PERU ... it´s all uphill from here!

After yet another lengthy bus journey, I have arrived in Cusco (sometimes spelt Cuzco). I travelled to Cusco with Andres (who I met in La Paz) ... he is working/training here as a paramedic. In June he will move to continue his training in Germany ... but before he goes, he too is hoping to visit Machu Picchu! Snap!

So whilst I´m in Cusco, Andres has offered to show me around this historical city whilst i acclimatise to the altitude, before planning an alternative route to Machu Picchu ... the regular Inca Trail takes 4 days and costs upwards of $400. After some advice and searching online, I´ve discovered an alternative trek which avoids the masses and passes other sites of interest on the way ... oh, and it involves a 35km hike on the way!! Lucky for me ... I´ve invested in more substantial footwear which I´ve been wearing-in, in anticipation of the trek ahead!

Off to make some more Flip-clips ... check back soon!

I survived!!!

The minibus was a bit late picking us up from our guesthouse, by which point I was a tad chilly! In our group were 16 lunatics ... we´d all signed the waiver to say we were fully responsible for anything that happened to us on ´Death Road´ (at this point Mum, you know I´ve survived so you can relax!). First stop was to get some breakfast ... 2 small, cold pieces of toast and an orange juice - not exactly what I´d call a nutritionally power-packed meal to prepare us all for the day ahead! Luckily for me I´d also taken a bag full of snacks! Yay!



After breakfast, we got back in the minibus and headed out of the city, up some of the steepest roads I´d been on ... clutch control was vital!

Here´s a view high over La Paz as we approached our starting point ... or so I thought! (we still had another 90 minutes to go)

Before we were to reach our starting point (the highest point of the road) we had to pay a toll to enter the National Park ... if you listen close enough to the following clip, guess which band is playing on the radio in deepest, highest Bolivia???

We eventually made it to our starting point (as did several other companies and their biking groups) and got ourselves set up with elbow pads, knee pads, helmets and gloves ... I felt invincible! At a height of 4700m this was easily the highest I´d ever been (apart from in a plane) and over the next 4-5 hours we were going to be descending 3.5km in altitude, over a distance of 63km.

The first part of the downhill journey was on a recently surfaced road, which gave everyone the opportunity to familiarise themselves fully with their bikes before we headed off-road down the narrow dirt tracks! The great thing about gravity-assisted mountain biking is that you don´t need to do too much pedalling! Good job really, as there were plenty of other things I needed to be concentrating on!

Gathering points were reached every 15 minutes or so which gave the tour leaders an opportunity to explain the stretch of track ahead ... and for some of us to snack and drink water!

Looking across the valley you could see the narrow track winding it´s way along the vertical rock faces ...

Unfortunately there were a few injuries on the way down. Early into the ride, Andres skidded on the gravel round a corner, going over his handlebars and injuring his face, hands, arms, legs ... well pretty much every part of his body! At this point there was a slight feeling of guilt having persuaded him to join me on the ride. I had in fact thought how much safer I would feel with a paramedic cycling alongside me ... as it happened I was the one administering first aid!

Another rider, actually fell over the edge of the track on her bike ... luckily for her there were some bushes which cushioned her fall and stopped her from falling over 100m down the rocky cliff face!

... well after over 4 hours of mountain biking through some of the most breathtaking (quite literally) scenery I had ever scene, I eventually made it to the finish ... as did Andres after a bit of patching up!

Without a doubt the most amazing ride of my life! If you´re ever in Bolivia it´s a must do!

´The World´s Most Dangerous Road´ ... have I gone crazy???

Well I´ve just woken up and got myself ready for the craziest outing of my South American journey to date ... you´ll be pleased to know I´ve chosen not to wear sandals this time!

Wish me luck ... not only is it ´The World´s Most Dangerous Road´ ... it´s also 63km from start to finish. If the hazards don´t finish me off then the distance at this altitude might!

Keep checking my blog to see if I survive! Ciao!

Arrival in La Paz ... with such a sore gluteus maximus!

The journey from the border to La Paz felt like it was never going to end ... at this point I was vowing never to sit on a bus ever again!!

The city limits were well over an hours ride into the centre. As we approached the city it was quite the reverse of what I had imagined. Somehow I´d thought that the ¨World´s Highest City¨ would be perched upon a mountain top (well, a hilltop at least!) ... whereas it is actually in a huge crater ... the road down to the centre wound on forever!!

