I got the black lung pop

The overnight bus from La Paz to Potosi was meant to arrive at 7am. Unfortunately, just when I got comfortable, we were rudely woken up at 4am and dumped on the side of the road on a dodgy street. The taxi ride was about as scary as our first taxi from Lima airport. We decided to trust the driver but made whispered plans to grab our day packs and get out of there in the event of any bad shite going down. We were cruising dark alleys with sinister-looking characters walking around. Luckily our hotel manager was used to random bus arrivals and when we signed in we noticed a bunch of other names signing in anywhere from midnight to 6am. Interestingly, the place was called Koala Den but when we mentioned we were from Australia they smiled brightly at us and said "Kangaroo". Emphasis on the Gar bit. No recognition of the Koala-Australia connection. Strange. The in room heater and hot water in our private bathroom made this place one of our favourites and it was cheap!!

Anyways, this was to be the city that surprised us with its awesomeness and we didn't want to leave. A 2 day stopover turned into a 4 day sojourn when we were handed a flyer for a local Bolivian Bon Jovi cover band. We added another day to our stay and booked in for the Silver mines tour the following morning. I had heard about the tour a few times and everyone had recommended the tour run by this particular hostel. I was reassured that the dark, crawling part was limited to a couple minutes and so I was on board. Amit was keen regardless. He's the daredevil!

Breakfast was awesome! Freshly brewed coffee, scrambled eggs, toast and fruit. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. When the tour dudes called our names, I felt sick. I've never thought of myself as claustrophobic but there I was freaking out! We had to put on some over-sized jumpsuits and ridiculous torch helmets and then hit the markets to pick up the "goods" for the miners. We bought them 2L bottles of soft drink, bags of coca leaves and dynamite. Plus got a whiff of the 90% proof alcohol that they sometimes drink. Hectic.

Our bus dropped us out the front of the mine. The entrance was as tall as me and from there we had to crouch-walk into a little cave area where we paid our respects to the devil. Apparently the local miners do this because they are superstitious about going underground which would be considered the territory of the devil. This cave area was called the "museum". We then crouch-walked for another 10 minutes with strict instructions not to touch the electricity cables running overhead. I had my newly purchased wet hankie tied over my face to filter out the dust and smell of dynamite. I discovered later that putting a wet cloth over your face is a form of torture somewhere. At this point I was already hyperventilating. Lame. When we arrived at a hole in the wall I was appalled to realize that we were about to crawl through it into darkness for the next 5 minutes. I got my waist into the hole before I panicked and got back out! I sat and talked with another guide in broken Spanish for about 10 mins while waiting for the assigned guide to walk me back out of the mine. Amit went down with the rest of the group, crawling into the second level where you could stand and then crawling down to a third level where there was a solitary 17-year old minor working a 14 hour shift on a Saturday in the dark. Crazy no? Amit told me later that they sat on the third level in the bowels of the mountain with all their torches off for a minute; the absolute absence of light was freaky. BTW, I know it doesn't look that dark in our photos but unfortunately the camera flash kinda killed the creepy mood of the place. Can I just say that every time I closed my eyes for the next three days I thought I was back there. No I'm not just being dramatic. I'm not even enjoying writing this. The things I do for our readers.

So back to me. My friendly guide has been replaced by new younger but much less sociable guide. He gestures for me to follow him out and I'm so glad to be moving. Sitting hunched over in a tiny tunnel in the dark was seriously starting to freak me out. I follow the new dude for about 10 minutes back to the devil/cave/museum place. He grunts for me to wait outside. He goes inside and leaves me alone for about a minute. Panic rising. He comes back with a rifle. Yes. A rifle. He hands it to me and in a split second I suspect that I'm going to carry the gun to the spot where he will shoot me and dump my body. Panic reaching crescendo. He then laughs and takes it back. I follow him out and can't remember whether we're walking the way we came, towards the clean, fresh outside air. I slip and grab onto a electricity cable for balance. Miraculously I am not electrocuted. I see a tiny sliver of light in the distance and want to weep for joy. When I get outside I am tempted to kiss the ground, reminiscent of previous celebrations following the conclusion of Duke of Ed hikes in high school. I wait anxiously for Amit to come back out and watch the bus driver and creepy guide play with what turned out to be a broken old rifle. Still. When the rest of the tour group resurface they are coughing and spluttering and covered in soot. Following recovery, we got to throw around a stick of lit dynamite and then watch while it was raced over a hill by a guide. The explosion was tres cool. The moral of the story kids: don't take rifles from strangers in dark Bolivian mines.

