Hey Everyone

I’ve been back in Australia for four days now and am starting to get my life back on track. The “best of south america” photos are available for viewing at the following web address http://picasaweb.google.com/bryce.nichol

When i last wrote i’d just arrived in Salvador in the north of Brazil, a city that surprised me at first but quickly grew on me. The most interesting part of the city, the old quarter, with crumbling colonial architecture had a strong vibrant feel. There were often impromptu street parties during the night which would involve lots of African drumming and the occasional rare westerner who had some rhythm. Ben and i found ourselves a fantastic place to stay, having the feel of one of those colonial houses that they describe in old english children’s novels like the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. The building was ancient, and our room in it, with old flowery wallpaper and filled with random old furniture like a broken bed and a church pew, had views into the old garden of the neighbouring museum.

To try to deal with the overpowering heat, we took a boat trip across the bay to tropical beaches on the other side. Of the eight hours of the trip, four were spent on the boat; but this was ok because we were kept entertained by live music (lots of drums) and all the other passengers who sang along to the (well known) songs that were played. The first place the boat took us to was a small island where the main beach had a strong club med feel, full of bars, deck chairs and pensioners to go with them. Not liking this one bit Ben and I decided to walk around to the next beach which i had seen from the boat as we approached the island. There wasn’t much of a track to get there and we ended up slogging our way in the heat along the top of the cliffs till we faced a steep and slippery descent to the beach below. Still it was worth it as we had the beach almost entirely to ourselves, only sharing it with a family who had made their way to the beach on a private yatch (cheaters). On the way back we found a much easier route along the rocks at low tide, much to Ben’s relief who still hadn’t forgiven me for dragging him down the steep hill from before.

The next day we joined up with an Irish guy we had met (he’s a joint US/EU citizen, lucky bastard) and went down to the seaside suburb of Barra. The beach down there was absolutely packed with people, which as we’d been told is the way brazilian people like it (there such a social bunch). In the evening there was a beach party which involved a floating stage with local artists playing and many street performers. It was a good way to spend our last night in Salvador.

The next morning it was off to the airport to catch our flight to Montevideo in Uruguay, or more to the point three flights since we flew Salvador to Sao Paulo, then to Porto Alegre and then finally to Montevideo. Still since i had a window seat and the weather was good, the constant ascending and descending meant that i got to see great views of Brazil, including the massive expanse of high density suburbs of Sao Paulo (i mean 20 million people take up quite a lot of room).

We only spent two nights in Uruguay, which was just as well because Uruguay is the new front runner in the competition for South America’s least interesting country. It’s not a bad place as such, there just isn’t much to do there. We spent a night in a grand old hotel (cheap too), the sort of place that has a very 1940’s feel to it and a telephone on the wall that if you picked it up you’d expect to talk to an operator. In the morning we walked the downtown area, marvelling at a massive 26 storey building so old that it was once the highest in South America. Then it was on to Colonia, a small town on the coast which had the feel of an old historic coastal Australian town. Apart from going up the lighthouse, there wasn’t much to do here either.

The next day we crossed the channel between Uruguay and Buenos Aires by boat; though unlike the Graf Spree, we didn’t have any dramas (reference too obscure?). When we got there we were met by friends of my dad who completely overwhelmed us with their generosity. Not only did they put us up for the night, they bought presents for me to take home to members of my family, and treated us to obscenely large meals. Argentinians love their meat and i was prepared for large steaks, but what we were served seemed to be the entire cow. We got to plenty of pork sausages, a favourite in south america and as much wine as we could drink.

After enjoying their hospitality for only two days, it was time to come home and face another year of University. South America is such a long way away that including wait times between flights i spent over 24 hours in transit, which so badly wrecked my sleeping patterns that i never really experienced jet lag.
And as such this brought to an end my trip, and also brings to an end any obligation some of you might have felt to listen to harp on about how much fun i’ve been having. Though before i sign off i will provide some overviews of the trip for anyone who might be considering coming to this part of the world.

South America’s “must see” destinations

• Machu Picchu - Truly an amazing wonder of the world, and anyone going should seriously consider doing the inca trail. The altitude can be nasty at times but you can always get someone else to take your pack, and it is worth it at the end
• La Paz - Perched on the side of a mountain at 4000m above sea level this is one of the most interesting cities on the continent. It is also start of the world’s most dangerous road bike ride which is a must for everyone who has ever enjoyed riding a bike (it’s really not that dangerous i promise)
• The Amazon - It covers so much of the continent that you can access it from many countries, though Bolivia is the cheapest. While there you must go on a trip through the jungle and the pampas, which is a swampy wetlands area filled with wildlife
• Salar del Uyuni - The salt flats of southern bolivia, up at 4000m above sea level, will give you some of the most surreal views that you will ever see in your life. There are also glacier covered mountains and lakes filled with flamingos to see. Take the four day 4×4 trip.
• Iguazu Falls - Words can’t describe just how stunning this place is. Both sides of the falls are worth a visit though the Argentinian side is much better. Although expensive, the boat trip underneath the waterfalls is an absolute must.
• Rio de Janeiro - Hands down best city in South America, bite the bullet and spend the extra money to stay somewhere nice like Copacabana or Ipanema and if the weather is good then definitely do the Hang Gliding, it’s really not that scary and you’ll never forget the experience.

South American Countries by Rank

1st. Bolivia - Hands down the best country. With stunning scenery, a 3rd world government and plenty of opportunities for slightly dodgey adventures, there was never a dull moment

2nd. Peru - The home of machu picchu, Peru is steeped in fascinating history. It is also the home of the friendliest people in South America

3rd. Brazil - Party destination of south america and home to some of the best tropical beaches in the world, Brazil is as good as Peru but is so expensive that it suffers on value for money.

4th Argentina - has some fantastic locations like Iguazu falls and Tierra del Fuego (which we didn’t get to) but the rest of the country is fairly average.

Hello

It’s been too long since my last email, or from the point of view of you less enthusiastic readers probably not long enough We are currently in Salvador which we will spend 3 nights in, before we get on a plane to Montevideo and make our sad and inevitable way home. But first back to where i left off

After the Favela tour we spent another 4 days in Rio, which was two more than planned. We wanted to stay to the weekend so we could go and see a football (that’s soccer to all you heathens)  match and as we found, spending an extra two days in Rio is very easy as there are just too many things to do. We spent a great amount of time at the beach with Ipanema beach, arguably Rio’s best, being just 2 minutes from our hostel. We also spent a day at the more famous Copacabana which was just 20min walk away. This beach had a very different vibe to it, and thankfully cheaper prices (Rio is notoriously expensive, even British people were feeling the pinch and they travel on pounds!).

We went and visited Christo Redemptor. The open armed statue of Jesus that overlooks the city. Despite not being a big fan of overtly religious symbols the person who built this statue had a winner of an idea. The statue looms large over the city, being perched on an almost vertical hill of 700m. The views from the top were fantastic though unfortunately a bit hazy. We also visited a less well known observation platform on a mountain called the sugar loaf. The only way to get to the top of this hill is to rock climb (too expensive for us, but would have been so cool) or take the cable car. Again the views were a little hazy but we stayed there after sunset and the views of the city lights were probably more impressive than the day landscape. Despite what I’ve just said i can’t really complain about the weather, the day we had for the Hang gliding (most important thing) was as clear as a postcard and with just the right amount of wind, and we heard from other travelers that throughout Carnaval it had rained everyday which would have made the beaches much less enjoyable.

Not having experienced much of Rio’s nightlife, we decided one night to head to a club called Help which a few travelers we’d met had raved about. Nightlife in Brazil and south america in general doesn’t get started until midnight and goes right through to sunrise, so it can be a bit of a challenge if you have plans for the next day. The club itself was like many clubs, with an extravagant dance floor and equally extravagant drink prices, but it had one crucial difference in that the majority, if not all the female patrons were there professionally. This had the funny effect of reversing the natural order; you would have groups of guys standing around looking bored while the girls would do there best to try and pick them up. We spent a few hours dancing and bantering with some girls (who actually spoke english) but then when things got a bit too serious decided it was time to leave.

