Tiahuanaco, Coca, the world´s most dangerous road, and what do you mean our tickets are cancelled

Passing through the urban sprawl become city el alto, we overlook the remarkable valley and city of La Paz. The border of snow capped mountains deliver an unparalled background and the world highest ski slopes. Breathtakingly 3,600 above sea, all foot travels suffer the effects of the altitude; where suicide is the term used by visiting football teams and lethargy and shortness of breath are common. Catering for between 1.6 and 1.8 million inhabitants it holds the power and privelledge of Bolivia, if not the official capital status. Incomparable to Lima or Quito where style, grace, and culture is interwined between poverty, street sellers, and open sewers. By far the cheapest destination thus far, a superb lunch for two with drinks is $5 unless you roll the dice on a friendly street vendor.

A trip to La Paz is not complete without a visit to the coca museum. Used by pre-columbian civilisations to adjust to altitude, reduce hunger, physcial increase output and as a basic anaesthetic, it was declared a path to the devil and banned by the church. After discovering it´s properties the colonial goveners overturned the ban and made it´s used by indigenous slaves mandatory in the mines to foster ¨shifts¨of up to 48 hours. At one point, it´s per kilo value was greater than gold. Avoiding the known history of the drug wars of the 20th century, Bolivia today legally produces coca for traditional uses, although much is diverted to neighboring countries for the production of cocaine. Interestingly, Bolivia is not one of the roughly a dozen western countries that can legally produce cocaine.... Also coke still uses coca leaves for flavour.

A visit to the pre-incan ruins of Tiahuanaco produced a tour guide garnering conjecture as fact and a site that after restoration may one day rivial Machu Pichu.

Reviewing the logistics of our impending travel, we head down to the local LAN office to book an early flight to Santiago. Much to our suprise, the officer, who we´ll call Juanita, informs that all of our forwarding tickets have been cancelled due Iberia, which we already loathed, incorrectly altering our flight changes we requested in Spain..... dumbasses... Our shock compounded by the knowledge that all of our future flights were fully boooked raised the old blood pressure just a tad. Luckilly, Juanita was up to the challenge with a wink and a nod a quick phone call secured our passage on the aforementioned flights.

It´s a wonder what boredom can ¨force¨ you to do. After daily knockbacks for an early flight and ingorning some fatherly advice, I booked passage by mountain bike on the Coroico road. In 1995, the Inter-American Development Bank dubbed the road ¨the worlds most dangerous¨ where a fatal accident is not uncommon every fortnight ... Starting early and high in the Bolivian Andes with white knuckles from the cold and a hearty grip of the handle bars, we embarked down a 64 kilometre, single lane, mountain hugging, waterfall disecting dirt and stone laden road descending 3,600 to the warmth of the sub tropics. One thing is certain, the fantastic setting would have been much greatly appreciated if my knuckles were not so sore two days later.

Cusco, Puno, and Lake Titicaca

After recovering from the hike and the odd celebratory drink in cusco for a day we hit the road for Puno and Lake Titicaca on a tourist bus ....... Local bus six hours, tourist bus nine with plenty of gringo stops and not even a 1980´s van Damme flick to pass the time. Worst bus ride ever!!!. At our designated feed trough, you were even charged for $1 for milk with coffee.

Our main purpose to utilise the harbour of Titicaca severly limited our exposure to the small city of Puno. A couple of gringo restaurants, bycicle taxi´s.... and oh yeah, Beth seems to think I am responsible for hangovers of the tour guide and a fellow travellor´s ?!?!?!?

Straddling Peru and Boliva 3,812m above sea level, Lake Titicaca is the largest lake above 3,000 metres covering 8,372 km². With two distinct ethnic groups, Quecha and Amayra, with multiple cultures over the 42+ islands, it has much to offer. Attracted in part by the name and the famed Uros people who reside in floating islands constructed with reeds, we departed on a overnight trip to visit several islands and a homestay.

Our first stop on Taquile and the last on one of the Uros Islands, although touristy and annoyingly so on the latter, still presented interseting insights into their cultures. The men of Quechan Taquile both farm and knit with all dressing according to their social position and marital status. Initially constructed to flee the constant fighting on the mainland, the Uros islands hold over 3000 Aymara on over 41 floating reed islands forming the Uros Islands. Each housing up to 10 families on each.

