Bolivia

La Paz
We spent a couple of days in the capital of Bolivia, which is about 3600 meters over the ocean. To us it actually looks very similar to Peru. We stayed in a nice hostal close to the “Gringo” area. This means that we have been able to get good coffee! It is amazing how obsessed I have become over coffee. If I have a bad one it can really put me in a bad mood. If we ask for coffee with milk we have often been given a cup of luke warm milk and some coffee on the side to add to it. I don’t know about you guys but I do have a limit to how much milk I want in my coffee! Well, like I said, we don’t have that problem in Bolivia.



One of the greatest things about Bolivia is all the women who are dressed in HUGE colourful, glittering skirts and hats. All of them have long hair. Some of them have gold teeth, and most of them look like they have hip problems when they walk. I wish I knew more about their clothing, because I am sure that it has a lot of identity connected to it.

The receptionist at our hostel told us a very interesting story. We have seen many tiny, dried lama babies being sold in stalls around town. She told us that people bury them on construction sites because this is supposed to bring good luck to the buildings. Well, she then told us that some corporations do the same with drunk, homeless people!! There are houses in Bolivia where people have been buried alive underneath. That was a horrible, horrible fact. I doubt that it still happens. Can it?




We went to a coca museum in La Paz. I can now drink coca leaf tea without feeling like a drug abuser! Hurrah! The tea tastes like green tea, and it does not really have any effect on you, however, it can help prevent altitude sickness. The people in Bolivia and Peru chew the leaf. It has a mild euphoric effect on them, and it keeps them from feeling hunger. Apparently coca leaves are really nutritious and full of protein. Back in the days miners in Bolivia used them so they could work for hours without feeling pain or hunger. The big problem with the coca leaves is off course cocaine. They have to add some other ingredients to it to make cocaine. Did you know that the US consumes 50 % of the worlds cocaine? A lot of it is probably made from coca leaves from Bolivia although it is illegal. It is not nice. Stop using drugs people please! Whenever you do you are supporting terrible working conditions, smugglers who risk their lives and gang members who fight to get control over the goods. That was a very spontaneous moral lecture from me. Have a cup of green tea instead

Uyuni



After la Paz we took a bus down to Uyuni. The bus ride was cold and very bumpy! We could not believe how much the bus was vibrating. It made it impossible to sleep for most of the journey. We were disappointed when we arrived in Uyuni. It looks like a ghost town in the middle of nowhere. Luckily our hotel was good, and they served the most amazing pizza in Minute Man Pizza which was the restaurant of our hotel! The most disappointing aspect of Uyuni though was that there were hardly any buses going out of there! Not when we needed them to anyway. We therefore bought tickets back to La Paz. We did not want to go back up there, but we didn’t feel like we had any other choice.



The night before we went on our salt flat tour Matt and I went out for pizza. I wasn’t very hungry so I only ate half my pizza. Both of us thought it was a little bit strange, but we didn’t really react to that. But HELLO! If I am not hungry for dinner something is wrong! That night I spent more time hugging the toilet than hugging the bed. Or at least my butt did. I was not very happy about going on the salt flat tour the next day. However, I took lots of Imodium-type drugs and I hoped that I would be fine. The Imodium didn’t work very well. I was stuck on this jeep for hours! It was a pretty tour though. On the tour we met a guy who was going to San Pedro on a 4wheel drive the same evening as we were going back to La Paz. Our driver called that company and they had tickets for us! That meant that we could get to Chile, and it would only take us 8 hours. Going back to La Paz would have lost us so much time and money.



When the tour was over Matt went to see the agency, while I rushed back to the hotel for a toilet break. When I came out of the toilet Matt was out of breath “We’re leaving in 10 minutes”. Talk about quick turnaround! So a few minutes after that we were in a jeep on our way to Chile. We did not get a refund for the other bus tickets. It was horrible for me on the ride. I took more Imodium than I should have, but nothing worked again! Now we are in Chile. We got ourselves a nice room in San Pedro with a private bathroom. I have been sleeping all day. So now I look forward to meet the world as a normal person without gut problems soon.

Matt&Betta

Peru

We are currently in Peru and in Cusco. It is a very pretty old colonial town and it’s a nice place to be for a few days. For those of you in the know you’ll realise that it’s base camp for a trip to Machu Pichu and we have just returned from there as you can tell from the photos.

Following our wonderful trip to the Galapagos we were seriously concerned about getting the holiday blues, but we have been very pleasantly surprised that it seems to have energised us a bit and we’ve been doing some serious ‘travelling’ since our return to the mainland. We’ve caught 3 overnight buses since Guyaquil and done 56 hours (to cusco) en route. Peru has been really good actually, easy to get around, good transportation, honest cab drivers(!) and amazing food and sights. It’s been a good place to get back into the swing of things. We feel very short of time in South America but we’re trying to do as much as we can while we’re here. That said, we have now got one eye on getting back to a ‘developed’ country, and I think we’ll really enjoy a bit of down time in NZ especially.