Saturday was the day for the big soccer match, a semi final in the state championship between local powerhouses Botafogo and Fluminense.  The concept of the state championship is actually a lot less impressive than it sounds because in Rio state there are only four clubs that play in the national league, and thus only four clubs that have a realistic chance of winning the state championship; these were the same four clubs that found themselves playing against each other in the two semi finals on that weekend. Luckily south americans take any football that involves their club, no matter how trivial, very very seriously. The stadium filled with 50,000 flag waving, flare lighting, drum playing and chanting fans who mostly congregated the areas behind each goal, separated from each other according to team affiliation.

The atmosphere was electric, even when we arrived in the stadium half an hour before kickoff the fans were already going nuts, making more noise than a sold out boxing day test during a boring session. The game had everything that you could want; extravagant feigning of injury to get free kicks, near misses on goal (which actually resulted in loud cheers), red and yellow cards for everyone and finally that elusive goal, which sent the crowd absolutely nuts. There was the villain of the pantomime, a player who had recently defected from one club to the other. When he was substituted on in the second half, the jeering from the disaffected team was deafening. We were told by some english speakers in front of us that the crowd was chanting ” you are a son of a bitch, a mercenary and a traitor”. Eventually the result of the game put beyond doubt in that time honored football way, with a referee awarded penalty free kick inside the box. Botafogo ended up winning 2-0.

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Rio, hands down the best city we have been to in south america, though before you think it’s all rosy i’ll put a bit of perspective on it. The day after we went to the Favela, the tour bus was turned back by a police road block and prevented from entering due to a gun battle between the police and some drug dealers which had resulted in the death of at least one dealer. The tour was unable to run for the next three days. On the bus on the way out of Rio, on the other side of the freeway we saw a car that was not so much on fire as being completely ablaze. There were no fire trucks around and crazy drivers were passing next to the car on the narrow two lane road, obviously not worried about the possibility that it may explode (maybe i’ve seen too many movies?). Having never seen a burning vehicle with my own eyes before i couldn’t help boggle at the unlikely coincidence that later on the same bus trip, over 100km later we saw another vehicle on the side of the road ablaze, with accompanying spot fires in the bush up to 100m away. This time we were the crazy people passing right next to the vehicle and having a window seat i could feel the intense heat of the fire as it radiated into the night sky.

This bus took us to a town called Illhéus, which we used to connect to the seaside village of Itacaré. This town is in the northern Bahia state of Brazil and is very very tropical. We spent the next two days visiting the paradisaical beaches in the nearby area which are accessible through a combination of local bus and walking. With so many beaches to choose from and most people being too lazy to go anywhere other than the closest beaches, we easily found a beach that was completely deserted and let our imaginations run wild with stories like robinson crusoe and survivor (we stayed well clear of lord of the flies). Unlike in Thailand, the waves here (as in other parts of Brazil) we fantastic and i got to spend a lot of time practising my body surfing technique.

As hard as it was to drag ourselves away from Itacaré, we eventually made our way to Salvador (today) and found ourselves in one of the strangest cities we’ve been to on the continent. Many of the buildings in the downtown area are crumbling or completely abandoned with only the facade remaining. Add this to the fact that the population is 95% ethnically african and it’s easy to think that you’re somewhere like Sierra Leone rather than in Brazil. Despite this it seems like the government (which definitely isn’t 95% ethnically african) is finally starting to try and turn things around with signs that the buildings are starting to get renovated. The area in which we are staying, called the pelo, is the historical centre of the city, and also a tourist ghetto (not as bad as Khao San rd. but give it a few years). As you can imagine there are plenty of (cool but breakable) souvenirs that can be bought, but to buy them would mean facing the same challenge my dad faced in Africa, how to get them home.

The weather here is unbearably hot, so tomorrow we have decided to go on a boat trip out to the nearby islands where there are some cool beaches to swim at. Next time you hear from me, i’ll be on the verge of flying home.

Bryce

Hey Everyone

It has been a hot week and we are now currently in Rio de Janeiro where we are having an awesome time. After leaving Foz do Iguacu went took an overnight bus to Sao Paulo. The ride wasn’t bad but rather than getting dropped off at the main bus terminal we found ourselves at a small alternative bus station in a distant suburb. With all that we had heard about brazil we kept looking over our shoulders expecting to get mugged, but quickly found the subway and used that to get into the city. Sao Paulo is the cultural capital of brazil and this was evident in the entire spectrum of racial mix in the city. There were Europeans, Indigenous people and more Africans than i have seen in ten years. Unfortunately just like that other wonderful cultural capital, Melbourne, there isn’t much to do for tourists who aren’t in the know. We spent a day wandering around the city seeing the sites, but the best thing about city was the food. We found an all you can eat meat BBQ for $6AUD which had heaps of different cuts of beef, chicken and pork sausages. Meat in South America is cooked with not much regard for healthy eating, so it is usually dripping in tasty fat, which is great for the taste buds, but you can feel your arteries tighten with each mouthful. Despite this we still stuffed ourselves silly there twice.

After two nights we left on a bus for a place called Paraty (correct spelling) on the Costa Verde (green coast) between Sao Paulo and Rio. The whole area is spectacular, with jungle covered mountains coming down to meet the ocean with white sand beaches. It was slightly disappointing then that on arrival we discovered that Paraty is a historic port and we would need to day trip to the surrounding fantastic beaches that we had seen from the bus. This didn’t turn out to be a problem with buses packed with locals making the trips all day to a place called Trindade, a small holiday town set on four of the most scenic beaches you could find anywhere. The first couple were fairly crowded but the last couple required a slippery and steep walk down a hidden path to get to which meant there were far less people; as you can imagine this was where we headed. Getting there proved to be more of a challenge than thought, as i said the path was hidden and us along with quite a few other tourists were having trouble finding it. I eventually stumbled on a path that started taking me up the hill inland on a steep track that eventually petered out into jungle. Still the views were nice which dulled the annoyance of being drenched in sweat in the middle of the day, up a hill away from the cool beach i could see below.  After making my way down i saw i had taken a wrong turn and continued on my way, and stumbled across a small hidden beach which from the sign i gathered was a nudist beach. It was unfortunately exactly as i expected, mostly empty with the few people there middle aged and male; i left quickly. I kept going and after finding some cool natural pools with lots of fish i eventually found the beach. After being there for half an hour or so i ran into Ben (who i had got separated from when climbing that initial hill) and he told me about the waterfall he found and his near death experience with the steep muddy paths. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach, our first on the atlantic coasts, before in the evening storm came in off the ocean and covered the area in a few inches of rain which as a Victorian made me very jealous.

After this it was on to Rio, one of the most fantastic cities i think i have ever been to. The rich suburbs of the Zonal Sur are squeezed between white sand beaches and steep mountain cliffs and there is plenty to do. We are staying on Ipanema beach, next one down from the famous Copacabana. The area is really too expensive for us (Mcdonalds costs more here than in Aus) but for the location it is well worth it. So far we have had fantastic weather, which apart from making the beach more pleasant let us go Hang Gliding which was one of the best experiences i have ever had. They get you to jump off this ramp located at the top of a 500m mountain which overlooks the richest suburb of Rio and you float down to the beach passing over forests, golf courses, mansions and skyscrapers. It has made me determined to do skydiving at some point in my life.

The next day we went on a tour of Rio’s favelas, or slum areas which are under the control of drug gangs and rarely visited by the police. We were completely safe for two reasons, first the drug dealers act like the police in the favelas and it isn’t in their interest to have foreigners being mugged there because it would bring unwanted attention. Secondly our guide had been working in the area for 8 years and he knew by name heaps of the people that we passed in the streets. As an area, the favelas of Rio are no more impoverished that similar places in Bolivia or Peru, but what makes them so unusual is their close proximity to some of the richest parts of the city. I had been expecting the tour to take us inland to suburbs well away from the beaches, but instead we went down the coast to a place i had seen from Ipanema which had buildings up the side of a mountain overlooking the ocean. I had assumed from Ipanema that this brightly lit neighbourhood must have million dollar price tags, but it turned out to be a slum, the biggest slum in all of Rio housing 60,000 to 160,000 people. Our guide told us that squatting laws allowed people to build on public land and then keep it if they stayed there five years. Since all the mountains were public land this is where the slums started. As our guide said, “some of the best views in Rio can only be seen from the favelas, but the rest of the city is too afraid to come here”.