When I arrived at the bus station it had begun to rain ... but by this point I was glad just to be able to stretch! My guesthouse was only a few minutes walk from here and I was soon having a much needed warm shower and heading out to find hot food ... I´d been living on cold snacks whilst on the buses!

After a sleepless night (think my body is getting used to the high altidude again) I headed downtown, which as you will see had similarities to Phnom Penh ...

As La Paz is situated in a ´bowl´ there were lots of hills to climb and descend as I explored the city. I´d met a great guy at my guesthouse, who was a paramedic in training, from Ecuador. He was on a visa run from Peru, as his visa had expired and he needed to leave Peru and re-enter to enable him to continue with his medical training. Rather than just head to the border and back again straight away, Andres decided to visit La Paz for a couple of days.

On our walk around the city streets we came across a rather unusual (and gross) lucky charm on sale down ´Witches Alley´ ... i think you will understand why it is so aptly named!

One of the activities I had decided to undertake whilst in La Paz was a mountain bike ride down ´The World´s Most Dangerous Road´ ... known locally as

´DEATH ROAD´!

I´d read quite a bit about it on the internet and it didn´t take much persuading for Andres to be up for the challenge too. We booked our places (it was going to be an early start ... 6am), headed for dinner (delicious pizza - lots of carbohydrates for the bike ride ahead) and then called it a night!

BOLIVIA ... here I come!

Travelling north through Chile ... on what has to be the longest bus journey I have ever made in my life (43 hours in all!!!) ... I passed through the Atacama Desert (not the rolling dunes of fine sand I associated with a desert environment, more like grit and scree!), Antofagasta (a mining city which looks like it has been built inside a large quarry on the coast) and Arica (the northernmost city in Chile and the terminus of my first bus). Here I had a 2 hour wait before boarding my next bus onto La Paz in Bolivia.

I didn´t sleep much on either bus and by the time we reached the high altitude of the border crossing into Bolivia I was keen to get off, stretch my legs and get some fresh air ... what I didn´t bank on was how difficult it might be breathing at such an altitude ...



After lining up with the other passengers (from my bus) in the immigration office, I was directed to move forward as we had to stand in seat number order ... ¨How efficient!¨ I thought ... that was until I realised I didn´t have the all-important paper in my passport which confirmed that I had actually entered Chile legally all those weeks ago. I knew it had to be somewhere, but thinking back to the night I arrived at Santiago airport (post earthquake) there wasn´t an actual immigration office, just a few police on laptops ... I´d been so engrossed with thinking about how I was going to make my way into the city with no buses running, so late at night, that I forgot to check if my passport was in order.

Luckily after a frantic checking of my bag on the bus I found the document needed ... PHEW!

I was now in Bolivia, the second country i had entered in South America ... both with memorable arrivals!

As the bus continued on the drive towards La Paz, through the mountains and lush green valleys, one sight which caught my eye were the numerous llamas grazing on the verge of the road ... I´d been use to seeing Dartmoor ponies and sheep when living on the moors in Devon, but never llamas!

Ciao Santiago!

After an emotional goodbye to Santiago and the family I had been helping, I jumped on a bus and headed north to La Serena (7 hours ... which was only a fraction of what lay ahead!), where I based myself for a couple of days. La Serena is a coastal town which seems to be permanently covered in cloud! However, a two hour bus ride inland, between the mountains and into the valleys brought with it clear blue skies and lush vineyards, where grapes are harvested to produce the Chilean alcoholic drink known as ´pisco´. Pisco Elqui is a small, sleepy village where many of the distilleries in the Elqui Valley are based. It definitely had a relaxed feel to it as you will see ...



The vineyards are a sharp contrast to the surrounding mountains with their barren slopes ...



In the valley nets have been erected to trap/catch the morning mist to provide much needed moisture for the valuable grape crop ...



The village next to Pisco Elqui is Monte Grand. This has become famous as the birthplace of a Chilean winner of the Nobel literature prize ...

In this valley most of the buildings are constructed from a mud and straw mixture, from which bricks are cast...

As I was now entering a region which approached the Atacama Desert (the driest place on Earth!), I got my first glimpse of cactii in their natural environment ...