The Trip Home

We left La Paz on a flight to Santiago that stopped in Arica and Iqueque, more of a bus than a flight but we got there in the end. We checked into our hostel and headed out for a bite to eat. Santiago hadn't changed at all in the previous 3 months. It was still dirty, smoggy and a bit smelly. Also after Peru and Bolivia it was shockingly expensive, but that probably just eased us into the return to Dublin. The next morning we headed off to the airport, all was going smoothly. We checked in, did security and spent every last Chilean Peso that we had. At about the time we should have been boarding there was not a lot of activity at the gate area but the plane was there so we were not too worried. A little while later we were told that the flight would be delayed for 7 hours and that we were all being taken to a hotel. Needless to say we were not too happy about this development but if there is something wrong with the plane then there is nothing to be achieved by having a moan. We thought we would be just dumped in the airport hotel but we were taken back into the city centre and given a room in the Crowne Plaza for the afternoon, fair play Iberia! At 5pm we were bussed back to the airport to check-in and finally left at 8pm. We were never told what was wrong with the plane but if it takes 8 hours to fix it must be an important bit!

The flight takes 13 hours to get to Madrid so we arrived the next day in the early afternoon. We knew we would have missed our connecting flight to Dublin. However we knew this would be the case when we were still in Santiago so we asked for seats on a later flight to Dublin, which we were told we had. When we arrived in Madrid (without having to fill in an Customs & Immigration Entry Card, a major novelty - as Julie said it's great to be amongst friends again!) we went straight to the Iberia transfer desk and asked for our new boarding cards. Turned out that we had been booked on a flight from Barcelona to Dublin, a case of airlines telling you want you want to hear! Clearly this did mean something to the staff though because we were sent down to BA with new tickets for flights to Heathrow and from Heathrow back to Dublin. Bearing in mind that we had been wearing the same clothes for 3 days at this stage when we got on the very British BA flight we suddenly felt very very scruffy!

Our flight from Heathrow to Dublin was an Aer Lingus one which just heightened the feeling of going home (as did the Guinness & pint bottle of Bulmers in Heathrow airport!). Happily we arrived safely in Dublin on Wednesday night and surprisingly so did our bags!

La Paz

After leaving Kieran in Copacabana we headed off to La Paz, the biggest city in Bolivia and highest city in the world. We were sent on our merry way by a full pan pipe band boarding the bus and keeping us amused while the inevitable row about seats took place. The trip to La Paz was beautiful as we drove along Lake Titikaka. We had to cross the lake at one point and all piled out of the bus while it was loaded on the tiniest ferry we had ever seen (it was more like a little floating platform). Reassuringly we sat beside the lifejackets on the passenger boat, especially as there were only six for the 25 or so passengers. The approach to La Paz was great - the city is located in a massive spherical hollow about 500 Metres deep and lines the sides all the way around. The bus rounded a corner and there it was below us. It's a funny thing to be in the city centre and to see shacks on the hillside above the tallest buildings and snow capped mountains through skyscrapers.

We didn't do much with our time in La Paz. We just walked around the city and generally got ready for the big trip home. We also managed to find ourselves a very nice and reasonable hotel room with a shower that was unlikely to electrocute us to enjoy the last couple of days.

We did however go to 'The Witches Market', which was just around the corner from where we were staying. The wierdest of the things we saw there, and it was available on every stall, was dehydrated Llama fetus. They were at all stages of development, from small almost unidentifiable shapes to ones that must have been almost ready to be born complete with all their fur. You could also buy a range of spells, herbs and talismans for all your needs.

We also visited the Coca Museum which gives a history of the coca leaf and the subsequent religious, political and commercial issues that have ensued.

One other thing we went to see was a prison on one of the main squares in the city. A few years ago you could get tours of the prison from Western inmates who needed the money. The trick was basically to walk right by the guards and ask for David, John or Neil and you would get the first Westerner who was available. The Bolivian Government have put a stop to it now but you can still see right into the prison from the square, which also means that the prisoners can see right back out at you.