But not all was lost.... We arrived at Amantaní island for the homestay with expectations of a slice of local life, a family without English or Spanish, and a game of football (soccer). Disembarking, we ascended another 300 metres with Olga, the hostess with the mostess, welcoming us into her two story mudbrick home with introductions to her family of five. Fortunatly, Spanish was known and we conversed on the favourites.... Football, Kangaroo´s, the weather, and work. Misinterpriting Olga´s after dinner request to change in our party clothes, we headed up stairs and waited for her to escort us to the fiesta. I´ll let the picture tell the story of what she actually said.



Cerveza´s, music, dancing with our hosts to fifteen minute songs were the theme of the fiesta and all who partook enjoyed a memorably experience.

Random Thoughts
= I´ve had ¨Copa Copacabana¨ stuck my head for the past week, as the famed city, which is neither north or hotter than habana, inhabit the shores.
= Bolivia maintain an active Navy in Lake Titicaca despite it´s landlocked status.
= Residents of the Lake pay no taxes leaving one to suspect the government wants to retain the locals as the tourist attraction removing any reasons for economic migration.
= A few games of football were enjoyed on Amantani, which at the altitude, is not easy. Holding up the defense whilst my Spanish and Scottish team mates scored goal after goal the competition was flattened.

Machu Pichu

During the height of the Incan Empire, Machu Pichu was constructed in 1450, as one theory holds, as a city of religious importance. After three years of brutal Spanish rule, the puppet king, Manco Inca strategically fled Cusco for Vilcabamba bypassing and essentially hiding the nearby Machu Pichu, which was only 30 kms away. Even after the last Inca (king) was drawn and quarted or strangled, the whereabouts of the city where never revealed. It is thought the 1000 inhabitants fled to assist the assults of the Spanish. It was only in the early 20th century, it was rediscovered under the forests by workers of the railways who pillages the vast silver and gold, and notably by the Hiram Bingam in 1912, who pillaged over 3000 artifacts for private and public museums in the states.

Built with all the beuaty of remaining Inca sites, walls and terraces are constructed through hand polishing original mountain rocks and stones without mortar, but so precise that sunlight can not penetrate even the joins of a gardeners house.

Each morning, the sun gate shines sunlight through a window of the Temple of the sun, which at one point, illuminated a sacred object. Massive terraces produced coca, potatoes, maize, and orchids with Soil brought from a 1000 metres below. An impressive sundial directly between Machu Pichu and Wiynam Pichu mountains marks the equinox.



After one of only a few hundred who reach the site by hiking each day, it is easy to feel a sense of ownership when surrounded by the hoards of tourists who arrive by train or bus each day and only grasp a fraction of the story. Although we are by are wide and far not experts, if you do come, ensure you hike one of the many Incan trails.

It is apparent that for reasons of ignorance and racism, most students educated in areas with small indigenous populations have little or no knowledge of the Inca´s or Machu Pichu.

Cuy, Parasites, snow, rain, and steps, steps, and more steps

Although uneventful, our last day in Lima saw the addition of the local delicacy, cuy, to my list of gastronimcal feats. Although as difficult to eat as quail, with the same number of bones and limited meat, I found guinea pig very very tasty.

The ancient city of Cusco, pronounced Kosko, is the oldest inhabitated city in South Americam founded in 1100. As the centre of Incan power, holding 300,000 pre=industrial inhabitants, it oversaw an empire streaching from chile, through bolivia, peru, argentina, ecuador, and southern venezuala. At it's height, the empire of 12 million were experts in agriculture, architecture, textiles, and gold and silver metallurgy. Unfortunately, the viceroy's are celebrated for their bravado and the incan empire relegated to a footnote in most peruvian schools. Today, the city encorportates the same population, but with obvious spanish colonial western influence that befits any tourist haven.

Unfortunately for me, I spent my first three days holed up in the hostal with parasites in the stomach, a throat infection, and a head cold..... nice. In the next day, I will attempt to explore Cusco.

With the throat infection starting to clear and a determination not to spend the four days with the hump up, we set of to the starting point of the celebrated inca trail. One pit stop included a stop at a local indigenous villiage. Their existance is modest, but deep in tradition and culture. Opportunities are limited, with men working the trail as porters and the women tending the farms, children, and weaving. A change in fate is only through education generally leading to tourism.

Spending a night Ollantaytambo, we visit the local ruins. Description to come....
One a side note, I first hear of the qualities of grilled alpaca, later consumed resting is cusco.... Tastes like kangaroo.

Health slightly improving, the troupe of twelve set of with our walking sticks, coca candy, coca leaves, ponchos, irrepresible guide washington, and 18 porters. Day one revealed many incan trails, fortresses, highland forests, rivers, creeks, indigenous communiuties, farms, and six hours of moderate hiking. Arriving at camp, we are greeted by our tents setup, a hole in the ground, and a fantastic dinner of fresh trout.