The next day we made friends with some nice people in our hostel and hit up the nicest restaurant in town before heading over to Bon Jovi cover band venue. We were thrilled to learn that the opening act was actually an Aerosmith cover band. Don't wanna miss a thing and Jaded were highlights. When the Bon Jovi act came on it was 3am and we had to leave during Bed of Roses which we proceeded to belt out whilst walking the streets of Potosi. Quick trip to late night fries stall and our night was a success. Late finish resulted in late start the next day and just one more night in this surprisingly cool town. We walked to the bus station to book our tickets to Uyuni, requiring a Resident Evil-esque dodging of rabid dogs. Thus ends the tale of the Potosi silver mines.

Next up - the salt flats and beautiful landscapes of southern Bolivia

Fast Times at Wild Rover

La Paz manages to nudge out Cusco as best city so far. The shenanigans that went down here bring a smile to my face every time I reminisce.

The bus ride to La Paz was one of our strangest journeys yet. We ended up in the back seat: the worst place to be on a Bolivian bus. The roads are notoriously bumpy and I was airborne on more than one occasion. In the seat to my immediate right was an Abbie Cornish look-a-like (think Life Support era). I was initially happy to see another Australian but after four monologues and 2 hours later I was pretending to be asleep. Along the way the bus pulls up to a port, we jump onto a speed boat while the bus sails precariously to the other side of the lake on a barge. I watch with my heart in my mouth as I imagine all our worldly possessions ending up in afore-mentioned lake.

Back on the bus and we are careening around cliff-side corners on the way into La Paz. It's the world's highest capital city at 3600m above sea level but its still in a valley so the views are spectacular. The traffic in the city is crazy and we get dropped somewhat randomly on the side of the road. Despite warnings to the contrary, we arrive at our hostel Wild Rover safely and fall upon the Irish pub menu with grateful thanks. I can easily say that this was one of the best hostels we stayed at. The clean, hot showers and doonas were just amazing.

On our first attempts at sight-seeing we realised that while the hostel had great facilities it was inconveniently located up on the side of the steep valley surrounding the city. To walk downtown one must literally walk down to the town and then back up the other side. To go back to the hostel make a U-turn and repeat. I know I keep mentioning the altitude but seriously, it's hard work. Especially after you've attempted to eat the world's hottest curry. In what universe is it a good idea to put 30 chillies in a curry the size of a side salad? Needless to say, we failed the challenge. We took a stroll through the witches markets to observe the llama fetuses - when in Rome...?

We booked in a bunch of cool activities including a hike to Chacaltaya (5000m above sea level) and the world's most dangerous road for Amit. We spent every night in the hostel bar until closing time at which point cabs would arrive to take us to a new club/bar. We had quite the posse when we hit up the Hard Rock Cafe one night resulting in a large group of us kids dancing on the bar at 4am while the bartender set it on fire. Amit capped off a spectacular night with a round of Aftershock shots.

After a halfhearted attempt to get into San Pedro prison, an amazing local football match in the rain and a trip to the watch the Cholita's wrestling we were pretty much done. A city we were supposed to see in three days, chewed us up and spat us out after a week. We stumbled onto an overnight bus to Potosi (silver mining town), exhausted, oxygen deprived but happy.

Copa, Copacabana (Bolivia)

Arriving in Copacabana without accommodation booked was kinda scary. This was our first Bolivian town so I had all sorts of scary images of how dangerous it would be. In reality it was no different than Peru except the whole town felt kinda beachy. It was stinking hot as usual and we carried our packs down the street with the hotel spruikers running after us. We were actually doing that lame backpacker thing where we consult the Rough Guide, looking for the recommended hostel/hotel in the area. Anyways, we were with our friend Marlene who also stayed with our host family on Amantani Island, so slightly less scary. Between the 3 of us, we get talked into checking out some dude's hotel and it turns out to be a pretty good deal. Something like 15 bucks a night for both of us. Plus hot water!! They have these strange water heaters in Bolivia which are attached to the shower head so that if you touch anything you get a minor shock. It makes showering an exciting challenge.