Lake Titikaka

Before we start this blog it´s very important to know the correct spelling and pronunciation of Lake Titikaka - not Titicaca as the Spanish would have you believe (to compound the Spanish changing the spelling they do so with a word that means, in the words of one of our guides, ´poop´) - and pronounced Titikhakha. The indigenous people of the Andes and Altiplano, many of whom consider themselves to be descendants of the Inkas, have a pretty grudgeful attitude to the Spanish, similar to those Irish who explain the problems in Ireland with ´well 800 years ago...´.

The first town we visited on Lake Titikaka was Puno, on the Peruvian side. There is very little to the town itself, it is just a gateway so some unique islands on the lake. After the non-stop action of Cusco and Machu Picchu we took it easy in Puno, just taking a half day trip out to see the Floating Islands of Uros. The islands are made up of loads of levels of reeds that grow all over the lake. They rot away in the water and are constantly replaced on top by the islanders harvesting more reeds and laying them on top of the island. It has a strange, spongy texture and you´re not convinced that you´re not going to go straight through the reeds into the water below. They also use these reeds to make their boats and houses. It was very interesting to see these unique islands, however they are more of a ´floating market´ with every visitor expected to buy some of the islands handicrafts. We also explored the markets, the search for the perfect Christmas jumper now over.

The next day we took a bus to Copacabana in Bolivia, also on the lake. As our hotel had only organised two tickets for the three of us we fully expected not to make this bus at all. However with much stroppiness and hounding of counter staff at 6am we managed to get our three seats. The border crossing was a very simple affair, the staff not even checking our pictures. A short while later we arrived in Copacabana. This is not the Copacabana of Barry Manilow fame and if you weren´t sure you would find out very quickly as the town is not so much ´music and passion´ as ´strewn rubbish and toilet smell´. We arrived in the middle of a festival to the Virgin of Copacabana and the town was full of people. As a result the place was filthy, stinking and many places were out of water completely. However it´s position on the edge of the lake is stunning.


Due to a slew of miracles a long, long time ago, the Virgin of Copacabana is worshipped all over Bolivia and many make the pilgrimage to Copa. There is a hill in Copa that many Bolivians climb, making the Stations of the Cross as they do. The Bolivians will buy minature houses, cars, shops, money, suitcases, etc to get blessed by the Virgin. This blessing also involves lots of spraying of beer or cider, throwing confetti, letting off bangers and drawing a picture in candlewax of what they want blessed on the side of crosses and statues. We had never seen anything like it. The view from the top of the hill over the lake was really beautiful.

We also went out on a day trip to Isla del Sol, the reputed birthplace of the Inkas. This island is incredibly beautiful, with lots of sandy beaches and bays, hills and valleys, and non-stop sunshine. We did a tough but satisfying walk across the island from the north to the south (we had been told that it was downhill from the north, however it´s only downhill after you´ve climbed each of the many uphills first!).

There is another religious ritual in Copacabana - the blessing of the cars. Each day at 10 and 2.30 cars line up outside the Cathedral to be blessed. The entire family comes along and the car is completely bedecked in colourful decorations, streamers, flowers, etc. The family then carefully places in front of the car statues of the Virgin, more minature houses, money, cars, etc to be blessed. When it is time the priest comes out of the Cathedral with a large bucket of holy water. He blesses the car/van/truck then sprinkles holy water over the family, the car, inside the bonnet, inside the car, inside the boot and over each wheel. He then poses for a picture with the family, taken by one of the many official photographers there. The family then let off bangers beside the car, spray it all over with lots of beer or cider and throw confetti all over it. They then drive off, completely unable to see anything with all the decorations, beer and confetti on the windscreen. The aim is to avoid accidents and keep the car running well. Bolivia is a very poor country and presumably the car or van is absolutely essential to the livelihood of many families. The blessing of the cars is the only time that you do not hear the constant beeping that seems to be the first thing any South American driver learns.