Day Two can only be described as a slog. 8 hours straight hiking, 16 kilometres starting at 3200 metres to 4200 at dead women´s pass, then back to 3600 was a day of scenary. Forest, tundra, glaciers, and dwarf forest. After settling in for the night, roughly five degrees below, it rained from 8pm to 8 am.



Day three we passing two mountains and incan ruins whilst our porters literally ran the trail in sandals carrying twenty kilo´s on their backs. Very difficult terrain to walk with a stick, I´m positive channel seven will start a new series called ¨When porters fall down¨. The camp site reveals our first shower and beer in three days.

Day four, wakeup call at 4am, hiking from 5:30 we rise to the sun gate, ominously lacking sun, to await the sunrise to shine on Machu Pichu, illuminating the temple of the sun.

And then we saw Machu Pichu....

Clog food, smog, and free beer

Meeting many a sole (pun intended) bagging Lima, we arrived just before midnight with little to no expectations. Arriving in Miraflores, the Beverly Hills of Lima, we are greated by all the trimmings of a modern city. The streets are safe, convenience of the neon signs, four and five star apartment blocks, and even a golf course. Only the divide between rich and poor matches our surprise of finding a suburb with a standard of living equal or greater than that of upper middle class Adelaide.

The opulence of the colonial buildings and plazas of the heart of Peru is contrasted by the unsafe squalor of it's surroundings. Unemployment is high and many denizens barely eek out a living selling wares for twenty or thirty cents. The inhabitants of can not even boast a nice climate, with range of 15 to 25 it never rains, although the ever present smog provides the illusion of impending rain.

Gastronomically fantastic, the local cuisine is as cheap as it tasty. Paella, the clog pleasing Cerviche, hearty meals of beef, chicken, or lamb, and an abundance of seafood.

Bunked up at $15 per night we have free beer, spirits, internet, and the redundant access to musical instruments.

LAN Airways by the way, is fantastic.... leather seats, some legroom, hostesses who smile.

As far as the Australia Electoral Commission are concerned, traveling and voting do not go hand in hand. The process could not be more painful.

Rubio, Poverty and random thoughts on Ecuador

"Rubio, Rubio, Rubio" be the call that resonates through the streets of Quito, the highlands, and the jungle. Standing roughly five or six inches taller than the average equadorian barely recieves a glance compared to that of the Blonde haired Beth. Although the machismo of Ecuador is rated as tame, even walking with me she garner´s many a look, greeting, the ubiquitous rubio, rubio, and stops many a conversation in it´s tracks. That said, she is safe walking the streets.

Quito and Ecuador as a whole presents so very little in opportunities for many in quality of life, education, and health care. Many children, as young sell wares of ice creams, chewing gum, or water on the streets and buses throughout the day. All stores and restaurants are over staffed. The only explanation for their continued prosperity is the minimal wages for staff.

Random thoughts:
= One way streets greatly assist the flow of traffic throughout the city
= Ecuadorian horns are versitile. Displaying disgust at the bad traffic or a driver, a call by taxi´s for passengers, saying hello to friends, indicating a change of lanes their noise is ever present;
= There are relatively few damanged cars on the road considering the chaotic scenes of peak hour traffic;
= The local fare is hearty but often plain;
= Only eat chinese food in China or Australia;
= Many great civilisations of Ecuador and their people have and are suffering;
= The locals wares are often made from centuries old techniques and of very high quality;
= Only eat from dirt cheap local restaurants or expensive, by Ecuadorian standards, western restaurants;
= The UNESCO world heritage listed old town is reminiscent of Europe and has the soul to match;
= No computers exist that allow you to use the bloger spell checker;
= Although you feel safe, you have to wonder about the hundreds of security guards stationed at resturants, banks, pharmacies, and bars hold loaded shotguns; and
= Come to Ecuador, either loop the country or use Quito as your base.

Insatiable greed, shrunken heads, and the hobbitt at middle earth

A walk through colonial old town delivers numerous pictures of 500 year old colonial buildings, churches, cobbled street, museums, and soul of this metropolis. Independence square reveals the ubiqitous street vendors, political rallies and protests, museums, and many a citizen enjoying the sun. A feature in the museum of art celebrated the life of Andy Warhol with thousands of photos, sculptures, videos, and music. The man, who only ever wore green underpants, was truly amazing.