We walked to the port/beach where there are countless huts selling trout prepared in all kinds of ways, menus were decoded with the help of my trusty Spanish dickie. Sitting down to eat with the dogs (they stalk you until you've finished eating) we appreciate the view before sucking it up and starting the trek up to the lookout point which is where they have the stations of the cross every Easter. By this point, we're getting pretty good at hiking at altitude which is a relief considering La Paz is next and we planned to drink there as well. booya.

View from the top of the lookout is amazing and we watch the beginning of the sunset and then jog back down. Not because we're fit but because its hard to walk slowly down a steep hill. My knees hated me enough at this point. We have a pretty nice dinner on the main drag with Marlene and her friend who we happen to run into (??!!) and then hunker down for the night. Turns out the dogs rule the town by night an all you can hear is vicious dog fights and barking. What are they doing down there? Keep it down! *shakes fist*

Next morning we are on the ferry to Isla Del Sol with grand notions of walking the whole island in 3 hours. Yet again, I forget how freaking hot it would be and of course those Incan dudes thought it would be a great idea to put the path across the island in the very centre running over the highest points of each massive hill. Just to be closer to the sun. So we bikram hiked over the island. Got to see some cool things including an Incan labyrinth and Amit got to have a little tea party on a sacred Incan site. There were only a few people hiking the whole island, so it was totally like the Fellowship of the Ring.

The following day we were on our way to La Paz with a strange dreadlocked lady musician.

Lago Titicaca (The Peruvian side)

Its been a long 5 months but here I am, back on the blog. It's good to finish things you start no?

OK, what can I say about Puno? Still at altitude and still pretty cold. So at first glance, pretty average. But actually Puno ended up delivering in the end! On our first night we were just happy to have lukewarm showers and a relatively comfy bed. Free internet in the lobby was just a bonus. Dinner was of course the Peruvian/Bolivian staple of fried chicken, chips and rice. All on the same plate. Things start to look up when we book our tour to the islands on Lake Titicaca.

We leave early the next morning and find ourselves on a speeding boat to our first destination Uros (floating island made of reeds). Yep its just floating. So weird. Jumping off the boat onto 'island' was initially intimidating but when you land its surprisingly springy! We get a introductory talk about how the island goes about its business and meet some of the locals. The kids are super cute. I buy one of their overpriced postcards in exchange for a photo. Such a gringo. We also get to eat some of the reeds that the island is made of. Very... fibrous and looks like an over-sized shallot. Probably good for digestion. Amit doesn't mind it, but I look for an inconspicuous way to spit it out.

Next stop is Amantani Island which is an actual island this time. By this point we have made friends with some of the people on our tour, including a lovely Brazilian dude, who you will meet later in our entry about Sao Paulo (don't hold your breath on that one, its 8 weeks away from here). We get allocated a host family on the island and go with them to their house where we meet the rest of the family and have lunch with them. Here we get to eat real traditional cuisine including something that tastes just like BBQ'd haloumi cheese. Grosses everyone else out so I get seconds :). We eat in a separate room to the family which is kinda weird. It's like a tiny stone dining room without enough space to stand up straight. They serve us traditional soup first (quinoa I think its called) and then a plate of steamed veggies, mostly mountain potatoes in various colours.

After lunch we get to hike in the heat up a mountain. I'm starving after about five minutes. Also dizzy from the altitude. Kit Kat and coca tea break near the top is well received by me. We take a few photos at the top and then somehow after sunset it is freezing on the way down! We have dinner with our family in much the same awkward manner making small talk with 3 other ladies who are staying with the family. We are the only ones who don't speak more than one language. In fact they all speak at least 4. We suck.

Shortly after dinner we dress up in local outfits and traipse up to the community hall at the top of a hill in the pitch black. I repeatedly trip over my traditional dress and my hat is itchy. I am suddenly 5 years old. All the other host families bring their guests and we dance around like fools for an hour. I'm puffed after half an hour and yes I'm going to blame the altitude again. So there. No one can buy a beer because the bartender has no change but somehow no one can justify spending the equivalent of 3 AUD on a beer when we should be paying only 1 AUD. The audacity!

After an average night (including a freaky visit to the outhouse in the middle of the night) Amit spends the morning playing soccer in the tiny courtyard with the 2 sons from our family. They had to improvise with a styrofoam ball the size of a tennis ball which eventually broke. We were so sad we couldn't give them a real soccer ball but nowhere to buy it on the island. Instead we bought some basic grocery items and gave them to the mum.

