Penny & John`s travels

You have not heard from us for awhile but they did not have an internet in the hospital. After the bus crash our broken bones are not restricting us too bad and we are able to get around. Just checking who actually reads these messages!!

From Uyuni we left in our Landcruiser around 10.00am, the two of us, kristy and adam, the driver and a cook. There are no tared roads in this area at all so it was straight onto dirt tracks. First stopl just out of town was the railway graveyard where all the old trains that used to carry minerals (borax we think) from Uyuni to the coast in Chile - not terribly exciting but a photo opportunity. next stop was a salt making establishment just on the start of the salt lakes. The opertion is pretty basic - families are given some land opn the salt flats and have to remain in the little settlement (50 families) to retain their land. they ride out to their plot on bicycles and dig the salt by pick then shovel it into little piles to dry. It is thenn transported back to the settlement where it is dried, finely crushed and then bagged into 1kg bags by hand. Continuing across the salt lake to a hostal made out of salt - the building, beds, tables and chairs everything except the toilet. Some of the tours stay here but we continue on as it only just the beginning of our journey. The stop for lunch is at a rocky outcrop called 'fish rock' it looks like a fish lying on its side from a distance across the salt plains - and has these huge cactus on it perhaps 3-4 m high and from the top you get a terrific view around the salt plain and it is still pretty amazing when you have snow capped mountain ranges around the salt plain. After lunch (bar b q'd alpaca)we continued to our overnight hostal and by this time we had exited the main salt plain and had travelled around the edge of a dusty alto plateau. we had been warned that accommodation on this trip was basic and they were right - twin bed room and pretty basic toilet facilities and showers. In the afternoon we walked across the plain to a rocky outcrop where there we a number of old graves and the people (mummies they call them) had been preserved in the dry air - not that exciting compared to the 'ice maiden we saw in Arequipa. Power was from a generator that went off at 9.00pm so no late nights. The wind sweeping across the plain was freezing and quite strong so a cold night was had. After breakfast it was off again on the journey across the alto plain visiting a pink and a red lagoon that both had pink flamingoes on them and an area of rocks that had a rock that looked like a tree (if you let your imagination run wild) and another rocky outcrop that had long tailed rabbits living in it and they came down and ate bread that you put out. The drive now is on really rough roads across a very dusty rocky alto plateau and there seems to be tracks going everywhere, Reached our overnight camp and this is more basic than the previous with the 4 of us in a 6 bed dorm, very very basic toilet and no showers although no-one had one the previous night so no-one cares. The bed is a base of concrete and rocks with a thin rubber mattress and a cold night was had. they said it got down to around -5 degrees and very windy so the chill factor was high making it even colder most probably. Last day on the trip saw us see at a geyser area, which was at around 4,600m with outcrops of ice formations around the geysers, a red lagoon with more flamingoes and then a swim in a thermal spring - it may have been hot if the freezing wind hadn't been blowing across it but we still had a go. Lunch was at a small hostel just inside the Bolivia/Chile border and we waited here for a little while as our bus from the border to San Pedro in Chile was not till 3.00pm. The border post is pretty basic with only the Bolivian side represented here. Our bus came to pick up us on time (incredibly)and then off to San Pedro via a 2,000m drop in altitude. The Chilean border check point is on the outskirts of San Pedro and far more proffessional then Bolivia with all bags searched etc. As we didn't have accommodation booked the bus driver drove us around until we finally found a B&B type accommodation. This one had a kitchen so we cooked our own breakfasts and dinner to save money but as food is really so cheap it was most probably just for a change to eating out. Had a couple of pet llamas in the backyard that we fed our scraps to. Not much to do in San Pedro, it is a very small town with very dusty narrow streets with this ongoing wind blowing dust everywhere. The first time for weeks that we have been able to wear shorts and t shirts. Kristy and Adam left us here to continue their travels through Chile whilst we head off to Argentina. On saturday we went for a bike ride out through a valley surrounded by lava type mud formations, including inca ruins etc -quite hot and dusty but good fun apart from the sore bum as the seats and suspension were not made for rocky rough roads.
Our bus left Sunday morning on the journey to Salta (argentina)and took 12 hours. If you take out the time we waited at the Chilean border (1 hour) and the Argentina border (1.5 hours) the trip would have been a lot quicker. The trip was again through very mountainous country, dispersed with long flat straights, and roads winding up and down the mountain ranges. On this trip we would have gone from around 2,500m at San Pedro to up to 4,800m over the Andes and then down to 1200m at Salta. This is the lowest altitude we have been for over four weeks. Arrived in Salta around 8.30pm, and got a taxi to our hostal which we had pre-booked via hostalworld.com (our first time)and everything went smoothly. Accomodation near the centre of the town, small room with en-suite, and friendly young staff.
Had a walk around Salta today and on first views it is like a small european town. A different type of people here, and the shops are a lot more up market although things are still cheap compared to home. Had lunch in town at a cafe on the edge of the main plaza (hamburger, toasted sandwich, coffee, milkshake) and it cost around A$6 in total. One of the amazing sights is the amount of police and security guards, that are around the banking area and all have machine guns slung over their shoulders - and there are police very visible walking around the city it all feels very safe.

