PERU (PART III) & BOLIVIA

Hello from Cochabamba Bolivia!

It’s been a pretty busy last 2 weeks since the last blog entry with a lot of shuffling from city to city, but I have seen so many worthwhile things and places, that it has been well worth it.

Following my recovery day spent in Cusco I was off to Machu Picchu. It started with a 1.5 hour bus ride to the train station and then a 2 hour train ride to Aguas Caliente, the main city next to Machu Picchu. In Aguas Caliente I randomly saw 3 of my dorm mates from my hostel in Cusco and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon together. The Peruvian elections were coming up so there was a big party that night for one of the city's candidates two blocks from the hotel.

Post election concert

Aguas Caliente

The hike up to Machu Picchu the following day consisted of 1 hr of intense climbing up ~1.8 km of stairs to the entrance of the park and then a guided tour of the ruins.

Seeing Machu Picchu with my own eyes was really something. I had seen pictures of it in books and on the internet but having Machu Picchu right in front of me was incredible. It now makes sense why it is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. 

Machu Picchu

Following my return to Cusco, I met up with a friend from the Montanita Spanish School who was in Cusco at the same time. During our city visit, the highlight of the day was visiting a chocolate museum. The chocolate samples they gave us were really good and made for a perfect post-lunch desert.

That night I made my dinner stop at the local crepe restaurant across the street from the hostel. It was my 3^rd time at that restaurant and I still couldn’t get enough of it. The crepes were as authentic if not more than crepes in Paris! Following my crepe dinner, I was off to Puno on a night bus.

The best crepes in South America

My arrival at 4:30 AM in Puno consisted of me waiting 30 minutes in the street in 35°F weather, ringing the hotel doorbell every 3 minutes, until the hotel receptionist finally woke up and opened the door for me. I have to say night buses are convenient at letting you travel at night and making the trip seem “faster”, thus oftentimes saving you on having to pay for a hotel room. The downsides of arriving in the middle of the night are running into problems with too early of a “check in” in hotels and being tired most of the following day.

Puno is the main Peruvian city on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Similar to Machu Picchu, being able to see the highest elevation lake in the world with my own eyes was impressive. The lake is so big that there is no chance I could see the other end.

Election parade in Puno

Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side

What surprised me with Puno was how easily I got sunburned. I guess with the high elevation (3,800 meters) of the city/lake it makes sense now, but it was something I wasn’t used to when I was near in the Pacific ocean in Peru where I was at sea level. 

My next stop following Puno consisted of crossing the border into Bolivia. The border was really just a crossing over a 20 ft bridge from Peru to Bolivia by foot. There was a lot of traffic on both sides of the border.

The Peruvian side had its traffic backed up due to 20 Peruvians unloading potatoes out of a tractor trailer to then move them across the border into Bolivia in little carts. The Bolivian police station was blocked off for a few minutes due to a trailer carrying baby dippers that had tipped over right in front of the entrance!

A police officer trying to figure out how to lift 300 pounds of diapers

1st meal in Bolivia

Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side

After successfully getting my Peruvian exit stamp and Bolivian entry stamp on my passport I was off to La Paz to meet up with 2 French friends (Martin and Ben) who were traveling through Bolivia for three weeks. After a 3 hour bus ride stuck between several Quechan (indigenous/farmer) women that smelled pretty bad, I finally arrived in La Paz to meet up with my friends. The last time I had seen them was over a year ago in New York City so it was nice to catch up.

The next day we were up at 6 AM to embark on an all day downhill mountain biking trip that would have us ride down for several hours supposedly the most dangerous road in the world = "The Death Road", just outside of La Paz.

The start of the descent

1/2 way down

It ended up being everything it was hyped up to be and everybody in our group made it to the bottom in one piece! On our way back to La Paz we had a stop to cool down at a swimming pool and it felt great.

After surviving the Death Road we had one full day to check out La Paz before catching a night bus to Uyuni.

Hipster shot

Martin wishing he was part of the marching band

We ended up getting seats right above the rear wheels on the second floor of the bus. Within 10 minutes of being on the bus, it was bouncing so much we thought we were already on a dirt road. Well we were just getting on the highway, and so this would be the start of the most uncomfortable bus ride I’ve ever taken. Three hours into the ride we hit the dirt road section and we were literally going airborne everytime the bus hit a pothole or bump. By the time we finally arrived in Uyuni at 5 AM we all had pretty sore backs and little sleep!

Our tour of the Salar de Uyuni started mid morning and we (Martin, Ben, and I) ended up in a jeep with 2 French and 1 Mexican traveler. Our first stop was at an old train wreck that kind of gave us the feel of a ghost town. That was followed by a stop in the desert to take funny perspective photos.

Dinosaurs still roam the Salar de Uyuni

 

We then got to visit Isla Incahuasu which is an island covered with cactus in the middle of the white salt desert. The scenery kind of reminded me of Death Valley but on a much larger scale. That night we slept in a refuge that had walls made of salt with a pack of lamas sleeping 20 meters away.

Isla Incahuasu

Lamas near our refuge

The following day we got to see some more picturesque landscapes that really made us feel like we were on another planet. The dozens of pink flamingoes eating and swimming in the lagoons was quite a sight to see. We slept that night in another refuge were the outside temperatures ended up dipping down to around 0°C.

Laguna Colorada

The 4:30 AM wake up call the next morning made us feel the cold even more. It reminded me of early morning starts to go skiing during the winter time in the US. The reason for the early wake up was to see the nearby geysers in full effect. Once we got there, the geysers felt like a mini Yellowstone National Park with the very strong “rotten egg” smell due to the sulfur.

One of many geysers

Laguna Verde

A Peruvian shaman (me)

The geysers were followed by a swim in one of the park’s hot springs that felt amazing in almost freezing air temperatures. It was nice to wash off the salt/dirt as well after 4 days without a shower (due to the scarcity of water in the desert), although everybody else had the same idea so the water may have not been so clean! The morning ended up with dropping off the 2 other French travelers at the Chile border since they would be heading into Chile after the Salar, and the rest of us made our 7 hour off road drive back to Uyuni. 

Martin and Ben made their way to Tupiza (southern Bolivia) the following morning, while I started heading back north where I’d be starting my volunteer work in Cochabamba in a few days. Due to the lack of direct buses, I had the following itinerary: Uyuni – Potosi – Ururo – Cochabamba, spread over 2 full days of travel and 3 buses.

I arrived in Cochabamba late Friday night to be told it was election weekend (once every 5 years) and thus there would be strict curfews, almost all stores/restaurants would be closed, and being caught in possession of alcohol or driving a car on any road would result in major fines. Thus it would be a strange start to my 6 weeks in Cochabamba! That weekend I got to meet a bunch of other volunteers, check out the city, and finally settle down in one place for more than a few days. 

Stay tuned in the next blog post where I go in depth about my volunteer experience in Cochabamba, Bolivia!