A belated Happy New Year....
I wrote this post a week or so ago, and it is only now that I am in Argentina that my connection is sufficient to upload the photos
One of my most frequent companions on the road are large tourist
buses (think National Express or Greyhound), that whisk many thousands of people every day around South America. For
the most part they are generous road users, and give slow-moving motorcyclists
ample room when they overtake. It is not always the case, but that is the
nature of the twisting roads in most situations, rather than casual driving.
Anyway it was interesting to be a passenger and they set these buses up with almost airline business class type seats, so the journey is actually pretty
comfortable.
I was on my way overnight to Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon, from where
we took a two hour boat ride up the river Madre de Dios to the camp. I think my
imagination was that it would be quite a small establishment with a few fellow
guess. In fact it turned out to be more like Butlins on Amazon. Capable of housing
200 guests and organising it in quite a regimented way so that we were all fed at
very specific hours, with a very defined
tour routines etc. I say this only as a reaction to the independent and
self determining nature of my usual journeying habits. That said we were given a
fantastic trip into the jungle and exposure to lots of creepy crawlies, mind-boggling scale of trees and fauna,
abundant birdlife and lots of Caimen (an alligator type creature). It was three
days immersed in a situation new to me and very enjoyable. My fellow guests
came from all over the world and their society only added to the experience.
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Fire Ants live on this particular tree and in days gone by, Amazonion natives would tie wrong doers or delinquents to the tree and let the ants do the executioner's work...unimaginable. |
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Young Caimen |
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Rio Madre de Dios, a tributary to the Amazon and about 800 km until it joins the Amazon |
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Grown up Caimen |
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The Rottings having a family sniff of a fruit whose name I forget...Claudia will no doubt correct me |
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We walked about half a mile next to army of ants carrying their load back to the nest |
When I got back to Cusco, off I went to Paddy's Pub, where I met Glen.
He told me he had organised his friend Christo, with a taxi driver, to film us
both on the way out of Cusco the next day. This was mainly for Glen's ongoing
documentary production, but something Batty and I were more than delighted to
be involved in.
I had a date in the diary meet up with my second cousin - once removed,
Leo, in La Paz, which was a couple of days ride away. The route takes one past
Lake Titicaca, the world's highest large lake at 3800 m. Maybe I should have
spent a little bit more time there, and visited the famous inhabited floating
islands. However what with a slight push on time, and a number of
accounts from fellow travellers that it is only a tourist destination rather
than a living and working community put me off. That said when I got through
the Bolivian border (probably the easiest and most straightforward border that
I have come across so far, only taking half an hour) I did go to Copacabana,
which is a sort of resort on the bank of the lake and adjacent to the ISLA DEL
SOL, which is the birthplace of the sun
in Inca mythology. This rather captured my imagination, so I did spend an extra
day and went to visit the island. The boats leave at about 8 o'clock in the
morning and one is disembarked two hours later at the north of the island.
There is a five-hour walk around it, with various Inca remains en route. It is
pretty tough going given the altitude but a struggle worth having. Its name
ISLA DEL SOL, had no resemblance of truth during my day there, and in fact it
bucketed down most of the day.
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By lake Titicaca |
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Particularly pleased with these boot covers. Made by Glen's fix all fellow in Cusco, they replace the ones that had fallen apart from Australia. |
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ISLA DEL
SOL |
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ISLA DEL
SOL |
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Copacabana |
The drive to La Paz was mostly over high flat plains that did not
engender great excitement. In fact Batty, with this engine, finds altitudes
above 12,000 feet taxing, and her speed seems to max at about 42 miles an hour
on the flat, down from 50 miles an hour. It is also pretty cold and every
stitch of clothing has to be squeezed on. But a remarkable thing happens when
one approaches La Paz. One starts descending very rapidly into the city and the
heat climbs as you descend, so by the time I was at the centre I had stripped
off more than half my layers.
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La Paz |
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Llamas are everywhere....including the menu, and they are delicious...tasting somewhere between lamb and venison |
Apart from seeing Leo, my back tyre that Dr Carlos had given me in Quito
was showing canvas and needed to be replaced along with the rear chain. I had
read on Horizons Unlimited that the Honda dealership, Nosiglia, in La Paz were very helpful to travellers and so it turned out to be.
The only slight problem was that the only tyre that they had which fitted was
built for cross-country. As it was the only one, I had to take it and it's
wobblier ways have taken a bit of getting used to.