We also visited a much smaller favela (2000 people) which was literally a stones throw away from Rio’s richest neighbourhood, the same neighbourhood i went hang gliding over the day before. This favela was started by the workers of the golf course by the time the rich realised what was going on it was too late, the squatting laws came into effect. As a result there exists on of the strangest neighbourhoods on the planet, a small cramped impoverished suburb that would look at home in Bolivia, just across the street from mansions owned by the most wealthy in Rio. The most impressive aspect of the tour was the knowledge of the guide and his intimacy with the favelas and their people. We had seen other tour groups driving around in open topped jeeps as if they were on safari (they probably thought of it like that too), but our guide introduced us to each person on our way and told us a bit about them. As well as telling us the sad truth about the drug trade’s influence on the neighbourhoods, he also showed us the positives like taking us to stalls where locals were selling art they had made themselves or hand bags and hats made out of recycled materials (no joke, we saw a hat made out of platted plastic shopping bags and a hand bag made out of soft drink can rings). He also took us to a school that is funded by his company and used to help keep kids off the streets while they are not at regular government school. Again he knew many of the kids well and you could tell that he was passionate about what he did. What he showed us was a positive future for a part of Brazilian life that many would prefer to forget about.

We are planning to spend a few more days in Rio and are hoping to see a Football game at the cities mega stadium. We heard that it is a semi final which means it should go off. Check out facebook for new photos of Itaipu Dam and the Hang Gliding

Bryce

Hey Everyone

So much has happened in the last few days that i thought i should write it down before the details got hazy. We’ve crossed from Argentina to Brazil, Brazil to Paraguay and back (illegally), been to Iguazu falls (again) and seen the Itaipu dam, one of the worlds largest monuments to engineering, environmental destruction and PR spin.

On the day that we were to leave for Brazil, and having already seen Iguazu falls on two different days, we decided to call the national park and see if they were operating boats to San Martin Island. It turned out that they were, so we put our Brazil plans on hold and rushed back to the national park. When we got there we could see why the island was now open, the water level of the river had dropped over one meter. From what we could gather, this was a more normal water level and what we had seen the previous two days was the river flooding due to heavy rain. On this day, many of the other waterfalls were less spectacular than they were the other day, and we didn’t get soaked with water at any point. The advantage though was we could get to the island, and we also got a better view (good for photos) of the other water falls. We even got the opportunity to swim in the river at the mouth of the falls which was pretty cool. We saw other groups go by in their jet boats to get soaked under the falls and all i can say is… we got a better deal.

Late that day it was finally time to make the crossing to Brazil to the border town of Foz do Iguacu, which was more of a pain than we thought. Being a sunday the bus we caught was the last of the day, and after getting our passports stamped to leave argentina we found that we couldn’t fit back on the bus because it had filled with people who had been waiting at the border. The driver recommended we take a taxi but not being rather cavalier and not knowing how far the brazilian border post was we decided to walk. two kilometres and a large bridge later we made it, dripping with sweat. We decided to go the rest of the way in a taxi and got our first taste of the fact that Brazil is not cheap. The taxi prices are comparable with australia, and given we had quite a bit of communication problems with our driver ended up at a caravan park too far away from town to walk at a time of night where we just didn’t give a stuff anymore. The cabin we got for the night was well out of our normal price range, but we got our money’s worth out of the air conditioner which gave us the luxury of doonas in the tropics (i know i’m an enviro vandal).

Making our way into town the next day (more taxis, the town is spread out, a pain for backpackers) we found a travel agent that offers day trips to Paraguay. Not having a Visa we figured it was a better idea to enlist some local knowlege (and contacts) to help ease our way past the border. The travel agent advised us that really we should have a Visa, but when we asked if there was any other way, still offered to take us, with that knowing look that it would all be fine and the worst that could happen was pay a bribe to someone. And so we set off in our charter van, and as we approached the border ran into a bumper to bumper traffic jam. It seems that Paraguay is popular with Brazilians as a place to buy cheap stuff, and being the public holiday of Carnaval it seemed like every Brazilian (who wasn’t at carnaval) was going to Paraguay. As such the border was wide open with people just driving right through, the Brazilian side didn’t care about people leaving the country, and the Paraguayan side just didn’t care full stop. Getting to Paraguay was like going to another planet. The border town, Ciudad del Este, was a shopping Mecca and as tacky as you can imagine. The place was also packed; we had difficulty walking down the streets, and the market stalls were even worse, it was like being back in asia. There were plenty of touts, trying to pressure sell perfumes by approaching you in the street. For some odd reason they also tried to pressure sell socks; i don’t know why you’d go to another country to buy socks. After a few hours of shopping and walking around in bewilderment it was time to return to Brazil.

When we got back to the meeting point, the bus station attendant said to us “you’re the Australians right? you know you needed a Visa to come here, but lets forget about that, we’re going to put you on this other bus… good luck”. It seemed slightly ominous and i’m not sure if we were put on a new bus because it was bigger (and gave us a better chance to hide) or because we had been the only ones on our bus on the way over, which was a waste of money for them. Either way the trip home was slow and i spent much of it asleep. The traffic jam on the return trip was much worse than first one, and we spent an hour and a half travelling about a kilometer. Again the Paraguayans didn’t care, but the Brazilians were checking everyone, mostly to make sure that the people who had bought copious amounts of stuff paid tax on it; tt put us in an interesting situation, since our passports said that we had never technically left Brazil. This is where the benefit of the travel agent really came from. Our bus driver knew our situation and when we reached the Brazilian border post, he motioned for us to stay on the bus while everyone else had to get off and go through customs. A customs official came on the bus and had a look around but didn’t give us a second glance so he’d obviously been told. Five minutes later we drove straight through the border and then waited another two hours (in the air conditioned bus) for everyone else to pass through customs. At no stage did anyone want to see our passports (which we’d slipped $10USD into for good measure) or check our bags. Who knows i could have been packing an Uzi and a kg of coke, but that’s south America for you.

The next day we went to Iguazu falls again (4th time) but this time we were on the Brazilian side. For anyone coming to this part of the world, make sure you go to the Argentinian side, sure the Brazilian side is nice, but you are quite a distance away from all the action. It was a great day because we got to see the falls from a few unique perspectives, but all you need is a day there; to see the Argentinian side you need at least two.

This brings us to today, which we spent at a place called Itaipu Dam, the largest Hydroelectricity plant in the world. The only way to see the Dam was on a tour, which used to be free but has obviously become increasingly popular. The tour started with a half hour movie and its safe to say that there was more spin created in that movie that there will ever be by the turbines in the dam. I have never seen such an uplifting, feel good movie made about something so controversial. The film spent less than a minute mentioning the environmental costs, which reminiscent of the Lake Pedder tragedy included the destruction of Sete Quedas, a waterfall more impressive than Iguazu. It then went on to talk about all these other benefits which can only be considered loosely related to the dam.

Anyway thats enough from my Greenie perspective, i’ll now revert to Engineering perspective which was very very very impressed with the place. Ben opted for the regular tour that went outside, but i went for the special tour that took you inside the dam and let you view the turbines as they spin. If i were ever to direct a Sci Fi or James Bond movie, i would do it here. The place felt like the death star, or Dr Evil’s base, with giant concrete structures and ominous red circles on the ground which looked like they housed missiles. We got to see the control room, and the security room where bored security guards used the joystick controlled, zoom cameras to perve on hot female tourists high above on the top of damn. The main event however was to descend deep into the damn structure to see the turbines spinning, which was a thrilling (for an Engineer) experience.

Tonight Ben and I leave for Sao Paulo by bus. I should tell you that we have radically altered our remaining trip plan, based on the advice of a random person that we met for 20 minutes. Rather than travel by bus back down to Buenos Aires (where our plane leaves from) we are going to keep travelling up the coast of Brazil to the City of Salvador, where we will catch a connecting flight to take us to Montevideo (so we don’t miss going to Uruguay, my 25th country in waiting). From there it is a short boat trip to Buenos Aires.

Hope all is well back home

Bryce

Hello everyone

It’s been a long week with more bus travel than should be endured, but it has been worth it and we’re currently in one of the coolest locations of the whole trip; Iguazu falls.

The last time i wrote, Ben and i were about to head into the countryside around mendoza for some wine tasting. As things turned out, i opted to hire a bike and didn’t visit any wineries (i have no taste for that drink, i think goon tastes like grange ) instead went for a ride around the vineyards along tree lined country roads that made me feel like i was somewhere in france. Ben in the meantime when on a winery crawl, and knocked back 9 glasses. I had to be responsible for him on the way back to Mendoza.