We are staying here for a couple of days before heading off to Iquizi falls in the north eastern corner of Argentina. We will go by bus but it is a 24 hour trip so we will break it up into acouple of shorter journeys - these old bones can´t handle too long a trip.

Some facts for those interested. For the last few weeks we have been above 3,600m and up to 4,800m travelling over parts of the Andes mountain range. It is always cold at these altitudes and with the windy always blowing the chill factor is quite high, resulting in very cold nights and cool days. Long pants and coats are the dress of the day, together with beanies and sometimes gloves. Temperatures at night are at or below freezing with the days in the high teens if lucky. San Pedro was a good change being able to wear shorts and t shirt during the day until the winds started blowing and the sun went down. Salta is the lowest altitude we have been at only 1200m but still need long pants and coat during the day. The vegetation during the trip has been different ranging from thick forrest type vegetation in the Peru mountains to the barren wind blown mountains in Bolivia and Argentina.

Left copabana with Phil and Jackie on the bus to La Paz, a trip of 5 hours. The trip was for a long time around the shores of Lake Titicaca but we were high up in the mountain ranges and had had snow capped mountains most of the way down to La Paz. Half way down we had to get off the bus and travel across the lake on a little launch whilst the bus went over on its own barge. The trip was through the country and ok, lots of little villages, and in some areas it looked like the area was the holiday house area for the rich people from la paz, and there were also some picnic areas. close to la paz we came across road blockages, where women who have been unable to get propane gas blocked off the main access road into la paz by sitting acorss the road with their gas bottles. we had to go around the blockages through narrow little streets about 4 times and we achieved this until we got close to the main city where they had blocked the main access road into the city and there was no-where to go around them. The assistant driver got out and with some traffic management and some brute force he got us around7through the blockage and then it was a smooth downhill rapid descent into la paz. la paz is a pretty big city, pretty drab, lots of noise, traffic and people. Got dropped off at the bus terminal and then had to try and find somewhere to stay - got some pretty basic directions to the hostel area and on the way came across some people who had been on the walk with us - finally decided to go to the hostel where the young couple we had met previously and who were in la paz and after some juggling pedestrians, traffic and hills found the hostel and stayed there for two days. On arrival we found that the train we were going to take to Uyuni was not running due to a strike by the train drivers and luckily the yound couple had reserved us on a seat on the next bus to uyuni with them. without that we would have had to stay in la paz for another few days until the next bus and there is not much to see in the city. Had a day of walking around trying to buy all your presents and have sent two packages back - not sure when they will arrive. The one day in la paz was enough and after two nights there and two days, we left at 11.00pm on an overnight trip to uyuni. the bus was pretty comfortable and the seats lay back so you could stretch out a bit and there was a reasonable amount of leg room. Had reasonable tar road for a few hours and then onto a jarring corrugated road for the rest of the trip, across a couple of running streams, across washaways in creeks, stopping for freight trains in the middle of nowhere we made it into Uyuni around 7.30am. overall not a bad trip and we did get some sleep - me with the help of a sleeping tablet. Penny had a heater outlet right at her feet which became a bit uncomfortable until we were able to get the heater turned off.
Uyuni is a little town on the edge of the salt lake area and is the main point of departure for all the trips across the salt lakes. we are staying in a little hostel for US$10 per night. not much in the town at all apart from the tourist operators who hassle you all the time for a tour and the best pizas we have had the resturant is run by a yanke who meet a local in the states and move here,he diffently has the monopoly. we have booked our trip and head off tomorrow (tuesday) morning get to San Pedro in chile on thursday aftrnoon. San Pedro is another little place and we will stay there until we head off to Salta in Argentina. We are doing the trip with the young couple (kristy and adam) and just the four of us with a driver and cook and in a landcruiser. We have changed our travel route due to road blocks on the bolivian Argentina border.
Next installment the Lagos de sal and Ataccama Dessert.

