Round the World

On our way to Copacabana we had to cross a part of Lake Titicaca. This platform was used to transport the coach over, and we had the pleasure of a rickety boat. Health and Safety does exist in Bolivia!

Because travelling can be very tiring (honestly!) we decided to have a mini-break. Originally, we were only going to spend a couple of days on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, but then we came upon the beauty that was "La Cupula" accomodation and restaurant, in Copacabana. For only $34 per night, we were treated to a beautiful studio apartment, complete with mini kitchen and a bed on stilts where Lisa hid in the afternoons to read her book, while Andrew was happy to make do with one of the hammock's.

The view from our apartment.

Whilst there, we decided to have an afternoon messing about on the water and hired a canoe for a couple of hours. Bolivia is the only land locked country in the world to have a navy, and it's main base is on Lake Titicaca. How we laughed as we were whistled in by the naval officer to move away from their territory (they appeared to have no boat to catch us with!) The only navy without a fleet, or so we thought. However, when we went out on the boat to Isla del Sol the next day, we noticed a swan pedalo outside the naval base, and supposed this might be their only means of water transport.

The Bolivian Navy out on patrol.

Folk lore suggests that Isla del Sol was the birthplace of the Incas. A sacred rock at the northwest of the island is said to be the birthplace of Manco Kapac and Mama Ocllo (the children of Viracocha - the god creator of the Incas) where they sprang from the waters to create Cusco and the Inca culture. Isla del Sol is a lovely little island and some Inca ruins still remain. Whilst taking a leisurely stroll from the north to the south of the island we came across a human sacrificial site, which is still complete with the slab upon which bodies were placed. Fortunately now, it is merely used to sell tat.

The Inca sacrificial site.

Some views of Isla del Sol.

With reluctance, we moved away from our hide out to Puno, Peru, to see the "floating islands" or "the Uros". These are the islands which are made from reeds. The reeds are also cultivated to make their boats as well as used for food. It was quite touristy, and our guide made the local women "role play" to explain how they barter with their goods (they still exchange produce with the people on the mainland). The women appear to while away their days making local crafts to sell to visitors; the men apparently fish (though we saw no evidence of this - well it was a Saturday). Although some bartering still goes on, they appear quite comfortable with the reddies, and when we bought some cushion covers, they were the only people in Peru who were able to change a 100 note!

Puno and Lake Titicaca.

The floating islands.

The local women perform a sing-song.

A mock-up on how to construct a floating island. At first you lay down blocks of reed root then several layers of reeds before building your house.

I'll swap you two potatoes for some of that quinoa!

A typical reed boat (perhaps from the past) but now for the benefit of the tourists. These boats take several men around two months to complete and then only last one maybe two years.

An afternoon was also spent touring the funeral towers at Sillustani. These are amazing structures; architects and archaeologists are still trying to figure out how they were engineered. Apparently the largest of the structures housed the tombs of very important people, whilst the commoners didn't get a look in at this site.

We spent a pleasant (but cold) morning visiting the Tiahuanaco (in Aymara language) or Tiwanako (in Quechua speak) archaeological site, near La Paz. This contains the remains of pre-inca civilisations. Although in the West, people are well aware of the Inca civilisation, less is known about the Tiahuanaco culture, which lasted for full 3 thousand years before the Inca's came along, second only in length to the Egyptians. This site has been used for hundreds of years as a local quarry, and not much of the city remains, however, excavations are still continuing. Ruins include various temples and astronomical buildings, built in mathematical alignment to the sun and stars (such as the sun gate). One of the most important monuments has been housed in the on-site museum for only six years , previously the 20 tonne, 8 metre, lump of red sandstone was situated outside La Paz's football stadium (it had been moved there after the monument was discovered in the 1930's). It was freqeuently bombarded by bottles when angry, losing fans left the stadium; this was when the local police weren't using it for target practice! Today, it is missing half its face and nose.

The Sun Gate. The iconography at the top depicts an astronomical calendar. The lower vertical columns would have been covered in gold and silver plate.

This is one of a 175 stone heads that adorn the walls of the underground temple. It is reputed that the faces represent all of the races of the world, including aliens! Another theory is that they represent faces in differing states of heath, as the temple was thought to be a place where people came to be healed.

We also saw a traditional Aymara wedding ceremony taking place, on this sacred site (special permission is required to get wed here). They were accompanied by pan pipe musicians (we felt like we were living through a "fast show" sketch!) and drummers. We watched them as they prepared offerings to Pachamama. These include coco leaves, minature symbols of good fortune, including llama foetuses (ugh!) which they burn in a ritual.

The mother in law. This is traditional Bolivian woman dress. We have heard that the hat is placed straight on the head to signify that a woman is married, and if she is available, the hat is tilted to one side. Lisa wonders how many married women, at the sight of a fit Bolivian man, sneekily cocks her hat (much easier than removing the wedding ring).

The wedding band

Fast Show off!

Llama foetuses for sale in the witches market, La Paz

Our initial concern regarding the salt flat tour was that we were going to be stuck in a four by four for three days with four soap dodging, bongo playing hippies in happy pants, as they were waiting in the same vicinity as us. We needn't have worried, as they got into another vehicle, and we had the pleasurable company of a Bolivian couple (from La Paz) and a mum and daughter from Rosario, Argentina. All acted as our translators for the 3 day tour, as our guide wasn't bilingual.

The first day we visited the train cemetry, and the salt flats themselves.

The train cemetry. This occured because of the revolution in 1952, after the workers abandoned the railways.