We were soon on our way to the last island Tequile, where we had to climb up a ridiculous cliff in the heat again. At the top we hung out in a courtyard which felt like a playground with lots of social cliques but the locals were...well...locals. The cool kids seemed to be hanging out near the church and knitting. Strangely, on this island the men do the knitting. They also wear Noddy hats and depending on the colour you can tell if the guy is single, engaged or married. We get to eat some pretty tasty trout overlooking a spectacular view and then climb down the cliff on the other side of the island to our waiting boat.

The 6 or 7 of us that became friendly on the tour met up for a final dinner in Puno which was probably the best meal we ate there with very nice company. We swapped details and managed to run into some of these folk again on our travels which is pretty impressive when you consider how big South America is.

Next stop - Copacabana. No not the Brazilian beach. The religious pilgrimage site in Bolivia. Don't look at me like that. Its actually pretty exciting.

Flight of the Condors

We were so pumped to arrive in Arequipa, it was supposed to be another Cusco but with more street cred, less tourists maybe? Either way, when we arrived we were told by our taxi driver that it was a good thing we'd pre-booked our accommodation, as some international conference had come to town and the place was packed with tourists! not a room free in the city. So we were dismayed to discover we couldn't move when we arrived at our hostel Misty house. Dirty bathroom and dirty dirty beds. ick. First time we had to bust out the silk sleep sheets. The view was nice though.

Luckily we were planning on doing the overnight tour to Colca Canyon the next day so stayed only one night at the crappy Misty house (trip advisor review to come!) We quickly booked another couple of nights at a better hostel for our return and packed our day packs for the overnight trip.

Still kinda exhausted from the Inca Trail, we opted for the bus tour instead of the hike with 3am wake up call. Probably should have done the hike. Essentially we got in a mini van and was herded from look out to look out for photo ops. Given the Mit's propensity to instantly fall asleep on transport (I call it transport narcolepsy) we didn't really see a whole lot out of the bus.

One of the coolest bits was waking up and discovering we'd arrived at the highest point on the way to the canyon, 5000m, the highest we'd ever been. I got up too quickly, ate some marshmallows and got pretty woozy outside. Took some photos of a cute cabin which turned out to be the banos. oh well. Back in the bus and off to lunch for Peruvian buffet. Yay inca kola!

When we arrived in Chivay (a little town at the bottom of the canyon) we headed to the hot springs which were freaking awesome considering our hotel had no hot water. We had pina juice and beers while lounging in the springs. nice. Dinner was pizza, no surprices there, but with a side of sangria which really makes any meal awesome.

The relatively early start got us to the canyon in time to catch the condor action which was suprisingly frequent. I had thought we'd be waiting for an hour with binoculars, but geez those things are huge and they swoop down prettty low. Its a spectacular view. We took a short hike along the canyon where I re-discovered the macro and went nuts over the cactus.

Back on the mini bus for the 2 hour bus ride back to arequipa and our new hostel! We went in search of something different for dinner and got kinda excited by the possibility of kebab, unfortunately I was sorely disappointed by the result. We got a role with dry chicken and lettuce. No hummous, no onion, no cheese, shall I go on? Its too depressing. Amit liked it though, he claims it was the best part of Arequipa.

Shortly after we headed to local bar with offers just too good to be true. 3 vodka oranges for the price of one. The right price of 12 soles. Oh boy did I regret that 3 hours later. My final day in Arequipa was spent in and out of the bathroom. Excessive fasting makes Mel a very grumpy traveller.

The desert oasis

We took our first South American bus from Lima to Ica and then a short rickshaw (sp?) ride from the bus station to arrive at our hotel in Huacachina. The town is a tiny oasis in the middle of the desert... basically a lake with few hotels and restaurants on the banks all surrounded by huge sand dunes that span the whole perimiter.

Being in the desert it was warm and a good opportunity to laze by the pool, read and relax. I had a quick dip in the pool, despite the questionable water even if Mel wasnt game.

The second morning there was a power AND water outage in the whole town.. typical Peru. We took a sand buggy and sand boarding tour and went cruising into the desert with our crazy driver. Every time he saw a bump or dip he would gun the buggy and laugh as we bounced around in the back! We stopped at a few big hills to do sand baording or tobogganing.. i learned that sand boarding is quite different to snow boarding.. especially if you dont use a full candle stick of wax on the board each run. Needless to say there were plently of falls but at least the sand doesnt hurt as much as ice. Our final run was a tobaggan only... supposedly too steep to board and there had been broken collar bones and other assorted injuries in the past. No worries. We each had two runs, the first went smoothly but I had a big stack and my second run. Luckily Mel was on hand to catch it on video and upload it to facebook.