While Copacabana itself is not a pretty town, it is a facsinating place to visit, and surprisingly the food was excellent. This marked the end of travelling with Kieran who left to go back to Lima while we travelled onto La Paz.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was probably the strongest reason we had for coming to Peru an was something that we were looking forward to from the beginning of the planning.

We arrived in the village near the ruins by train, which runs right down the main street in the town. Never seen anything like it before.

The day we arrived we decided to take a walk up a mountain that is opposite Machu Picchu to get an idea of the setting of the ruins. The walk turned out to be a full on mountain climb, it took 90 mins to get to the top which was very steep in parts and had wooden ladders to climb up vertical cliff faces. The biggest of these ladders was over 25 Metres in height, as Julie said there no way we would have climbed up and down the side of a 5 storey building! When we emerged from the forest though we discovered that we were surrounded by jungle covered mountains in all directions. Think Gorilla's in the Mist. It took a while longer to reach the top and get our first view of Machu Picchu. The mountain we climbed was directly across the valley from the complex and gave us a stunning view of the ruins and surrounding landscape. When we got back to the bottom, which was almost as difficult as going up, we bought ourselves a well deserved beer, complete with Kieran and Brendan wearing shorts in the pub because the only clean trousers they had got filthy on the climb and had to be washed.

We were up at 5.15am the next morning to catch the 6am bus to the ruins in order to get there for sunrise at the ruins and to beat the major crowds. When we arrived we went straight up the highest part of the main complex (that's the postcard shot that you have all seen) and were there are the sunshine hit the ruins. Took a tonne of photos!

We spent the next couple of hours exploring the ruins on our own and listening in on other peoples tour guides as we went. Our tour didn´t start until 11 so by the time we took it we already had a good knowledge of the ruins and there layout, the tour repeated visits to places we had already been through but this time we got a lot more out of them. In the early afternoon Kieran & Brendan took the walk up to the Sun Gate to check out the view from there. It was a tough enough walk and we had to do at quite a pace in order meet our timetable of buses and trains to get us back to Cusco. In total we spent about 8 hours at the ruins and arrived back in Cusco at about 8:30 pm very tired but with a great sense of satisfaction and completion.

Cusco & The Sacred Valley

Peru

Certainly the "high point" of the trip my dear friends, both in the fact that it is situated at 3,300 metres (11,600 feet) and also is the point that Kieran joins the journey (as you can now see you´ve got a guest author this time). We had low expectations of Cuzco as it was kind of expected just to be a stopping off point to get used to the altitude before proceeding to Machu Picchu, however we were all pleasantly surprised to find a very attractive town with plenty to do.

First day there was kind of strange with all of us suffering with the altitude (on the first evening we were unable to walk and talk at the same time without feeling out of breath). Day 2 was a trifle bizarre.
It started off with us stumbling across a very unusual military procession in the centre of the town. For a moment we thought the country had been invaded by Argentina, however we relaxed somewhat when the Peruvian flag was unfurled (however, they proceeded this with the national anthem followed unexpectedly by guns being fired in the air). Our attempts at Ireland´s Call after the anthem met with strange
glances from locals.

Bizarre episode number two (that would be the duality), was getting the local bus to some ruins on the outside of the town. Quite the eye-opener in how many people actually fit on a mini-bus, how often a radio station can play its jingle (Radio Las Vegas Cuzco), and also how impatient passengers can get if the bus stops for too long (a stop for about two minutes was met with a chorus of "Vamos, Vamos" accompanied by much stamping of feet and banging of windows (rather bizarrely started by Brendan and Julie!). Also, discovered that Lonely Planet don´t seem to know the difference between miles and kilometres (a 5 mile walk in the blazing sun is completely different to a 5 kilometre walk!).