Despite this he still managed to pull up well the next day, which was just as well because we went white water rafting. While the river was no Zambezi, it was a fun way to spend the morning. It was also pretty damn tiring as the guide seemed to have a fetish for rowing upriver into the rapids just so we could stall the boat. Things got more thrilling in the afternoon when we went down the same stretch of river, but this time individually in kayaks; as the saying goes, the smaller the boat, the bigger the bumps. Half way down we pulled onto the side of the river and went down one of the rapids just floating in the water, then walked back up and did it again. It was great fun though very tiring since the current was strong and we had to swim madly for the bank so we didn’t overshoot.

The next few days went by in a bit of a blurr since the main aim was to travel across the whole of Argentina from Mendoza to Puerto Iguazu which is about 48 hours by bus, but we wanted to find things to do along the way. We ended up in a city called Cordoba, which is just a city, but is surrounded by popular holiday towns. I’m not exactly sure what we were expecting, but the whole region seemed to be eerily similar to country Australia. One town, with its giant novelty sized cuckoo clock (wait till you see the picture) would have fit right in with the big banana, big strawberry, big gumboot and big cigarette (no joke, it’s in Myrtleford VIC) back home. Another town had some quiet scenic waterfalls with surrounding swimming pools and camp grounds that were packed with holidaying families and their caravans; it really didn’t feel like the same south america.

Next it was on to a city called Rosario which we thankfully only stayed in for 8 hours due to arriving by bus in the morning and leaving that same night. Apart from getting our hair cut (Ben has gone bald again) the highlight of this city was seeing a small warm up for Carnaval which we are now unfortunately going to miss due to time and money problems (carnaval started yesterday and everyone we have talked to is budgeting $1000USD for the week of the event). But yes the drum rhythms are very catchy and the outfits the dancing girls wear are very skimpy. It would have been great but maybe next time.

Finally after the last 18 hour bus ride we made it to Puerto Iguazu, the border town on the Argentinian side of the falls. All i can say about the falls is that, they’re AWESOME! It’s hard to describe in words the shear power of the water, not to mention how drenched you get by the spray which comes up at you from below with force. Arriving at the Argentinian national park before it had opened for the day, Ben and I managed to be the first people (although only by a minute or so) that reached the Devil’s Throat waterfall, a narrow semicircular gorge that has death written all over it for anything that was to fall into it. After getting completely wet we moved on and after spending a few hours looking at the rest of the falls, it was time for our jet boat ride under the falls.

The trip was intense, the boat leaves from downriver a few kilometers and powers upstream through rapids before finally reaching the falls where it goes in as close as it can (which is only a few metres) and everyone in the boat gets completely drenched with water; it felt like being squirted with a fire hose at times, we were that close. Luckily they gave us waterproof bags for our stuff and gave us plenty of warning before the drenching so we could take photos down from water level which was fantastic.

The next day (today) we headed off on another jungle trip into the national park. As the guides kept telling us, the area was a subtropical rainforest but it seemed to be splitting hairs to me since it was still damn hot and humid. The guides, who spoke great english showed us different plants and fruits, as well as the traps that the indigenous people use to trap animals. Like many things in life, i’d seen them in the Simpsons first, like the classic noose trap that leaves you swinging in a tree with a rope tied around your ankle. They also had a cage trap and a crushing trap where a log falls on the unsuspecting animal. It was all very cool though i was disappointed that there was no pit full of bamboo spikes.

After trekking through the jungle for a while we reached the river where there was a rock face for rappelling and abseiling, and two flying foxes. I’ve been on quite a few flying foxes before but it seems so much cooler when you’re doing it in the middle of the jungle and the rope is hooked up to two massive trees. Ben took a tumble on the abseil and ended up spinning out of control and smacking his head into the rock. We had helmets on and he claims he’s ok but it sounded painful from the bottom where i was watching. After this we continued by boat down the Rio Iguazu (downstream from the falls, no rapids this time) to a place called the triple point where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay all meet. It’s cool to know i can now say i’ve been in three countries simultaneously. That afternoon we went on another trek to a hidden waterfall (having decided we hadn’t seen enough already) where we could swim. The waterfall was over 20m high and standing underneath it felt the same as taking an incredibly high pressure shower

Our plans for tomorrow are to head into brazil and we are also hoping to take a day trip to Paraguay. I have for a long time now had a desire (Ben would say obsession) to go there just for the sake of going there, but it was never feasible since Australians need a Visa. Having talked to a few people now however we’ve got the impression that the border is pretty porous and it’s unlikely that anyone will even bother to check our passports. One taxi driver approached us in the street the other day and said ”you want to go to Brazil? No visa no problem” and we’ve heard that brazil is much more strict. So as such we plan to try and enter Paraguay illegally by just jumping on the bus and seeing what happens. Mum i know what you’re thinking but it’s too late i’ll be back safely in Brazil by the time that you read this email, i’m only letting you know now so that if you don’t hear from us again you know which country to look for us in In any case if we do get confronted by the police the only Visa we’ll need is Ben’s credit card (well cash actually but where is the pun in that?)

Send me some news from home

Bryce

Hello everyone

The last week of the trip was spent in Chile, and things have been a little too tame for my liking. Don’t get me wrong, Chile is a very pretty and pleasant country and if it were the only country in south america that i came to then i’d have a great time there……..but……… it also happens to be a first world country which means giant shopping malls, orderly traffic and honest police officers (at least they pretend to be). When you’ve just come from a country where they let you buy dynamite over the counter and policemen with pump action shotguns guard all the banks, you can see the let down.

 the first place in Chile that we stayed at, San Pedro de Atacama, still had an edge to it. think about a mexican town from the time of the wild west, and you have a reasonable approximation of what san pedro was like(it also happens to be the driest desert in the world) . I spent the day we had there riding a mountain bike through a place called Death Valley, which was this canyon/badlands area that you’d expect to find bandits (wearing the black cowboy hats) and the sheriff and his deputies (wearing the white cowboy hats) having a duel at dawn. The place also had some large sand dunes on which there was some sort of sandboarding competition going on. I watched that for a while before climbing the biggest dune around and admiring the views around, some of which looked like they’d look more appropriate on another planet like mars, rather than earth.

After a 16 hour overnight bus journey we were in a seaside resort called La Serena. The place was kinda like the gold coast in queensland, with condominiums lining the ocean, but the beach, with greyish sand and a strong undertow in the water, didn’t rate by Australian standards. If i were back home i wouldn’t have been impressed, but considering i’d just spent the last two months in the mountains i found it a very refreshing change. It was in La Serena that we encountered Mall culture again, finding ourselves in a shopping centre that not only had a Mcdonalds and a KFC, but also a Rip Curl Surf Shop. I’m slightly ashamed at how quickly and easily i slipped back into the first world lifestyle of it all.

After a few days at La Serena where i got more sunburnt than i would have liked, we continued on our way to Santiago. The place is a nice city, with a friendly vibe, but it’s no La Paz. While there i went for a wander around the presidential palace, the scene of the 1973 coup where president Salvador Allende ”committed suicide” as troops loyal to Augusto Pinochet stormed the building. The government still seems pretty touchy about the place and it was well guarded with police and water cannon riot trucks. I guess this is an improvement on Peru where the presidential palace is guarded by machine guns, rather than the water kind.

After a few days wandering the capital, it was time to make our way to Mendoza, Argentina. This meant crossing the Andes for the last (and millionth) time a note that brought a tinge of sadness to the trip. So far i’ve been enjoying Mendoza, it’s an incredibly pretty city considering it has no natural scenery and the buildings are fairly shabby. All they have done to create the pleasant aesthetic vibe is plant so many trees along the wide streets that the place is almost a jungle. The city of Melbourne could learn a few pointers i think. Tomorrow Ben is planning to go on a wine tour and i plan to do the same route riding a bike (as you can guess i won’t be drinking too much).

that’s all for now

Bryce

Hey Everyone

What a week it has been, with DIY dynamite testing, trippy drug like salt flat experiences and illnesses for both Ben and I. I’ll start from the beginning

After leaving Sucre we headed for the mining city of Potosi, a city that was once (many centuries ago) the richest in all the world due to the large deposits of silver that were found here. Despite most of the silver having gone, there are still plenty of mines in the area digging for minerals such as tin and zinc. Due to an economic crisis in the 80’s which saw layoff of many miners from the state run company, many of the existing mines around Potosi are cooperatively run. This means that the miners work in freelance teams of 12 or less, and process their minerals in a cooperative refinery (read: basic water treatment shed, nothing fancy here); they then keep the profits they make so luck can be the difference between a windfall and hard times. Being bolivia, and being small scale, the mines have horrendous conditions; in many places are less than a metre high to walk through (see the photos on facebook), there is often thick dust and safety is non existent (they let us blow up dynamite for example). Since the mining is so tough, many of the cooperative mine operators ”diversify” their income by offering tours to foreigners of the famously appalling mines, in which over the centuries millions of workers have died in.