Leo had been working at the Loki hostel, which along with the Wild
Rovers hostel chain are synonymous for their parties, and Leo had been having a
great time of it. It's almost like anything goes and seemed to attract and trap
many travellers in the time of their life for the few weeks or even months. In
the process the hostels seem to extract a rather large slice of the said
traveller's budget. Probably luckily for this traveller, both the hostels were
booked up and I was in a far calmer establishment nearby.
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Leo trying Batty for size
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After a few happy days in La Paz the south beckoned. Not only was there
still many many miles to go, but I also receive confirmation of a return date
of 1 May on board the Grande Cameroon departing Montevideo, Uruguay,
disembarking in Le Havre about 3 weeks later.
Potosi took two days to get to and it was on final day with about 50 km
to go that I ran out of fuel. I knew it was getting quite close, but was
confident that my usual six or seven hundred kilometre range was going to
comfortable get me there. Alas not. I had a few tricks up my sleeve, like
recovering the fifth of a litre that is in the fuel filter, which took me
another 10 km, but in the end Batty was dry. The problem had been, I think, is that at this altitude, around 12,000 feet, the engine is a lot
less efficient and has used a great deal more fuel than normal. I tried
knocking on a few doors in this incredibly remote and isolated area, but was
met with rather blank reactions and lack of comprehension of my struggling
Spanish. In fact I doubt they spoke Spanish at all as they looked and lived in
a very indigenous way. In the end help came 30 minutes later in the shape of George and Juan,
two Colombian bikers on a trip south. Of course they could not give me any
petrol, but helped wave down a lorry and persuaded the kind gentleman to part
with a couple of litres of his diesel. Back on the road we found a station
about 20 km on. In Bolivia there is a rather unique fuel system. If you are
Bolivian you hardly have to pay a penny for fuel, it is so subsidized that it
is almost a non-expense, rather like Iran. However if you are a foreigner not
only are you restricted to using a particular brand of fuel station, you are
also charged nine times more for the pleasure….Equating it to European prices.
This is also confounded by shortages that have trapped people for days. George,
Juan and I booked into the same hostel, and enjoyed an evening in a central
Potosi bar.
Potosi is said to be the highest city in the world at 4070 m and was once the richest in South America
because of the huge silver deposits in the surrounding mountains, as much as anywhere else in the world put together. Underwriting
the Spanish economy for something like two centuries. There was the opportunity
to go to see the mines, which are now just individuals and small groups
extracting the last few remains of the treasure. However my sensitivities to
claustrophobia made it something to miss unfortunately. All this wealth did not
come without human cost as millions of imported slaves and indigenous people
lost their lives over the centuries.
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The Potosi money making machines at the Casa Real de la Moneda...excellent museum |
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The exhausted mountain |
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This dipiction of mules powering the silver rolling machines. 12 hour days they did...dead after 3 months.. |
For the last two days it has been raining non-stop. I am in a town
called Uyuni. A rather indifferent town to be in. However it is the place to
come to to see the Salar de Uyuni. World's largest salt flat. In fact such is
its scale and flatness, with only a metre difference in height over the 12,000
km² area, that satellites use it to calibrate their altitude rather than the
ocean.
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Locomotive grave yard...all British made, and powered the transport from all the mines to Chile |
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Obligatory mucking about on the Salar de Uyuni |
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A sort of 'South Pole' feeling in the middle...no Union Jack or Stars & Strips |
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My Korean friends for about 4 hours |
Because of the rain it was advised that one should not use the bike and
take one of the many Jeep Tours. I booked a two day one only to be told when I
got there that it had been overbooked and I could either do a one day or a
three-day tour. Somewhat annoying, but the one-day trip was all I had time for.
It was enough to see the scale of the flats, but only hinted at some of the
wonders of the place.
It has been interesting meeting Bolivians. Whilst some are friendly in the way you find most people around the world, there have been a lot who just refuse to smile or engage at all, even when selling you something. It is difficult not to feel unwanted and confused by this charmless manner. Juan and George were particularly sensitive to this, coming from friendly Columbia, and they could not wait to leave. I think shyness is a lot to do with it...coupled with some very apparent poverty that cannot help the 'happy stakes'.
Tomorrow I head on to Argentina. I had hoped to go to San Pedro De
Atacama in Chile from here, but the roads are apparently too perilous. I think
it means missing out some of the Atacama Desert, which will be a sacrifice, but
the alternative is several days diversion which will only mean sacrifices elsewhere.
I am still in deliberation about this and my next blog will tell you how I
concluded.