...So it´s been a while. I´m still alive. Most of the past 2.5 weeks have been spent in small towns where finding Internet access has been a challenge. For example, in a surf town in Northern Peru now called Lobitos, where just keeping the water running proves to be a challenge. Staying in Lobitos for the swell to hit and then probably off to Ecuador early next week. When I make it to a large city I´ll update this properly.

Machu Picchu

From Cuzco set up tour to Machu Picchu. 4 day 3 night trip was alternative option to "the Inca Trail" for about 1/3 the price and the ability to make a reservation 1 day instead of months in advance.

Day 1:

Biking. A decent of about 9,000 ft over 55 kms on half asphalt, half dirt roads snaking along the mountain side. Not as steep or extreme as the Death Road, but some good steeps and curves.

The road



The Urban Zone

Day 2:

Hiking along an old Inca trail (apparently 8 Inca trails go to Macchu Picchu).

About half the trek we walked along narrow mountain edge treking trails

And the rest of the time cruised along dirt roads, I believe which were part of the Inca trail system

By far one of the better groups I´ve been part of, with 9 nationalities represented. We stayed in small "hotels" instead of camping and were able to frequent several of the small town/tourist bars.

Day 3:

More Hiking.

A morning winding along a valley floor


And the afternoon of walking along railroad tracks to make it to Aguas Caliente

The highlight of the trip for me was on the third night a guy in our group heard of a side hike up a mountain across the valley from Macchu Picchu. 5 of us from the group climbed up for the sunset (would have been more, but about half the group came down with a food poisoning aliment of sorts).

The first half of the hike was basically straight up on ladders fashioned out of trees and old logs acting as rungs held on by one nail each.

A good shot looking down at the ascent that I stole from Alex. Easily one of the more exteme/dangerous hikes around

The 5 of us and 6 beers at the top. In total there were 8 people at the top of the mountain to see the sunset, slightly more managable than the 4,000 at Machu Picchu.

A slightly less common shot of MP and the road up

And the hike down in the dark

Day 4:

Machu Picchu. Woke at 4 AM to climb the steps up to Machu Picchu.

The ruins

Inca stone

The surrounding mountains

Next:

20 hour bus to Lima tonight. The plan is to find a surfboard and explore the surf up the northern Peruvian coast.

La Paz, Jungle, Lake Titicaca

La Paz

When approaching La Paz at night it looks like sky scrapers encircle the valley center of the city, towering over the few tall buildings that exist in the middle. However, as you ramble closer you see it´s not buildings, but houses and shacks that climb the montains around the city and their lights blanket the valley. These mountainous peaks would be a challenge to climb, yet somehow homes exist.

La Paz is a unique city in many regards... I think. I actually saw very little of the city by day, except if you count 3 out of 5 sunrises I was still awake for. I do know I managed to rack up a hostal bar tab over twice the price of the room (and that bar closed at 1 am), found excuses to celebrate stuff with white people from all over the world, and toured the city via taxi under the late late cover of dark. I don´t even have any acceptable pictures to post from the city, but it is visually attractive.

Besides the late night debauchery, the highlight of the city was the big decent.

Bike tour of "the most dangerous road" ... plunges 11,647 ft over 39 miles. Nicknamed the "Death Road" because so many cars went off the side of this one laner that´s positioned atop a curvy cliff and hugging a mountain side. With the recent opening of a new road few cars still use this road, but bike tourists have continued to justify the name with 3 dying already this year (according to the guide).

No one died from our group but a girl fell off (speed wobbles) and broke her two front teeth in half. The next day another girl from the hostal fell and got a concusion.

A good trip and a big rush

Likely the second most deadly road

20 hour bus trip north to the junlge town of Rurrenabaque. The trip covered only 450 kms so we averaged about 15 mi per hour along one lane cliff roads (for two way traffic) with the only protection being a blaring horn warning oncoming traffic of our approach.

Pampas Tour

From Rurrenbaque went on a 3 day tour in a carved out tree canoe around the Pampas Del Yacuma, a fluvial pain of the Amazon Basin.

We saw some wildlife:

Went Anaconda hunting

How not to hunt for Anacondas, demonstrated by the Swedish girls being terrified of mosquitos

How to hunt for Anacondas (I think) ... unfortunately no Anacondas this day

Went fishing for Piranhas

and swam in the murky waters with river dolphins, not far from where aligators lounged in the sun or lurked just below the water (apparently alligators are afraid of the dolphins). Best quote was from the guide, "En Bolivia, todo es possible, pero nada es seguro." (In Bolivia everything is possible, but nothing is safe)

Sorota

Visited tranquil hillside village of Sorota, hoping to do some mountain biking, but the guide was out of town and I moved on after relaxing for a day.

Lake Titicaca

A few hour stop in the lake-side town of Copacabana before taking a 1.5 hour boat ride to the Isla Del Sol.


Met up with a guy from the Pampas tour and a few others and stayed in a hostal with a great view of the lake.