Day 3 was spent on a guided tour of the Sacred Valley. Stunning sites indeed, but the highlight of the trip was certainly our tour guide Isaac who, my dear friends, gave everything his unique twist, energy and had the answer to every question (even if he had to make them up). Video footage will be available on my return from the land of the Incas. Personalities prevailed that day with Germans who turned out to
be Austrians, and one disorganised English girl who delayed us at every stop, managed to get lost in one of the car parks, was tended to by a nurse on a very minor climb, and then informs everyone on the bus that she´s starting a 5 day hike the next day. Keep an eye on Peruvian news sources for reports of a major rescue mission somewhere in the Andes.

Just when we thought day 3 couldn´t possibly get any better we went for a pint in Paddy Flaherty´s pub in Cuzco, which is not just any Irish bar but the highest Irish bar in the world (bar is complete with plaque from Guinness Book of Records). A proud moment on the trip for each of us!

All this was put into the shade though by what came next. Machu Picchu....

Buenos Aires

To be honest Buenos Aires came as a bit of a disappointment. All through South America people have raved about how great the place is and how they could live there etc. But we just didn’t seem to get it, there is not actually that much to do in the place. Aside from its nightlife the biggest tourist attraction is a cemetery! (more on that later)
At the end of our time there we came to the conclusion that if the first city in Argentina that you visited it would be a fantastic place but we had seen loads of Argentina and Buenos Aires didn’t offer that much more than is available in the rest of the country. Not unlike touring Ireland and then visiting Dublin, it will come as an anti-climax.

We spent our first full day there checking out a Sunday afternoon market that they have in one of the oldest areas of the city. It’s quite an atmospheric place, full of people dancing the tango for the crowds, small cafes and bars and a lot of artists and photographers selling their work on the street. As you walk around the market though and look at some of the antique stalls you get the impression that some people are selling the family silver and heirlooms.

The cemetery is actually quite interesting. It’s a very exclusive place and you can only be buried there if you have the right family name and history. Amongst some of the people who are there include the major historic names and Eva Peron (although not Juan). The tombs are all family tombs and some are the size of small houses. Most of them are designed to look like miniature churches with huge statues around them.

Evita, even 50 years after her death, is still worshipped in Buenos Aires. The Evita Museum gave a comprehensive, but flattering, history of her life which was apparently very controversial. Her tomb in the Recoleta Cemetary is covered with flowers and while we were in BA there was a homage paid to her life.

Most of the sights in Buenos Aires are taking in strolling around the different neighbourhoods. We visited La Boca, home of Boca Juniors football club. The area is pretty rough but a couple of traditional streets have been turned into a tourist attraction. The streets are full of multicoloured houses made from corrugated iron with artists and tango dancers displaying their wares on the roadside. It is probably the most touristy area we visited in all of Argentina and as such we liked it the least. Argentina caters for the tourist but is refreshingly hassle-free.

We also visited the area of Palermo which has lots of lovely cobbled streets, interesting shops and nice restaurants.

Buenos Aires is still suffering some of the effects of the economic collapse a few years ago. Banks are barricaded up like military installations and doing a transation requires much documentation, papers, many people and a lot of distrust! Even though it is a capital city housing is incredibly cheap (one year´s salary in Ireland to buy a two bedroomed apartment). It is a very cultural city and probably a great place to live, however as tourists we found that much there was to do we had already done, more authentically, elsewhere.