The tour started with a visit to the miners market, where we were asked to buy presents for the miners that we would meet in the mines. These included coca leaves (the drug helps the miners get through their work), cigarettes, soft drink (the miners don’t eat while in the mine, it’s too dusty) and DYNAMITE. Yes that’s right they let us buy dynamite, over the counter, no questions asked. They sold us what is known as a ”completo” which includes a stick of dynamite, a fuse, a detonator and a bag of ammonium nitrate which assists in making the explosion bigger. This whole package cost 17 Bolivianos, which is about the same as $3 AUD.

After this we entered the mine, following the tracks of the miners carts. So far all was good, that is until we started to head down to level two of the mine. Unlike mines in richer countries that have cage elevators to transport people between levels, these collective mines only have narrow, steep, cave like paths that wind their way down into the heart of earth. As we began to scramble, the temperature increased over 30 and our feet kicked up the dust which very soon had us all wheezing for breath (not to mention we were still 4000m above sea level).  Level two also had another unpleasant difference from level one, it wasn’t high enough to stand in (only about 1m high) which meant that most of the way we were crawling on all fours. We didn’t see any miners on our way, since it was a sunday which is their day off, but we were taken on a tour of their work environment, which included a visit to el Tio (the devil), an idol that the miners worship to keep them safe. 

After the exhaustion of the mine, it was time for some excitement. Each member of the tour group had bought a ”completo” and after we had given a couple of these as gifts to the (very few) miners that we’d seen during the whole trip, it was time to detonate the remainder for fun of it. With the guide instructing us, Ben and I were taken through the steps of preparing a stick of dynamite for detonation and then left to complete our own stick that we had bought.

Once we were all done, the guide took our home made bombs and lit the fuses. He then did the thing least expected, he tried to give the bombs back to us. As we stared at him incredulously and started to back away he said ”no problem, fuse burns for long time, take photos holding the bomb”, for emphasis he then put one of the bombs in his mouth and posed for a picture. What resulted over the next minute was a mad game of russian roulette hot potato as each one of us held a fuse burning bomb, posed for a photo then got rid of it as quickly as we could. After this the guide took the bombs, ran down the road about 50m and put the bombs in a trench where they detonated about a minute later. That guide, a self proclaimed al qaeda expert, really did earn the tip that we gave him.

After Potosi it was on to Uyuni where we embarked on a 3 day 4×4 trip of the south of Bolivia. The area used to be a giant prehistoric ocean (now 4000m above sea level)  so as well as cool rock formations, there were also giant mountains and coolest of all, surreal salt flats. The trip didn’t start well, over breakfast on the first day i had a filling fall out (lots of brushing and no cocacola since) and Ben came down with a bout of tonsillitis (which we have discovered in hind sight was actually altitude sickness with tonsillitis symptoms). Despite this, i still had a really really fantastic trip, and Ben, in the times when he was high on codeine and didn’t look like the walking dead, had a good trip too.

Day one consisted of a visit to the Salar del Uyuni which is the worlds largest salt flats, covering 12,000km squared and 100m deep with salt in places. Being the wet season, the entire region is covered in a couple of inches of ”water” ( a thick salt brine is a more appropriate term). As a result the water shows a perfect mirror image of the sky above, making it impossible to see the horizon or judge distance on the massive salt pan; the experience was like being on acid (don’t worry mum i’m making an assumption, i don’t personally know).

Day two involved driving off-road through the desert highlands (altiplano) of southern Bolivia, driving past glacier covered mountains visiting flamingo inhabited lakes. The area is completely vegetation free, filled with interesting rock formations, and so quiet that when the wind wasn’t blowing you could hear a pin drop. The rest of our tour group was composed of Brazilians and Argentinians, only one of which spoke basic english with made the trip interesting but it was still fun. Late on day two, Ben was still feeling miserable and the Argentinian girl offered to attempt alternative medicine on him, which involved using her hands to channel positive energy. Ben was feeling so miserable that he was willing to try anything, or so he said to me, as the treatment began i started to suspect alternative motivations. As the treatment began, the girl spoke a command in the direction of the brazilian guy who was our english translator. Without waiting to find out what she had said Ben says (somewhat eagerly) ”does she want me to take off my pants?” Luckily no one else but me understood what he’d said and while i stifled my laughter the treatment continued.

Overnight on day two there was a fierce storm, which on the negative side clouded over the sunrise we were supposed to watch the next morning, but on the positive coated the entire area in an inch of snow, this was especially spectacular when we visited a field of geysers where we could witness the contrast between the hot steam bubbling from the ground with the frigidly cold surroundings. As you might expect where there are geysers, there are hot springs nearby; as tempting as it was to swim, i knew as soon as i got out and returned to the artic temperatures of the surroundings i would freeze my arse off. After this we visited a place called Laguna del Verde (green lake) which derives its colour from toxic minerals in the water, no flamingos here understandably.

Later that day we crossed the border (a desolate place, nothing much there at all) into chile and are now staying in an oasis town called San Pedro de Atacama. Once on the Chilean side of the border we began a rapid 2000m descent and as Ben began to improve we realised the cause of his illness. So far i haven’t been the biggest fan of Chile, being a western country the place is almost expensive as back home, and i am paying 3 times as much for accommodation as i was in Bolivia. I guess i will have to get used to it, those cheap times aren’t a coming back.

If you haven’t seen them already, i have now uploaded about 5 photo albums to Facebook and i intend to keep uploading more. What’s that i hear some of you say? Don’t have Facebook? Maybe this will encourage some of you to sign up, or for those that know my dad, i’m sure he can help you out.

That’s all for now

Bryce

Hey Guys

I hear that the weather has been really warm, good times! The weather for us in the Amazon has been really warm too, 30 degrees and almost 100% humidity.

The day after finishing the pampas trip, Ben and I left for the Madidi rainforest for three days; being the quiet time of year, we found ourselves alone with no other westerners. The trip involved hiking through thick Amazon jungle, using fallen trees to cross river beds, climbing jungle vines, getting very muddy and constantly fighting the legions of mosquitoes. Our guide, Eloi, came armed with a machete which he used to keep the path clear from the constantly growing jungle and also show us some of the more party friendly aspects of the Amazon rainforest. There is a tree, which when cut open spills out alcohol, another than produces milk and another that bleeds (some form of blood red sap), all the ingredients you need for a bloody mary or a white russian. It doesn’t stop there, he also showed us plants and trees that produce face paint, anaesthetics, hallucinogens and of course, viagra (didn’t try that one). More useful than these in the hot jungle weather, Eloi also showed us a tree that when a branch is cut off spills water at a gushing rate. Just when we were getting the idea in our head that we should go round the jungle cutting trees at random, Eloi brought us back down to earth by showing us the poison tree, understandably he didn’t cut that one open.

We saw less animals in the jungle than we did in the pampas, but because we had to stalk them in order to get close enough to see them (we could hear them before we could see them), it was all the more satisfying. We snuck up on a heard of wild boar, which when they eventually looked up and saw us, bolted into the jungle making an awfully loud racket. Harder to spot were the monkeys and parrots that lived in the tree canopy tens of metres above the ground, these also got spooked easily and we had to sneak around in order to spot them. As you can imagine, the trees in the jungle were absolutely massive, the biggest that we saw had a diameter at the base of at least 3m.

The camp that we stayed at was a small village nestled amongst the giant trees of the jungle. Getting to the campsite involved a boat trip up a flooding river (very slow going upstream, very fast going downstream) and then a short hike into the jungle. Unfortunately being the wet season, this short hike involved a river crossing (at other times of the year it’s just a dry bed). Carrying our gear and some of the food supplies, Ben and I were unprepared and had to scramble to get our shoes off, and roll our shorts up, as Eloi waded ahead. The ground was very slippery and Ben ended up sliding down the river bank, into the mud. Thankfully he managed to keep the chicken he was holding mud free, though the same can’t have been said for his shorts. This wasn’t the end for Ben’s clothes, whilst crossing a log over a swamp, Ben slipped getting his shoes bogged, from which they never fully recovered.