The room looked a bit like a jail cell, but it was the cheapest room of the trip so far... $2.04

Hiked around island in the morning, about 20 kms

got lost in mountain side farm plots

wondered through small villages


Local gals chatting up the group trying to sell a random mixture of quality homemade goods

Now

Arrived in Cuzco, Peru this morning. Likely venturing up to Macchu Piccu in a few days.

Sucre

10 Days in Sucre. 10 days well spent. 300,000 person white-walled town was a tranquil setting for more spanish lessons, volunteering, $1 lunches, my first South America professional soccer match and 4 am nights at the gringo bars and discotecas. Shared a room with Shaker (guy from Detroit who is one of the few Americans I´ve meet during the travels and even one of the fewer that I would want to travel with).


The Market



One of the most amazing things I´ve ever seen. Heaps of fruits, veggies, meats, juices all grouped together in their respective family, stretching a whole city block and 3 floors in height.

Prepared lunches ranging from $1 - 2 that is a heaping homemade Bolivian meal. The challenge is fighting off the women trying to lure you in to eating at their table without viewing the whole runway first.


My Casera (women I always got my fresh strawberry juice from for 40 cents for 2 glasses).

The Orphanage
Volunteered in an orphanage of 40 boys, Hogar Sucre, where I played futbol with the kids, helped with homework in subjects that I had hoped I would never see again, and continued my assult of awful Spanish speaking across the Sud Americas.


An amazing facility, especially in terms of the offerings provided in this "3rd world" country. From what I understood, when the kids turn 10 they learn how to work in the metal shop (welding, scuplting, etc) and the wood shop. There is a field of corn and other plants where the kids learn agriculture and I saw many of them weaving (all in addition to going to school). There also are 2 futbol fields, a horse and 3 dogs roaming around. By American standards there are a lot of dangers for the kids to grow up with, but its refreshing to see a place not safty proofing life from an early age.


I gave my camera to the kids and most of the pictures are from them.




The clothes often are "overly worn" and the shoes most likely lack shoe like qualities, but besides this and a different language, the similarities between kids here and there has never been clearer. The same excitement with life, hope and goodness exists within their actions and eyes. It´s even more impressive to embody this spirit with the life many of them have experienced.

Next
Arrived in La Paz this morning and will likely stretch out the birthday celebrations for a few days while touring this city that reaches into the sky.

Bolivia - Tupiza, Uyuni, Potosi

Bolivia is extreme in many senses of the word. It´s incredibly poor and rugged and beautiful and the first country I´ve visited whos culture lacks clear Western influence. It´s what I wanted to experience during this trip and the degree of poverty at times continues to be unbelievable and the beauty of the culture amazes.

Crossed border at Villazon and paid $135 visa fee (reciprocity at its finest) and was surrounded by markets overtaking streets, offers for $1 home-cooked lunches and wrinkled indigenous faces with blank stares hauling around backpacks made of folded colorful blankets.

Tupiza to Uyuni
Went on a 4 day 4WD tour between Tupiza and Uyuni with Shane (New Zealand) and Ant (UK). Most of the trip took place between 12,000 and 15,000 ft (altiplano region) where chewing on the ounce of coca leafs we bought for 70 cents from a corner store before the trip helped ease altitude sickness (note: coca leafs are legal and aren´t cocaine). Stayed in small adobe walled and straw roofed villages and one night a hotel made completely out of salt. Saw red rock formations (similar to Bryce NP), gysers, lagunas, deserts, more flamingos and llamas than you can count and the salt flats... which are amazing and almost indescribable

Getting schooled in futbol by the girls in the first town where we stayed

Small village hut

Laguna Verde

Flamingos

Salt Flats

Crazy perspectives of the salt flats as I crush Shane (image not altered)

Potosi
Took a night bus to Potosi (7.5 hours, $5). Laughing when our bus showed up and they started throwing bags on the roof and exhausted by the end of the trip. All seats taken and I had a women sleeping against my legs and a woman sleeping against hers, etc. Since no bathroom on bus it stopped halfway and everyone (men and women) used parking lot and road as the restroom.

Potosi Cooperative Mine Tour
Went on tour of famous Potosi Cooperative Mine. Famous for numbers of deaths it´s caused (believed to be over 8 million people in the last few hundred years) and continued unsafe working practices. Before arriving at mine stopped at a corner store in town to buy miners gifts... gifts included coca leafs, 96% alcohol and dynamite (yes they sell dynamite at the local corner store).

Ant, me and Shane before going under. Toured the tunnels and talked to miners for 3 hours about 300 ft underground.

And you think your job sucks: This guy had to take out 60 of these carts per day, each weighing about 1 ton. He works about 13 hours a day and makes 50 Bolivianos for his efforts ($7 USD per day). Most miners start working as teenagers and often die within 10 or 20 years from breathing in the noxious gases and dust.

Sucre
In the "modern" city of Sucre now. Likely will stay a week to study spanish and tour the surrounding area.