That night we climbed to the top of the sand dunes... very slowly. Walking uphill on sand is extremely tiring. The view at sunset was spectacular and very worth it.

The following day we went on a wine tour of Ica... this consisted of paying a cab driver a few dollars to drive us to the wineries and ask the staff to give us some free samples. The local speciality is pisco, which is very nice when made into pisco sour but more like paint thinner when drank by itself. Awful, awful stuff. We ended up buying one bottle of wine from a strange winery where the owner kept relics of stuffed animals, old clocks and war time guns and memorabilia with his wine barrels. After purchasing the wine the owner informed us that by drinking it we would definately have twins. We gave the wine away two weeks later to unsuspecting victims. (Hope you enjoyed it Ben and Clare!)

That afternoon we hired a paddle boat and cruised around the lake for a while following the ducks. It was really warm and almost tempting to go for a swim in the lake, but the murky brown colour convinced us it might be a bad idea.

The town was deprived of tourists during our stay so we had another relatively quiet night on the pisco sours and then headed to the bus station towards Arequipa.

Freezing in the Amazon...basin

We spent one glorious day of rest in Cusco before jetting off to the jungle. Truly the worst turbulence I have experienced to date. One unfortunate member of the extended geckos group spent the whole flight and bus ride to the lodge throwing up into a paper bag. It's times like this one misses the smooth travel of the M4.

Upon arrival to Puerto Maldonado we were handed a banana and informed that no we were not actually visiting the amazon, but the amazon basin. Meh, same same. Either way it was stinking hot and nice to be back at sea level after the breathlessness of Cusco. So we chilled in our room for a couple hours before the first nature walk. if you can call it a 'room'. Well it had 3 walls. The other 'wall' was floor to ceiling - nothing! We were at one with nature and using the hand fans to keep cool.

The group re-convened that afternoon for our first amazon experience: a short jungle walk and climb to a lookout post. We are warned to tuck our pants into our socks. Our group consisted of James, Denny, Tom, Susan and myself. The mit was taking a breather, recovering from a bit of a cold. Really, we are hilarious. First, the killer bees attack Tom, who does the "aaarrgh they're biting me dance". After which Susan and I start squealing at anything that moves. I send james ahead to break spiderwebs and ward off evil. There were army ants, leaf carrying ants and other miscellaneous ants. The whole time I can feel stuff crawling on me. Ick. The monkeys and birds were an afterthought. We arrive at the lookout and look up. Its a rickety contraption but still we climb. I wonder why there is a constant stream of wasps that hover around us and am told that previous tourists have sweated all over the 'lookout' which is honey for wasps. Denny spends the next 20 mins fending off the wasps while I quietly freak out. Oh yeah, and the view is pretty nice. I am such a city chick.

Dinner was interesting, well it was bananas. Banana mains and banana dessert, and just in case we were hungry later, bananas in the snack bowl. We went to bed sweating and woke up shivering. A cold front came through in the middle of the night which we were all unprepared for, with all our warm clothes in luggage storage at the geckos office. So cold. That 4th wall would have been so handy! No more showers were had past this point, hot water being non-existent in the lodge.

Piranha fishing was next, with hopes that the rain would hold off for the morning. Alas no. It rained but we caught piranhas so it was ok. The macho need to catch one prevailed amongst the extended gecko group with the girls giving up pretty easily but the guys perservereing after the first one was caught. Check out the Mit's glory moment. We continued to do the bird watching from the catamaran. Please don't picture anything fancy, we were cowering in our ponchos on what looked like an oversized raft from huck finn.

When we got back, I felt a cold coming on and stayed in the hammock with a book for the rest of the afternoon but the rest of the gang visited the witch doctor. As far as I know, no one purchased the herbal viagra but we did enjoy a nip of the herbal red bull while playing cards a little later in the evening.

Our bizarre amazon experience was capped off with Denny shaving off the Mit's hair in the middle of the lodge dining room. We all held our breath (me more so than others) when battery ran out on the electric razor, but all was well when we found a power point and the number 1 was completed all over. Hot! All photos of the head shave appear to be lost....

The next morning we were up early for a flight back to Lima and a teary goodbye to the geckos group. Sigh.