Andyb in his silly hat at the Salt Flats

Lisab in her silly hat at the Salt Flats

At this time of year (rainy season), the salar is covered in a few inches of water. This gives the effect that (from a distance) the vehicles are travelling in the sky, and appears very surreal. We were unable to visit Fish Island (we were told the water was too deep there) and would like to visit the Salar again in dry season, for the contrast. Despite this, we saw some amazing sights, and witnessed some of the most dramatic scenery we've seen in South America.

One of the lakes

One of the rare James flamegoes that we spotted

Our transport for the 3 day tour

We visited the volcanic mud pools, which bubble away at very high temperatures. We thought they were fantastic, but we haven't visited Iceland (yet!)

On the last day we visited the "Daliesque" desert. Apparently, he camped nearby for about 3 months; this view testifies to how the landscape influenced his paintings.

Laguna Colorado.

This is one of the Llama's we saw during the trip, complete with carnival ribbons. The farmers dress up their livestock for the duration of carnival!

Firstly, a tip for any would be travellers who wish to go to Mendoza...don't pitch up at 8pm on a Saturday night, in high season, expecting to have your pick of hostels. We felt like Mary & Joseph (minus the donkey and imminent arrival), as we knocked on their doors and was told "there's no room at the inn" or "completo". One man even asked us our country of origin before he told us proudly that he was full for the forseeable future. We thought this suspicious until he very kindly gave us a map of other hostels in the area (complete with telephone numbers) and told us to be careful walking around the streets with our backpacks. Lisab phoning around a few hostels (using her finest Spanglish) did the trick and we stumbled upon our hostel at 10pm.

We only had a short stay in Mendoza. In our opinion (probably tainted by the hostel palava), Mendoza centre isn't all that, but the surrounding vineyards certainly are. We were going to be lazy (so unlike the Bruntons) and take an organised wine tour, but it had to be booked a day in advance. We ended up getting on a bus, and the driver gave us a flyer for a bike hire shop (we think it was his mates); he then dropped us off outside, and we were greeted by "Mr Hugo" the bike man (a very colourful character). Although wanting a tandem, Mrs B was denied for fear (on Mr B's part) that he would have to do all the peddling. We were given a map of vineyards, and they identified 2 bodegas that were family run and worth a visit - with the added bonus of them being only 5km and 7km away from the bike shop, on flat terrain!

Lisa b was admittedly tiddly after the first stop. We got to sample 5 wines at Familia Di Tommaso (generous tastings of 3 reds, one white and a desert wine). It would have been rude not to have the glass of white with our salad for lunch, and it would have been even ruder not to have the desert wine, with pudding (a sweet picada - a plate full of chocolate, nuts, raisins and the most gorgeous bon bons we have ever tried!)

A further 2kms to the next bodega (although Andrew says Lisa drove 2.5kms due to all her swaying into the middle of the road) and our chance to taste the fine wines of Carinae bodega. This is run by a French man, who apparently was an electrical engineer who knew nothing about wine until he bought this vineyard in Argentina. We had missed the main tour of the previous vineyard due to being a bit tardy on arrival, however, a very informative guide showed us around Carinae and explained things we didn't previously know - such as the vines are only watered once a week in summer, with the ingenious irrigation system, set up to capture melting snow from the nearby mountains. In years of drought, they claim to produce the best wine, because they can control the water fed to the vineyard. Also, due to the torrential hail storms that can destroy a whole year's harvest, the Government (at the time of such storms) spray silver into the clouds to disperse or diminish the problem. This process was initiated by the large, rich wineries, but even the small, family owned bodegas have to pay towards this, whether they can afford to or not.

After a further 3 tastings of wine and with 2 bottles tucked safely on the back of our bikes, we managed to cycle back without a hitch and deliver the bikes back safely to Mr Hugo. Although we weren't bothered about being drunk in charge of the bikes, we didn't want to be drunk in charge of the camera, hence no photo's, sorry!

Following on from the momentum of completing the "W" we decided to trek up the active volcano "Villarrica" near Pucon. This involved arriving at the tour office at 4am! to receive our kit which included ice pick, crampons and a hard helmet to walk up the snow covered volcano. It took aproximately 4 hours of steady pace to reach the top. There was no lava visible, but we did get to see the huge crater emitting a continuous sulphur gas. The video also shows the vents which surround the crater and emit small pockets of the gas.

Trekking up in the morning sun

We made it

We were lucky to spend an hour at the top. Sometimes on a windy day the noxious fumes make it impossible to hang around longer than a few minutes. The best bit of the day then arrived - getting to slide down the volcano on our bottoms - down the carved out chutes, using the icepicks to (try to) control our speed. This made the walk up even more worthwhile! We were enjoying ourselves too much to bother getting the camera out, so unfortunately, no shots were taken of us sliding down.

The view at the bottom, after the morning's trek

We really liked Pucon, there are loads of activites to keep you entertained, and when the weather is so fabulous, lots of cafe bars to sit at, watching the volcano smoking away.

The view of Villarrica from Pucon centre

The next day, we relaxed with a walk in the Huerquehue National Park to see the monkey puzzle trees.

After a taste of danger, we chose to book to go white water rafting. We tried to book on the cowardly grade 3 course, but the tour operator basically told us it was for families, and since we had no six year kid in tow, we would have to opt for the grade 4. We were so glad that we did; neither of us had rafted before (Andyb won't cycle for fear of injuries) and we surprised ourselves at how much we enjoyed the thrill of crashing into the rocks and the waves. We even got to experience a "grade 4 and a half" rapid (though it could have been the guide bigging it up). It has all been captured on DVD, which can be seen on a t.v. near you soon! Andrew has now turned into an adrenaline junky, and has been toying with the idea of base jumping.