Left Cusco by bus, as the trains were all full owing to the landslide and people not being able to get to machupichu. The girls at the B&B gave us a nice farewell with lots of cuddles and then off on the bus to Puno. Double decker tourist bus for a 8 hours to puno and stopping every couple of hours for the normal tourist things to see. By this stage we have seen all the musuems, cathederals etc and just walked around the main plaza's whilst they had their tours. The trip cost around US$8 each so it is pretty good value including lunch.
arrived in Puno early evening and as we had bookied accommodation there got picked up from the bus terminal. Hostel was pretty good with nice hot shower and it was near the town centre and restaurants. There is not a lot to see or do in Puno and it is a pretty drab place. We did a trip out to the floating islands which was the only reason that we stopped there - it was a half day tour and you visit three islands. The islands are built up of rotted reeds that have matted together over the years and the people have been living on them for centuries. Unfortunately it is now over commercialised and really wasn't that good - each island is like a movie set all set out how it should be but the people don't actually live there anymore they live on houses on the islands nearby but is was still interesting how they used the totora reeds. The next day it was off to copacabana that is Bolivia so a boarder crosssing is involved. Again a nice tourist bus and we were lucky to be sitting at the front of the bus upstairs and met a couple from Avalon and we have been with them for a couple of days now. The boarder crossing was uneventful - you leave the bus on one side and then walk across no-mans land to the Bolivian customs and get your passport stamped and then another walk to the bus.

Copacabana is set right on the edge of lake titicaca, and we got accommodation at the Mirador hostal right on the lakes edge US$10 per night with great views over the lake. Had a day off the first day just walking around the town which is quite nice, and we had beautiful sunshine - something that we haven't had for a long time. We went out to Isle de Sol with Jackie and Phil fromm Avalon, and got dropped off on the north end - we then had a 9k walk along the ridge of the island at 4,000m to the southern end where we stayed in a great B&B right on top of the ridge looking down and over the lake.
Our room was right at the front of the house ovderlookking the view. We splurged out this night with a few beers and a meal in the hostel. For our accommodation, 3 bottles of beer, 1 bottle of wine, and our dinner and breakfast it cost about US$24 not bad eh! it was a family runn B&B and they lived in the house and they were really helpful and friendly. The island reminded us off rotto but a bit higher with lots of shelered bays and nice clear blue water. The next day we got a local boat back to the mainland and we walked 17k back to copacabana through villages and along the lakes edge - it was a bit longer than we planned but we made it and it was a nice walk through the countryside. Today we leave for La Paz again by bus and a 3 hour or so trip with Jacki and Phil so the next report will be either from there or after we do our next adventure depending on timing. Met another interesting couple on the island and again at tea last night - he is an Itilian 37 years old who has been living in Cape town for 12 years and sold his restauraant and has now been travelling for 5 years all over the world living off his savings. He has teamed up with an canadian/trinadad girl for the past 2 years and they have een to some pretty amazing remote areas. They are trying to get me into doing yoga as they both do it and she is a teacher -they did training in India for 12 months.
catch you all - us