Although many beautifull churches were built over the conquered Inca templtes, one of note is is brimming with over two tonnes of gold. The doors, walls, ornaments and scultpures are all covered. The opulence is inconceivable. Given the suffering in the streets and countryside and the incalcable suffering of the incas at the hands of the spanish colonials and the church, you can not help but feel disgusted at its decadence. Thousands upon thousands died either in the conquest or the hellish mines to fill churches, palaces, and coffers of the coloniasts and kings of Spain.

On a lighter note, we travelled 16kms north of Quito with a troupe of backpackers to see the City of the Middle Earth aka the equator. Although shared with numerous contries, the backgrop of the Andes is unique, where all other countires provide rain forrests. A pre incan civilisation, 1000 years ago, determined not only were they at the centre of the earth, but also the precise tilt of the earths axis, 23.5 degrees and the precise position of the equator. Quito literally translates to Middle Earth. Considering a 19th century French surveyor calculated the equator as 300 metres to the South, which houses a giant, plastic, and celbrarted monument, only disproved by G.P.S, it is truly amazing. In addition, a series of monuments were built hundreds of kilometres apart marking the equinox, soltices, and equator with precision.

The real middle of the earth housed a rustic, dust covered museum that was truly both informative and entertaining. A display of indigenous housing demonstrated how each tribe adapted to their unqiue landscape, jungle, mountains, beaches, desert, or lowlands. One in particular historically burried the wife with a dead husband. Several tribes, reportedly only historicaly shrunk the heads of the fallen enemies. After deboning, a recipe produces a head the size of the original owners fist. At the equator, several interesting feats are demonstrated. Water drains clockwise and anti clockwise on the southern and northern hemispheres respectively, but straight down on the equator; I balanced an egg on the head of a nail; and gravity is slightly and noticeably weaker, and yes, you do way less ladies.

The weather outside is miserably whilst Beth tries her luck at a local hairdresser.

Denzel Washington, a lodge with no (little) beer, paddle, paddle, and more paddling

After the 8 hours on the bus and five more waiting for our mestizo guide Wassington, the countries reponse to Denzel Washington. We travel by taxi for two to three hours over mostly dirt roads into country barely touched by agriculture and only recently by oil. We enter the Parque Nacional Cuyabeno by motorized canoe and travel for another two to three hours to reach our final destination, the jamu lodge. Located in dense jungle with the temprature topping thirty eight with high humidity, it naturally lacked the all basic mod cons .... hot water, electricity, and most disturbingly of all, low supplies of the local pilsner to combat the exhausting heat.

The activities, a mixture of well planned and shambolic, are easily delineated in the following catagories.

Fishing.... As the only naturalist on the two fishing trips, I secretly avoided catching any fish in contrast to other ravenous tourists who easily pulled in numerous paranas and other local fish, including a 30cm parana by Beth. The trip to and from these fertile zones was an arduos two or three hour paddle in wooden canoe, either in the heat of the midday sun or the mosquito and bat clad, darkness of night.

Nature hikes.... Hicking through mud, swamps, often seemingly impenatrable terrain, and once at night, produced a vast array of flora with som interesting fauna. Many trees and plants provide purpose to the indigenous community, from trees to sound out an S.O.S, plants for the bites of snakes and spiders, termites to protect against mosuiqtios, ants just for their bitter taste (personally licking three different types from their trees), and even a life long protection against malaria. The night hike, looking for massive spiders, although no tarrantulas, boa constrictors, caymens, and various insects was educational and quite daunting in the heart of the jungle armed with only a few flash lights and a steve irwin esque guide.

Indigenous community .... The villages, who fortunatly own title to their oil rich land, recieve periodic gifts of electricity, phones, running water in an attempt to butter them up for a future acquisition or deal with the oil companies. Although extremely remote, the locals, often with eight children, appear well nourished. The few modern commodoties afforded to them by the oil companies hasten their move from the local traditions. The lack full year tourismo positions provides a dispora to the oil companies and cities in search for employment and the advantages of convenneince. After making some rather tasty papaya bread we visit the local shaman. A interesting man who informed us on his heritage, struggles with finding a sucessor, abundance of medical plants in the forest, and his hallucinigencic drinks which he consumes three times a week to help with diagnosis. It must be said of such a learned individual, his pet dog suffered disturbingly from malnutrition.

After the arrival of cold beer and a handful of aussies, we enjoyed an afternoon in the hammocks, a swim, and an unsuccesful search for an anaconda.

With several more days in Ecuador, we will explore the old town and perhaps hike the volcano, Cotopaxi.