Photographs

The emptyness of Patigonia


The Moreno Glacier


Brendan at the Moreno Glacier


Julie on a horse outside Cordoba


The Guachos at their Rodeo


A cafe near in Pumaraca near Tilcara


Brendan at 4,170 metres above sealevel


Brendan & Julie on the Salines Grandes Salt Lake


Iguassu Falls from Brazil


Iguassu Falls from Brazil


Iguassu Falls from Brazil


Iguassu Falls from Brazil


Iguassu Falls from Argentina


Iguassu Falls from Argentina


Iguassu Falls from Argentina


Brendan & Julie at the Iguassu Falls in Argentina


A short video of the Falls on the Brazilian side

Iguazu

We came to Puerto Iguazu to see the Iguazu Falls at the very northeast of Argentina, at the border with Brazil and Paraguay. We had a drink one night at the confluence of 2 rivers and could see the sun setting over the 3 countries. The falls are right on the border with Brazil and can be visited from both Argentina and Brazil. At this point on the Iguazu River there is a huge u-shaped gorge down which the falls spill. It isn't just one waterfall but a whole series of them (275 individual ones apparently) that fall all around the three sides of the gorge. Over 1.2 million litres of water flow over them every second.

The views from Brazil and Argentina are very different, so on the first day we went over to Foz do Iguacu in Brazil to see them from there. They are in the middle of a national park (sub tropical rainforest) which is full of wildlife - Toucans, Parrots, Racoons etc. On the Brazilian side you get an amazing panoramic view of the falls. As we descended a stairs down the side of the gorge we saw them for the first time. We continued the walk around on a catwalk along the side of the gorge and at every turn would see more waterfalls, each more impressive than the last. As we reached the closed end of the gorge we could hear a roaring sound - we were getting close to the Garganta del Diablo (the Devil's Throat) where the largest, loudest and most powerful fall is. We went out on a walkway that gave us a view from about halfway down the front and we were drenched in spray that came with force from the water crashing below us.

The next day we visited the Argentinean side. On this side you don't get the sweeping panorama that you get in Brazil, but instead you can get very close to the falls right in the forest. First we took a walkway that took us to the very top of the Garganta del Diablo where we could see the water roaring below us and smashing into the mix below. There are also two walks we did in and around the waterfalls. The first takes you along the rim of the gorge so you can look straight down some of the waterfalls and see the water rushing down below you. The second takes you on another catwalk along the rim alongside the waterfalls and again we got drenched in spray. The day was wet and misty and the waterfalls looked beautiful through the trees and the mist.

It was an unforgettable two days.

Salta & Tilcara

We arrived in Salta from a sunny but chilly Cordoba to find 25 degrees and sunshine. Salta is a city in the very northwest of Argentina and is surrounded by the Andes on 3 sides. It still has lots of original colonial buildings and has a lovely central plaza. On our first day we took a cable car up to the top of the nearest hill and spent a chilled out afternoon sitting in the cafe looking out on the panorama. We had caught up with the Irish we had met in Cordoba and met several other Irish, English, Australian etc that were staying in our hostel. We spent the next day getting information on trips around Salta (the surrounding countryside is by all accounts among the most beautiful in Argentina) and visiting some of the old buildings and museums around the plaza.

Our last day was spent enjoying the sunshine on the plaza and investigating the possibility of going to see the Salt Lakes in Bolivia as Salta is very close to the border. Unfortunately the transport links on the Bolivian side are unreliable and few and far between so we had the prospect of having to sacrifice too many days from Argentina. Another place we will have to return to in the future!

While in Salta we were enjoying the sun and the company of the friends we had met there and in Cordoba but we wanted to see some of the surrounding landscape so on our fourth day we got a bus to a small town called Tilcara, south of the Bolivian border. Tilcara is in an area known as the Quebrada de Humahuaca which is an arid area in the Andes where the mountains have the most spectacular colours, and just over the Andes are the Argentinean salt flats. The bus ride to Tilcara was fantastic - after driving through a cloud we could see the mountains around us as we drove through a gorge, lots of different colours and covered with huge cacti. These cacti look like they have come straight out of a wild west film.

Tilcara is unlike anywhere else we have stayed. It is at an altitude of 2500 metres and sits right in the middle of the Andes. The houses are all one story, made of stone and adobe, the streets are dusty and the main square is full of colourful handicraft stalls. It is a very touristy town but has completely kept its original character.