We travelled to Lima (OK for a stop over) and Arequipa (Very pretty WH listed colonial city nestling in the mountains) on the way here and then onto Cusco. We weren’t planning on Machu Pichu when we left but we had a change of heart, expensive as it was. It’s a very special place, however and I was very happy to get to go there again with Betta. It loses none of it’s wonder the second time. The train ride was pretty spectacular too, and we got amazing food and a rather cheesy fashion show as they tried to flog their Apparel on the way home.


Next up we are heading to Uyuni in Bolivia, via La Paz (highest capital in the world), where we are planning to do a day tour of the salt flats before heading south and into Chile.

The Galapagos Islands

On the fifth of August Matt and I arrived at the Galapagos. The place that once inspired Darwin to write his theory of the evolution of species (actually the Galapagos was not as important as is commonly assumed). I had always wanted to travel there, but I never thought I would be able to afford it. It turns out that last minute tours booked in Ecuador are not as expensive as you may think.

We booked a tour with yate Floreana for 8 days and 7 nights. Little did we know what to expect, but we had a feeling that it would be good.

It turned out that we had one of the greatest experiences of our lives!

First of all, the boat was great. It was small, but perfect for us. The staff was so helpful and professional, the food was like a 4 star restaurant and our guide was knowledgeable and dedicated to the wildlife!

On the first day we went to North Seymour. On that island we saw blue footed boobies, land iguanas, lizards, sea lions, crabs, pelicans and a number of other birds. We were amazed by how tame the animals were. They don’t have natural predators here, so they have never had a reason to fear other species. It was so amazing being able to see the blue footed boobies court each other from a few feet away! The sea lions are very curious and they are really interested in checking out humans. They are so cute! Take a look at our photos on flicker to get the idea (be ware there are almost 1000 pictures from the Galapagos there). In the evening on our first day we went to have a cup of tea and look at the starts. Guess what! Our boat was surrounded by about 20 bull sharks. They were enormous. It was fascinating watching them swim around the boat. I felt like I was in a Jaws movie (haisommer) minus all the pain of course.

All the days were amazing! We did 3 activities each day. We got to go for 5 snorkelling trips all together. The water was freezing! We did have wetsuits, but with about 17 degrees in the water that doesn’t help much. However, when you get to swim with sea lions and sea turtles you forget about the coldness quite quickly!


The greatest thing we did though snorkelling wise was swimming with dolphins! One day we came upon about 50 of them. We could hear them talking to each other under water. However, they were swimming so quickly so when they were gone our guide made it a mission to follow them. We rushed into our tiny boat and raced them. When we got close we all jumped out of the boat. It was such a rush! We did this 3 times. I can’t even describe what it’s like to see 20 dolphins beneath you, but it was beautiful! I even saw a mother with a baby. The atmosphere on out boat was just thrilling. We have put a video up flicker where you can see us hunting for the dolphins.

It is so difficult to write a blog about the Galapagos. Nothing I say will bring it justice. The wildlife was like nothing I have ever seen. I never thought I’d see sharks and tortoises in the wild. The islands were beautiful and they seemed untouched. Matt and I also got engaged on the Galapagos. Needless to say I will always remember this place fondly.

Quito

We had to leave Miami even if we could have happily stayed another week and here we are in the second highest capital city in the world, Quito.
Arriving at night we swooped in low over the city to land. It sits in a natural bowl amongst the mountains and looked absolutely beautiful with orange streetlights twinkling in all directions. We also got a relatively stress free taxi to our hostel (they didn’t even try to rip us off!).


Upon waking we realised Quito wasn’t quite as beautiful as she seemed the night before, the whole area around our hostel smelt of stale urine to start with (Ahh the city smell of Sunday morning), and the New Town where we are stationed is quite charmless. It’s locally called ‘Gringolandia’ as it’s full of tourists, café’s bars, tour operators and so on but the buildings and streets are concrete and functional.

However, slowly over the course of a few days we have began to relax into it and I think it may well be one of the nicer South American Capitals. The Old Town is certainly very pretty, even if all the museums are closed on a Sunday. We have taken an interesting, if over hyped trip to the equator which was fun for a while, and also climbed the Basilica which was great and had amazing views over the city. Another highlight has been the food. We’ve been getting set lunches that costs around £1.50 for 3 courses with a juice drink, and it’s all really tasty. We can't get a good cup of coffee for love nor money though. In one local cafe we were brought 2 cups of hot milk, and we had to add our own liquid coffee essence to taste. Even the trendy western places can't do it right. Maybe Panama city wasn't so bad afterall.

Another thing that has taken up much of our time is planning a trip to the Galapagos! We had no plans to go when we left but were persuaded by an Aussie couple weeks ago in Nicaragua. The more we looked into it the more special it seemed, so we decided to part with the (considerable amount of) money for this once in a lifetime experience. We have an 8 day cruise booked starting tomorrow and we are both very excited by it. We’ll be without the Internet for a while now, but we hope to update you afterwards with tales of beautiful scenery as well as ridiculously abundant and tame wildlife.

MandB