Archive for November, 2007
11-28-2007
Bolivia
Hello,
Last week we went to a tiny little town called Torotoro to visit the National Park and look at dinosaur footprints. The footprints were amazing - scarily big! When I get to Argentina, I´ll put up some photographs. We also climbed down a huge canyon which was over 220m deep.
After Torotoro, we arrived back in the bustling market city of Cochabamba (because of the really good ice cream parlour mainly!). Here, we experienced our first day of rain. Alice slipped in her flip flops and we had to rush to hospital at 1 in the morning. We had to pay a lot of money to the doctor so he could take x-rays and then I had to get a taxi to a drive-in chemist to pick up the medicine to take back for the doctor! Alice is ok now but her back is still very sore.
We said goodbye to Alex, who is now looking after bears in the jungle, and took a bus to Sucre. The plan was to stay in Sucre, have some Spanish lessons and celebrate my birthday (Sucre is a beautiful city with lots of yummy restaurants). However, we hadn´t realised that the day we arrived also marked the beginning of violent political protests so we had to get on a bus and leave before the city was blocked and the riots started.
Eventually, after a lot of hours on various buses (not very comfy in Bolivia), we arrived in Uyuni and booked to do a 3 day trip in a jeep, visiting the Salt Flats and various other natural wonders. We left on Sunday and got back last night. The Salar de Uyuni (salt lake) was amazing. All you could see for miles around was white salt and the blue sky. I felt like I was on another planet. I think it is the most amazing place that I have ever been.
It is so white that it is hard to work out distances. This means that everyone takes lots of funny photos. It is hard to explain but we have some really good photos which I´ll put on soon.
We also travelled past some amazing Lagunas. One was bright red because of little organisms glowing under the water when the wind blew. We saw lots of Vicuñas(endangered Llamas) and pink flamingos.
I spent my birthday on this trip (mainly sitting in a bumpy jeep). I was very lucky to be in such a beautiful place but instead of a scrummy birthday tea, I ate fried eggs and rice. The place we slept in that night had no electricity so I was tucked up in bed very early!
Yesterday, we had to get up at 4am to drive to the geysers. They were incredible! The ground was covered in bubbling holes of boiling hot water and mud, and steam was shooting out everywhere. It smelt like rotten eggs. We were 4900m above sea level and it was very very cold (at last feeling like a normal November!). At 5am, we arrived at the edge of a hot lake which had a special area where you could swim. It was a natural thermal bath. Although it was still icy cold outside, it was worth taking a dip in the boiling hot water. Then, we ate pancakes and yoghurt so it was a fantastic end to the trip.
We travelled back in the jeep and arrived back in Uyuni late last night, and took a train here to Tupiza. We are leaving again tonight to go to our last stop in Bolivia - a city called Tarija. Here, we are going on a wine tasting tour (maybe even more than one) before getting a bus into Argentina.
The weather is getting hotter here which feels really odd. I miss the cold. Let me know what is happening at school. Is it very exciting now that Christmas is nearly here?
Will write soon with photos. Lots of love,
Miss Black xx
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11-16-2007
The end of Peru and the beginning of Bolivia.
Hello,
Sorry that I haven´t written a post for so long. I´ve been very busy.
Lake Titicaca was very beautiful but I was really ill so I couldn´t really enjoy it. We visited an island called Amanti where we stayed with a lovely Peruvian couple. They looked after me very well but all I could really do was sleep and try to get better.
After visiting the islands, we took a bus to Cusco, the Inca capital of Peru. Cusco is a very beautiful city with lots of exciting things going on. I would like to live there.
From Cusco, we did the Ínca trail, walking to Machu Picchu. This took four days and it was very hard work. We camped in tents and had to wash in wee streams because the toilets were horrible! At night we ate yummy food and played cards with the rest of our group. We made lots of new friends.
We arrived to see Machu Picchu emerging from the clouds, at 6am on the final morning. It was a fantastic sight to see and really quite magical. Machu Picchu is one of the new seven wonders of the world and although it is amazing, it was very busy when we go there, full of tour groups (and Llamas!).
It was very sad to leave Cusco but exciting too because we were travelling to our next country. We are now in Bolivia. Our journey here was really fun. We had to get a bus to the border where we then had to get off and walk under a bridge into Bolivia. Once our passports were stamped, we had to get back on the bus. We had to cross the lake again on a boat. Our Bus had to go over on a special boat too. It was a bit scary!
Eventually we arrived in the crazy city of La Paz. It´s tucked away high in the mountains. Here, we met up with our friend Alex from Edinburgh. We spent a few days here doing lots of shopping! We also took a trip down the world´s most dangerous road on mountain bikes. This was very scary but I loved it. I was going so fast! The road is 64km long and mostly downhill, along very twisty and narrow paths. We even had to cycle underneath a waterfall.
Our friend Alex has a tent so we decided to go away for a few days, walking the El Choro trek. The trek was really hard work but it was lovely to be away by ourselves, camping under the stars. We began the trek at 4900m above sea level so I was very out of breath. We descended 3250m from barren mounains, into the humid jungle. I couldn´t walk by the end of the third day. I was exhausted. The whole trek was 56km long and a lot of it was uphill.
My favourite part was building a fire on the last night. Luckily I was a Girl Guide when I was younger and could remember how to do it. We managed to cook pasta and scrambled egg and then even boiled some water to have a cup of tea!
We did some more shopping yesterday (poor Alex did not enjoy it as much as us girls!) and then took an overnight bus here to Cochabamba. I think we may be the only tourists here. It´s an exciting place with a gigantic market - you can buy ANYTHING here. We are leaving tomorrow to travel to Parque Nacional Torotoro to explore some fossilized dinosaur tracks.
Unfortunately, the computers here will not let me upload any photos. When we reach Argentina, I think it´ll be easier.
Hope everyone is happy and looking forward to Christmas (or is it a bit soon to mention that yet?). The shops here are beginning to put up their decorations and I have even heard some Christmas music. It feels so strange because it is still very warm here during the day.
Thankyou for your comments. It is lovely to hear from you.
I´ll write again soon.
love from Miss Black xxx
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