The day that we left, it had been raining heavily, turning the camp into a swap. We had been amused to see another group of westerners come to the camp only wearing their underpants although somehow it didn’t dawn on us that there was probably a very good reason for it. As we left camp we were confronted with a second surging river where once had been a dry bed. Not only was the current strong, but the water waist deep; somehow i managed to keep my pack dry.

Back in Rurrenabaque, it was time to embark on the long 19 hour trip to La Paz. In Bolivia, it is rare that parents buy their children tickets and as such the kids have to find room wherever they can. As such Ben had had a bad time of it on the trip to Rurrenabaque since he had two kids sitting on large bags in the isle next to him. We had been warned that we should book our bus in advance but being disorganised only ended up doing it on the day before, this was a mistake. The seats that we got were amongst the five that make up the back row, next to me in the window seat was a mother, her five year old daughter and baby. Ben had the middle seat and next to him was a boy with his pet dog, one of 3 on the bus (we have also had experience with parrots and cats). Now as you can imagine, it is impossible to fit three people into one seat, especially when they have lots of extra luggage at their feet. As a result i spent most of the night half nursing either the baby or the 5 year old (i didn’t get much sleep).

Back in La Paz for a stopover, we didn’t do much except run a few errands and Ben shaved his head bald, to my complete disgust (somehow he seems to like it, and has been proudly showing it off to people on his facebook profile and since he’s always keen to get feedback, if you haven’t done so already, post a comment). Ben also donated some of his old T shirts to charity, which was actually a lot harder than you would think (i mean how hard can it be to give something away for free?). After visiting three or places he eventually found somewhere where he could make the donation. Then it was on to Oruro, a middle sized town south of La Paz. It is lucky that we were only there for one night because there is absolutely nothing to do in Oruro except go to this one fantastic restaurant where i got served one of the best lamb roasts that i have ever had (and only for $10AUD).

Another overnight bus trip, this one a lot more comfortable than the last one (except for the time when the police pulled us over and checked the paperwork and baggage of every single person on board) it was on to Sucre, the Judicial capital of Bolivia and the most beautiful. It has the feel of an old european city, but at the same time remains vibrant due to the large student population (i haven’t seen this many young people in one place in bolivia before). There are currently some internal tensions in Bolivia, a conflict between La Paz on one side, and Sucre and Santa Cruz on the other (Santa Cruz has drawn up a declaration of independence), it is hard to know how serious it all is since Bolivia is constantly unstable and has had over 200 governments in 200 years but it from what we can tell, the locals are fiercely patriotic to their city, still calling it the capital (which it used to be). Who knows maybe the police grilling we got on the bus was some tit for tat escalation (since we had come from the La Paz direction) in the internal conflict.

After marvelling at the quaint buildings around the plaza and hiking up to the miradore (no adventures this time) overlooking the city, we went on a trip to some preserved dinosaur footprints. These were enclosed in a tourist park which despite being tacky (think jurassic park)  had some awesome lifelike dinosaur replicas. The footprints themselves were great, measuring over one metre in diameter. Due to plate tectonics over time, the footprints were actually vertical in the side of a cliff, and while we weren’t allowed to get close to them (there was ongoing scientific activity) we could clearly make out the sets of tracks down the wall of the cliff.

The next day we went on a horse riding trip in the countryside surrounding Sucre, visiting waterfalls along the way. At first i thought my horse was lazy, since no matter how hard i kicked him he wouldn’t go faster than a trot. Later i realised all he needed was some extra motivation, on the way home i asked our guide if we could gallop, and once we reached the flat home straight he leaned over and whipped the horse on the back. It took right off like a rocket and i got to gallop along cowboy style, one hand on the reins, the other waving my hat around madly, much to the amusement of our guide. After that i had a hard time trying to slow the horse down on the occasions that i wanted to stop, it was incensed. Ben, who’d never ridden a horse before ( i had the luxury of lessons in africa where it was cheap) did well and got his horse up to a canter.

Tomorrow we leave for Potosi, a city famous for its silver mines which have appalling working conditions. While there we will do a mining tour on which we have heard that you can buy dynamite as presents for the miners (who work in a freelance manner similar to coober peedy) and they will detonate it for you! I have always loved demolition so fun times are ahead!

Till next time

Bryce

Hey Everyone

Happy New Years to All. After posting bail so we could get out of Jail, Ben and I have been busy travelling through the snow, desert, amazon jungle and everything else in between.

This started with a trip to Chacaltaya Mountain (5400m) which is just outside La Paz. Getting to the mountain involved a bus ride up a rickety mining track built in the days when they used to get tin, lead and zinc out of the mountain (seems like too much effort at 5000m where the air is really thin). These days the mountain is one of the few places in Bolivia where you can do downhill skiing, as there is one rusty diesel generator attached to an ancient pomma. It was the wrong season for skiing, but this didn’t mean there was no snow. On the contrary there was quite a bit, and as we began the few hundred metre slog to the summit of the mountain it began to snow which made the ascent (which Ben and I were foolishly doing in shorts, to the mirth of everyone else in the bus) quite slippery. By the time i’d gotten to the summit, looked around, rolled around in the snow for a while, i felt like i was developing frostbite and it was time to head back to the bus which drove us down the mountain, past La Paz and into the desert.

South of La Paz, about 500m lower in altitude, is the Lunar Valley which looks like it is the place where they would film Road Runner and Coyote. Officially termed the badlands, the place is made from pillars of dirt that have survived erosion and there are cactii everywhere. It was about 25 degrees, which to us felt like double that since we had just come from the snow. After looking around for the hidden stash of TNT and constant watching the sky for the anvil that i was sure was about to fall, it was time to return to La Paz and prepare for the next days bike ride down the worlds most dangerous road.

First a little background info. The road between La Paz and Corioco descends 3600m vertically, is too narrow in most places for two vehicles to pass each other and has shear cliffs of 600m on one side, and a solid wall of rock on the other; to add to this the road is gravel, with pot holes and corrugation. In Bolivia vehicles drive on the right hand side, but on this road, as with other similar roads, vehicles pass each other on the left. This means that both passing drivers are sitting in the seat which is closest to the gutter, which when the gutter on one side of the road is a vertical cliff you can understand why it is important for the driver to be able to look out his window and see just how close his wheels are to the edge. Having said all this, the road is now less dangerous than it used to be, with a new alternative road opening last November. Now the only traffic that uses the dangerous road are mountain bikers, their support vehicles, and the occasional nostalgic collectivo driver who feels like giving his passengers a scare. Despite this the road was still scary enough and after the ride i saw pictures of trucks and buses passing each other on the road, which if i’d had to confront in person would have seriously tested the nerves.

I did the ride with a mountain biking company called Gravity Bolivia, which i mentioned in the last email was the most expensive company. Despite paying double the cheapest option, i’m incredibly glad i made the choice i did. The bikes they gave us were worth $2500US each and incredibly sweet to ride. With massive suspension and awesome breaks it was possible to go down the mountain much quicker than would ever have been possible with my 15 speed from Kmart that i have back in Australia. The company also decked us out in protective gear such as rain pants, jacks and goggles. Despite initially thinking i wouldn’t need these, i hadn’t realised how muddy i’d get, or how wet from the few river crossings that we made and waterfalls that we road under (these waterfalls spilled onto the road from the cliffs above and we had to be careful not to slip off the cliff into the valley below).

The lead guide from the group was an expat from New Zealand, and he kept us sobered pointing out the grisly wreckage of trucks and buses that had gone over the edge and plunged into the abyss. He also explained the story of martyrs corner, a place where in 1949, the military brought the newly democratically elected leaders, blindfolded and tied them up, and threw them off the edge. The guide assured us they would have only bumped the side once or twice before hitting the bottom.

After the ride, 3600m lower in the beginnings of the Amazon, we were treated to a buffet lunch at a wildlife sanctuary which rehabilitated animals. While there an over friendly monkey scampered over to me climbed up my back and wrapped itself around my head. He had been trying to sneak into the kitchen since we had arrived, and i think he thought this was a devious way he could smuggle himself in. After checking out the other cool wildlife in the sanctuary, it was time to continue onto Corioco where i met up with Ben who had taken the bus.

