titicaca and is the base for tourists visiting the
famous Uros and other floating islands of the Lake.
These islands are entirely made of reeds, which with
tourism are the 2 main incomes for the Quechua and
Aymara inhabitants. The markets in Puno are reputedly
the cheapest in Peru and Bolivia for alpaca wool, for
anyone who needs to buy stuff for the highlands and
the Inca trail, here is the place to haggle and buy.
Left Bolivia on Tuesday from Copocabana, which is also
situated on Lake Titicaca. This massive lake extends
for 8000 km, straddling the Bolivian/Peruvian border,
and is the highest navigable lake in the world and one
of the largest. From Copocabana, got a ferry across
Lake Titicaca to Isla del Sol, which is renowned for
being the birthplace of the Inca empire and where
Manco Kapac, the first Inca emperor made his first
mysterious appearance. The island is beautiful with
amazing views, and close to Isla de la Luna which is
where there was a convent housing virgins. From one
view point on Isla del Sol, there are three small
islands in a triangle, between these Jaques Cousteau
discovered a lost city in 1968, 10 metres below the
level of the lake, which dates back as far as 1500 BC.
I think he also discovered a few gold statues and a
pot of gold. There are a few Inca ruins on the island,
not majorly impressive but good to see, the rock of
the puma which the local Aymaras still worship, and a
ceremonial table where llamas are still sacrificed
every June. Walked 3 hours from the north to the south
of the island, really beautiful scenery on route
though there was a lot of indigenous kids asking for
photos and money. Also visited Horca del Inca, in
Copocabana, which are supposed to be Inca ruins, but
all there is, are a few rocks and an ok view of
Copocabana and the lake, dont get stung for 10
bolivianos once u get up there, not worth it. There
are brill and much better views from the Cerro, and no
charge. Copocabana has nice cheap restaurants
especially Orillo on the main drag and good chilled
out bars are Nemos, Sol y Luna and Coyote. The
nightlife has a bit to be desired though. Hostal
Colonial is recommended for accomodation, it costs 30
bivs a night with alright brekkie, and is on the
corner of Plaza Sucre. Had a spot of trouble leaving
Bolivia because the Peruvian campesinos (poor farmers)
and teachers are protesting and putting up barricades
at the borders and outside the major cities of Cusco
and Lima. They took down the barricades at the
Peruvian/Bolivian border yesterday, so we got the
first bus available out of Copocabana to Puno. When we
were crossing the border at Kasina (?), for passport
check, stamp etc 4 of us were brought into an office
with an "official" who tried to bribe us into paying
him money for a green tourist card which we did not
get but were supposed to when entering Bolivia via the
salares. It was all a big scam. We kicked up a major
fuss and between the 4 of us we managed enough spanish
to call his bluff and got away without paying.
Unbelievable though, the amount of corruption that
goes on. We met other backpackers after who were stung
and had to pay. After that ordeal and the bus nearly
leaving without us until some sound guy on the bus who
noticed we were missing, shouted at the driver, we
made it to Puno. Only to find out though, we would
either have to go directly to Arequipa to get to
Cusco, only by plane though, or stay in Puno until
Friday to get to Cusco because the buses wont run due
to the campesino barricades outside Cusco. Was talking
to 3 lads who got a bus at 2 in the morning as far as
the barricade, and then attempted to cross on foot but
were stoned by the campesinos! So i dont think we will
be travelling by night and until all buses are
running. We will probably head to Cusco tomorrow, cos
we have been told the barricades will be down and
there will be no campesinos on the road. We are
planning to get on the Inca trail for next week
sometime and will probably stay in Cusco for 2 weeks.
I will probably take a few lessons to improve my
sketchy spanish while there. From there we plan to
head to Arequipa and on. So thats all my news again,
gotta go because i have spent far too much time on
this computer. Sorry about the group emails, but would
be here all day if i emailed yous individually. Adios,
d.

Deirdre´s mail from La Paz, 23 May 2003

Hola folks! Back in the city again, big big change
from the countryside. Too much busyness and madness
for me. Arrived in La Paz yesterday, via military
plane, the flight was fine, and only 55 minutes long
as opposed to 24 hours on a bus on the "most dangerous
road in the world". We left Coroico last Friday
afternoon, it was very hard to leave there as the
place is phenonemal. Anyway, headed to Rurrenabaque in
north Bolivia, which is home to the pampas and jungle
that are part of the Amazon basin. Had to take the
bus, as was the only means of transport, and it was
the worst by far bus journey in South America that we
have had. It consisted of 24 hours of continual bone
shaking, dust inhalation as the windows did not close,
a near collision with another bus on the edge of a
sheer drop, and to top off with, 3 breakdowns and 3
hour waits in the middle of nowhere waiting for the
bus driver to figure out the problem and get the bus
fixed and oh again multiple drugs inspections.
Eventually got to Rurre alive covered in dust and
smelling of Bolivian bus (not pleasant). Headed to the
Pampas, with 8 other Israelis, for a 3 day tour the
next day refreshed, via jeep and motor boat. The
Pampas were cool, we stayed in a camp on the river,
and managed not to get eaten alive by the mossies
which was our one big fear. The state of us, decked
out in our beautiful white shirts which were buttoned
up to the last that i nearly choked, dirty jeans
(mossies cant bite thru them) tucked into our socks
and converse runners and repellant in hand, a site for
sore eyes, for fear of a mosquito bite. Anyway despite
looking like eejits and roasting ourselves, we saw a
lot of wildlife including lots of crocodiles close up,
a cayman croc in the distance, alligators, pink
dolphins, turtles, sloths, anacondas (one around my
neck, aaargh!!) and cobra snakes, kingfishers, herons,
malibu storks, howler and squirrel (beautiful)
monkeys. Held a baby crocodile in my hand, and went
fishing for piranhas but only managed to catch a baby
trout and a few catfish. Saw amazon sunsets and one
sunrise, too lazy to get up the other mornings, which
were pretty cool also. Our last day we headed back to
Santa Rosa before Rurre and again had a blast with the
Israelis at karaoke, we didnt leave until every song
in the karaoke tune book was sang. Next day we spent
chilling in Rurre, again lazing in hammocks and fairly
non eventful day. Hit La Paz yesterday and tried 3
times in vain to get into the San Pedro prison. They
do tours in this place and the inmates run the prison,
they even have football tournaments sponsored by Coca
Cola! For anyone who wants to try to get into the
prison on a tour say that u want to speak with William
or James and walk straight past the guards, no eye
contact. It used to be easy to get in there but now
the prison governor supposedly has a bee in his bonnet
and is letting no gringos in. We met up with 2 others,
both constables in London, and still no joy, even with
2 cops! Went to the cinema after to see Matrix 2,
jesus woz i confused! My excuse, i didnt c the 1st
one.
Today went on a haggling rampage, my new fave hobbie
in Bolivia, had great fun. Bought a lovely alpaca wool
jumper, woolly hat, another godamn camera on the black
market for 18 dollars which i got down from 25. Good
eh! Got the bus to Copocabana which is where we r now,
and staying in plush accomodation for 4 dollars a
night! Good stuff. Anyway thats all my travel news,
heading to Isla del Sol and Lake Titicaca on Sun or
Monday and onto Peru Wednesday hopefully. Adios
amigos, d.