On our last day we hired a Land Rover and driver to go out around the area, to see the local villages, the mountains and the salt flats. The drive to the salt flats took us over the mountains - at the highest point we were at 4,170 metres (12,500 ft)! The wind at that height was ferocious, we could even see little mini-tornadoes along the road, flinging stones (not pebbles!)at the jeep. The jeep could only do 40KMs/h against the head wind. The mountains were beautiful, showing all their colours in the sun, the rocks are red, blue, green, yellow and white. Eventually we reached the salt flats. They are not as big or spectacular as the ones in Bolivia, but they are still amazing, we had never seen anything like it before and we were very impressed! The whiteness is blinding, and the salt has formed into patterns of pentagons and hexagons. The landscape is stunning white and completly flat as far as the eye can see. There are local co-operatives extracting the salt and a few salt lakes to break up the view a little and it’s very interesting to see their traditional method of extracting the salt (there are also large commercial mines but happily they were too far away to see). We ate our lunch from a picnic table, sheltered from the wind by the jeep, marvelling at the land all around us. There were salt tables and chairs we could have sat at, but decided against that!

However the wind and the dust are not incentives to stay much longer so we are now starting a long trip to the Iguazu Falls tomorrow.

Cordoba

Cordoba is Argentina's second city, was founded by the Jesuits, is the home of the first University on the Contintent and 4th on the America's as a whole and has a huge student popoulation. The city's buildings around its centre are all quite old compared to the rest of the country which gives the place a pretty unique feel.

The hostel we were staying at had a real party theme going on. As well as ourselves there were a group of Dub's from Ranelagh, another Irish bloke from our previous hostel, a few English people as well as a some Canadians, Americans and Israelis. The staff at the hostel were big into going out and dragging everyone out with them, often to the pub to meet their own friends and one night to the VIP section of the biggest club in Cordoba.

We spent a couple days here wandering the streets, which are much narrower than Mendoza, looking in the shops and markets and sitting in the Plazzas. We visited the Cathedral to check out the ceiling art, it has stunnings frescos painted on the ceiling. We also took a guided tour of the Jesuit University and Church, it felt a bit like being given a tour of Trinity, we kept getting in the way of students who wanted to actually get places! It was good though as were taken to see loads of rooms that you would otherwise not have been allowed into.

We went horse riding one day, which was also Independance Day. We were picked up by a girl who hangs out in the hostel and taken to her family's summer home in the mountains just outside the city. It was on an estancia, or typical ranch, where horses were reared and trained. The house was a 14 bedroom, 5 bathroom Spanish style villa, and was gorgeous! We were saddled up on our horses and off we went with a few other people into the surrounding landscape. We rode along the road for a while and through a few villages before taking to the fields & woods and crossing fairly big streams along the way.

As it was Independence day all the local Gauchos (Argentine Cowboys) were having a party in a field that we were told we could go along to. The were about 300 Gauchos and their families as well as us 7 Gringos! They were the real McCoy too, they were all dressed in shirts and ponchos with neckties, sombreros, berets, boots and had huge knifes stuck in the backs of their belts. Even the little kids were dressed up. They were having a BBQ and Rodeo, which we stayed for. The food was great, cooked over a log BBQ. The Rodeo was made up of games on horse back as well as riding wild & semi-wild horses as they tried to buck the Gaucho off their backs. It was really entertaining, some of the Gauchos could hold on for the 12 seconds time limit, others would get thrown off but a few got dragged along the ground and one even had the horse fall right back on top of him. In the skill games even little kids were competing with the adults, handling their horses with complete confidence. Our guide told us she learnt to ride a horse at one year old! We were very lucky to participate in people´s real lives, something rare when you´re travelling.

Even though we were aching from the horse riding we made sure to re-mount our horses as though we knew what we were doing as lots of pairs of eyes watched the gringos ride off!