With not much to do in Corioco, the next day we left for the Amazonian town of Rurrenbaque, which was a 15 hour bus trip away. To make it even more ”enjoyable”, the bus was 2 hours late, and due to two flat tyres along the way actually took 18 hours to reach its destination. Despite all this, the trip will go down as my all time favourite bus ride because the scenery was stunning. The road was very similar to the world’s most dangerous road, and having a window seat on the left hand side of the bus i got fantastic views often looking straight down to the river hundreds of metres below. The best thing was that i could actually enjoy the scenery on this trip. While riding the bike i had to look where i was going so i didn’t go over the edge, on the few occasions that i did look at the scenery it nearly killed me; in the words of the NZ guide ” if you look at the scenery you will become part of the scenery”. While on the trip we passed a truck that had recently plunged off the road. I could tell it was a recent crash because there were people swarming over it trying to salvage the cargo.

18 hours later, we arrived in Rurrenbaque and were hit by the unrelenting heat, it was 30 degrees and as humid as northern queensland. After settling in we went looking for the lookout over the town (known as a miradore). We couldn’t find it and after it started raining and Ben sprained his ankle, we turned back. Not wanting to be defeated i returned after lunch to have another crack at finding it, though i should have known after my experiences in La Paz that anything with the name Miradore is always going to lead to unforeseen consequences. After asking some kids, and getting vague pointed directions, i set off up the hill trying to find the lookout. After struggling to find the track i decided to try some bush bashing and after a few minutes of fighting my way through thick wet jungle i stumbled on a path and found another Australian, Steve, who was also trying to find the lookout too; together we continued to bush bash up the hill and things began to deteriorate.

The hill became so steep that the slimy leaf litter soil began to slide out from under my feat; i had to ditch my thongs and continue the scramble barefoot. Since i couldn’t get much traction from my feet i used the thin tangled trees as support as i climbed, which was great but for the occasional spike covered tree which caused pain (and minor swelling) when i grabbed for them. Eventually we hit a cliff and had to stop and descend, not wanting to give up we asked a few more locals and found we were looking in completely the wrong place (no thanks to lonely planet, a serious bum steer). After another 200 vertical metres of incredibly humid climbing, and with no longer any water, we finally made the summit and were able to revel in our persistence, before we both promptly returned to town and skulled as much water as we could fit inside ourselves.

The next day Ben and I departed for a 3 day trip to the Amazonian Pampas (sort of jungly swamp) which involved a 3 hour 4×4 drive followed by a 3 hour trip in a small boat to our campsite, which was a bunch of huts built on stilts above the swamp. The trip to get there was fantastic, and we made many stops along the way to view monkeys, birds, pink dolphins, turtles and alligators. The next day, the guide took us in the boat to a particularly deep place in the river (over 3m) which was the habitat of the fresh water pink dolphins. This area was free of piranhas and alligators (since the dolphins fought them off) so it was possible for us to swim. The dolphins were familiar with humans and when we started to swim came over to investigate. The water was dark so it was only possible to see them when they broke the surface to breath; other than that the only time you would know there was a dolphin around was when it brushed passed you or tapped you with its nose. Sometimes when i swam away from the rest of the group in the direction of dolphins i’d seen, one would come and sus me out, and then begin to splash me with it’s flipper. During the whole time i wouldn’t be able to see the dolphin and since i couldn’t tell if the behaviour was playful or a warning, it unnerved me and i backtracked in a hurry. Everyone else made jokes that it was a mating call and i was one step away from being dolphin raped.

The guide also took us on a walk through thigh deep swamp (we had gumboots but still got really wet) in search for anacondas. I think our guide must have learnt his tracking techniques from Steve Irwin, because eventually when we found an anaconda, which was quietly hunting a mouse high up in a tree, the guide whipped off his gumboots, and shimmied up the tree barefoot where he promptly grabbed the snakes tail and hurled it to the ground beneath where it was collected by the guide from another group and brought under control. The guides then proudly showed the snake to us (and kissed it), to the horror of some of the more eco sensitive members of the group. In the guides defence they knew what they were doing, and even asked us to wash our hands in the swamp before we touched the snake to remove insect repellent. After we had looked at it the guide safely put the snake back in the jungle, well away from us so it didn’t freak out.

I know this sort of behaviour isn’t great for the wildlife, but i don’t consider it a huge problem while the number of tourists in this part of the amazon remains as low as it is (the two nights we were there, there was less than 20 westerners spread in camps over the entire region). The locals in the area, who the run the camps, interact with the wildlife in ways straight out of the jungle book. Our guide would talk to monkeys, making noises to attract them to our boat so we could take pictures, and the people who lived at our camp had an alligator living nearby which they called Pedro and considered a pet, he would hang around the kitchen in the morning and the three year old daughter would feed him bananas and rice.

On the third day we returned to Rurrenbaque, it had been raining heavily (it is the wet season) so the road was like mud soup which caused the 4×4 to slide around the road. this wasn’t helped by all the cattle that would wander round on the road refusing to move.

Tomorrow we head off on another 3 day trip, this time to the Madidi rainforrest. I’m hoping to see some very large trees.

That’s all for now

Bryce 

Hey Everyone

Hope you’ve all had a merry christmas and have some great new years plans coming up. This is the longest email i’ve written so far, but definitely the best by far. Hold in there!

After our train ride from Cuzco to Puno, which had followed directly on from the inca trail, we decided to take a quiet day and just explore puno. The place is a weird city, more commercialised city than Cuzco or Arequipa, with bright flashy signs and streets packed with people feeding at the many pollerios (fried chicken joints). It’s also a city where it can be really hard to find things that you want. While away on the inca trail i lost one of my padlocks for my backpack, and while trying to find a place to buy some in Puno i discovered that every second shop (no exaggeration) is a mobile phone shop. It seems that Peru recently must have gone mobile phone crazy and the commissions to be earned from selling then is so great that everyone is jumping on board. There are even mobile phone salespeople in the streets (wearing their distinct phone company brand jackets) trying to ply your business.

After eventually finding what i wanted, and deciding that it would be a shame to waste the entire day, we headed down the docks to see what sort of boat trips on lake titicaca we could jump on for the afternoon. It was here that we ran into a bunch of 16 year old school girls who seemed to be on a trip. After noticing the ”gringos” they started whispering to themselves and eventually a couple called out ”hola!” (hello) to which we replied and they giggled and continued to whisper. Anyway we started talking to a boat captain who offered us a boat trip to the nearby reed islands for a good price so we decided to jump on board his boat. After sitting around for a few minutes while the captain seemed indecisive i recalled that the boats only left when full, and so far we were the only people on board. I was beginning to psych myself up for a long wait when the captain gestured us to follow him and led us to another boat, which you guessed it, was full of the 16 year old school girls who we’d passed earlier.

We chose to sit on the roof of the boat, as is always more fun. One of the girls, bolder than the others and who also spoke decent english came and sat next to me and started to interrogate me with all the usual questions like what is my name and where am i from. She then moved on to the more direct questions; ”Do you have a girlfriend?” No,  ”Can I be your girlfriend?” (it was at this point i asked their ages) No sorry you’re too young. There was a moments silence, but not to be put off at all the girl kept chatting away to me, and started signalling to one of her friends who was downstairs and who only spoke spanish. I couldn’t understand all they were saying but i got the gist. ”This one is mine, but he has a friend”. So from then on Ben and i had chaperones for the rest of the boat trip. It seems that the group of girls, despite only being 16, had finished high school and were on a trip that i guess must compare in spirit with schoolies. Living in Cuzco, they’d been on a bus trip around the south of Peru, by the sounds of it enjoying themselves immensely.

Anyways enough jail bait distractions, it’s time to get back to the trip. The reed islands are exactly what they sound like, islands made completely out of reeds. It seems that hundreds of years ago, the locals were under attack from the approaching incas and decided that their best chance of survival was to build their own islands, out of reeds, in the middle of lake titicaca where the incas couldn’t get them. Thousands of people live on the islands in huts (also made of reeds) and while once they may have gotten by fishing, these days they seem to make their living selling souvenirs to tourists. The thickness of the human made islands is about 15m (we were told) and thins out towards the edges. Ben found this out the hard way when he was walking near the edge and put his foot into the water. After visiting two such islands, and feeling obliged to buy a couple of souvenirs at each, it was time to return to Puno where we exchanged emails, took photos, and said goodbye to our peruvian girlfriends.

The next day was the day we were to cross into Bolivia. Feeling adventurous we decided to DIY and try to catch a local bus to the border, cross it ourselves and then make our own way to our destination, Copacabana, on the bolivian lake titicaca coast. Our plans came unstuck almost from the moment go, having no map of where the bus terminal was and only knowing the rough direction, it was no wonder that we missed it and ended up walking 5km out of town. Eventually when we asked directions the locals realising we were walking the wrong direction and far from our destination, just laughed at us. A cab ride later we were at the terminal but our luck didn’t change. There were lots of locals milling about the bus stop, but no buses (to our destination) anywhere in site. Eventually a minivan pulled up and people started to move, but after some heated discussions with the bus station officials, the driver didn’t want to take any passengers and drove off empty. This made no sense to us since there were more than enough people there to fill our bus (and more for the roof too) so we began to wonder if maybe the road was blocked or the border closed or something equally painful. Again with the language barrier preventing us getting any decent information we surrendered and in defeat we made our way to the Terminal Terreste (Long distance bus terminal) where we knew we could catch a gringo bus that would take us all the way to Copacabana without needing to change.

A few hours later we were on our way to Bolivia and i finally realised why the minivan driver might have been reluctant to take any passengers along this road. Every now and then we would come across a pile of dirt on the road blocking one lane. As a result traffic would build up and have to pass each other one by one in the gap. These piles of dirt made no sense because although there were roadworks here and there along the journey, these piles of dirt seemed placed to deliberately block the road. I still have no idea why they were there and can only hazard a guess that they may be some form of local protest against the government, or more sinister a way for bandits to block the road so they can hijack vehicles, either way i was glad i wasn’t sticking around to find out.

We didn’t have any trouble at the Bolivian border; it actually might go down as the easiest land border crossing i’ve ever done. The officials barely looked at my passport, didn’t care at all about my pack or any baggage on the bus, and with a stamp and a wave we were on our way. Bolivia is a fantastic country, Ben still can’t get over how cheap everything is (even compared to Peru) and the people are as friendly and lively as anywhere in south america. After settling in at lakeside Copacabana, we climbed the nearest hill to get stunning views of the town, the lake, and the approaching sunset.

The next day we took another boat trip on the lake out to a place called Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun). This island is a real island and also quite big; we spent the day walking the centre ridgeline of the island which provided spectacular views of the lake. Due to the altitude and thin air, the sky and water shimmer in some of the best shades of blue that i have ever seen; we also got some great views of nearby glacier mountains. The altitude has some drawbacks however as the lake itself is 3800m above sea level and the mountains on Isle del Sol rise up to 4000m. As such you can quite often have the illusion that you’re walking at sea level (such as at wilson’s prom) but reality soon returns when you find yourself getting completely buggered with the small hills on the island. While the weather had begun sunny, as the afternoon wore on a storm approached and we could see the rain approaching as a wall over the lake towards us. It was enough to hurry us along and after huddling in an abandoned hut for 10min when the storm first broke, we decided to keep on going and get to the village at the south end of the island where we were planning to stay the night. Arriving in the village we found in almost deserted, there was no one in the first guesthouse we tried at, and only one old guy at the second. When we checked in, we filled our names out in his book, we discovered that it had been over 10 days since anyone had stayed there. I guess it’s a quiet time of year.

Next day we returned to Copacabana and decided to check out the town better. While exploring the local church we happened upon a bizarre ritual. Twice a day at this church, it is possible to get your car (yes i’m talking about a vehicle) blessed by a priest. The ritual is  called the blessing of the cars and it proceeds like this; first the car owner, almost always a family, decorates the car with bright flowers and streamers that can be bought from nearby vendors, then the priest blesses the car, then the family sprays their car (and each other) with bottles of beer and champagne and then finally they let off a bunch of firecrackers before driving away. It was really bizarre to watch but must be popular since there were heaps of cars there. I figure they must all be rich day trippers from nearby La Paz since gringos don’t drive cars and everyone else is too poor to own a car.

The next day, christmas eve, we headed off on a bus to La Paz and after a river crossing later, were travelling across the flats of El Alto before beginning the steep descent into La Paz. Whoever decided to build La Paz was clearly crazy as is it located on the side of a very steep mountain and is the worst place ever to build a functional city. On the other hand it is the best place to build a spectacular city which makes it great for visitors. Given the annoyances of thin air, it’s not surprising that the richest suburbs of the city are the lowest on the mountain and the neighbourhoods get poorer as you go up the mountain. As a result the trip into town involved snaking our way down the steeps sides of the mountain through slums with the view of skyscrapers 1000m below us. I have never seen anything quite like it. Christmas eve was pretty quiet and completely tame compared to last years in Phuket (refer to last years emails) but this makes sense since bolivia is a conservative catholic country. Christmas day was much the same and with few shops open, we decided to continue my tradition (since last year) of pigging out with western decadence at Maccas. It was here that we learned (through wikipedia) that the Bolivian Mcdonalds franchise actually went bankrupt about 8 years ago due to lack of customers, not surprising because you can get great burgers anywhere in this country and much cheaper too. Not wanting to miss out on our fix of decadence we found a Burger King instead.

If Christmas was quiet and relaxed, then Boxing day was anything but. We were out exploring the city and had decided to go to a place called mirador park, a quasi fun park/lookout which offered fantastic views of the city. When we arrived we found the placed closed and decided (like anyone would in another country) to try and find ”another” way in. After backtracking several hundred metres we starting making our way around the side of the hill and eventually got to a point where we thought we were obscured enough from view and we decided to jump the fence into the park. We hadn’t been there more than five minutes when we were confronted by a pair of Bolivian police, armed with guns and flashbangs, and accompanied by dogs.

We decided to play dumb and feigned ignorance to all spanish replying with ”no entendiendo” (I don’t understand) although their gesture to see our passports weren’t hard to pick and we complied as quickly as we could. When they started gesturing to the wall making it obvious that we shouldn’t have entered, and weren’t willing just to kick us out, i knew we were going to have to bribe our way out of it. The tricky point to decide on was when to produce the bribe, bribe too soon and they might want more, bribe too late and they might actually take us to the police station which would have put us in really bad situation. Before we’d entered the park i’d put in my pocket a collection of small bolivian currency, mainly in case we ran into a gardener or a security guard, which i figured would be happy with a small amount up front to turn a blind eye to our presence. I’d deliberately taken the money out of my wallet in advance so as not to allow whoever it was who might find us a look into my wallet to see just how much i had, because then they might want more.

I knew with the two guards that had found us things would be more complicated. They were national police which meant they had a lot more power than just kicking us out. I decided to hold off on the money for a while and let things take their course. After lecturing us for a while in the park, one of the cops disappeared with our passports and his notebook while we remained with the other, I’m sure this was done just to let us stew. A few minutes later he returned and although we still feigned compete ignorance of spanish i got the impression they were telling us something along the lines of either taking us, or our passports to their police station. Taking this as the important cue, i took a quick look in my phrase book and found the word for ”fine” (NEVER call it a bribe, insulting their honesty would have been the quickest way to get locked up) while at the same time gesturing at my wallet. The junior of the two seemed reluctant but the senior one quickly put him in his place and accepted the idea. I knew that the small change in my pocket wouldn’t be enough and the contents of my wallet too much to go showing around so Ben took the initiative and gave them the entire contents of his wallet which lucky for us was only about $10US. After this they took us back to the section of the fence we’d come in and gestured for us to leave the same way we did, which we promptly did.

So there you have it, we nearly got arrested were saved by good old hard currency; that’s latin america in a nutshell.

Tomorrow we’re going to climb a mountain called Chacaltaya (5400m) which from the pictures we’ve seen is covered in snow which should be sweet, and we’re going to check out a place called the valle de la lune (moon valley).

The day after that, on Pete’s suggestion, i’m going on a bike ride down the worlds most dangerous road. It has over 100 fatalities a year which is more than one death per kilometre per year. The road is dangerous because it’s very narrow and on one side there is a sharp cliff that drops hundreds of metres. Mum before you freak out, i’m doing the ride with the best, most expensive operator in town, which means they have the best bikes so it should be fine.

That’s all the news for now

Bryce