Homeward Bound

Since our seats on the flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires were right against the rear bulkhead of the plane we were at least in the statistically safest seat in the event of a crash. Though it should be no surprise that we were next to last off the plane after our 9:00pm arrival - with the only ones behind us being an older couple from the other side of the aisle. This also meant that we were the last in the immigration queue for foreigners, where a complication emerged. I had neglected to get the copies of our Argentine Reciprocity Fee receipts from my pack because I didn't think we would need them again - firstly because the fee is good for a 12 month period and we had already entered the country once, and secondly because it isn't supposed to be necessary for stays of less than 12 hours (which was the case for us on this occasion.) However it appeared that they had no record of our entry just under five weeks ago and wanted to see the receipts. A supervisor was summoned and it was beginning to look like one of us would need to go through to the baggage area to retrieve my pack and get the copies from there. Luckily, I suddenly remembered that I still had the original copies we had used stuffed into a pocket of my money pouch - I hadn't actually thrown them out as I had been thinking I could.

Potential crisis averted we passed through customs for the same pre-arranged taxi pick-up process we had enjoyed on our last arrival here. We had originally planned to stay the night at a hotel close to the airport since we had to be back here in about 9-10 hours for our flight home. However, my internet searches didn't turn up any closer than 8 kilometres away, and costing about AU$150 a night, so despite the longer drive it was cheaper to return to the same downtown hostel we had stayed in originally. The taxi ride at this time of night was pretty quick so it didn't take us long to get there and check in. We had a front room overlooking the street again but Thursday nights are evidently much quieter than the Saturday night we experienced previously. And the cute puppy dog on the balcony opposite was still there, with his paws up on the railing watching, and occasionally barking at, the passing traffic.

Sigh...!

We were awake at 5:30am for our taxi back to the airport - hopefully our last early start for a while! The check-in, immigration and security checks went smoothly before our luck with flights on this trip finally ran out. The departure screen announced that our flight had been delayed 90 minutes. Damn, we hadn't needed to get up quite so early after all! Not much to do at the airport or course and as the time dragged by the delay finally came to about two hours before we took off.

Icebergs Ahoy!

Then of course our discomfort was compounded. Despite having the seats next to an emergency exit with no seats in front of us (so plenty of leg room) the centre row just in front of us was home to a couple with twins about 12 months old. Even when they were not grizzling they seemed to like squealing just because they could. But only for about the first 11 hours of the flight, they pretty much passed out for the last four. Sleep was always going to be hard anyway because, unlike our flight over which was in the dark the whole way, this was a daytime flight so our body clocks didn't really start to hit sleep mode until a couple of hours before we landed. This made for about 15 hours of pure tedium, not helped by Aerolineas's choice of in-flight movies, none of which rated more than about 6 on IMDB.com. The one positive from this was that we were able to get some nice views of the Antarctic ice shelf from 10 kilometres up - and some of the icebergs must have been huge given how big they looked from where we were.

Our good track record at getting through Sydney Airport quickly was not tarnished though. After touching down at 2:55pm we were in a taxi on our way home just 45 minutes later, with customs having given the all clear on our collection of woodcrafted lizards. The good news is that our home was intact and the cats were healthy and glad to see us (a neighbour and her children had been feeding them in our absence).

And so ended our Great South American Adventure.

Winding down in Santiago

The bus station where we arrived from Valparaiso is right on a metro station for Line #1, which fortuitously was the same line we needed to be on get to our hostel. Even though it was 15 stops away the journey was quite quick - and cheap. And although it seemed like a very new metro line - the line runs on rubber tyres so it is very quiet - it is in fact nearly 40 years old.

Having looked up the location of our hostel on Google maps a few days ago, (doesn't street view make life easy!) finding the hostel was a piece of cake. After checking in and dumping our gear in our tiny room (I think the double bed was custom made to fit) we set off on a walk to follow the river into the centre of the city. Not that it is much of a river - more a bit of a stream that has been funnelled to one side of a large concrete channel. Still it has a park running along the side we were walking so on such a sunny day it was mroe pleasant that just walking along the busy road.

One of the facades on Santa Lucia

Our intention was to head for Plaza de Armas but we took the wrong street when we reached the large roundabout at Italian Plaza and ended up walking past the Catholic University. Which was fortunate because we ended up having a nice afternoon tea in their coffee shop. Almost opposite the coffee shop was Santa Lucia Hill, the remains of a five million year old volcano now adorned with facades and fountains, which offered the opportunity of a view of the city. Although this meant climbing a lot of steps - the hill is 69 metres higher than the surrounding streets - it was refreshing to see how easy this is when you are not at altitude.

To save wear on my knees we took the lift down most of the way before continuing our walk to the Plaza de Armas. It was getting late in the day by now and it seemed like a lot of office workers were starting to head home for the day. The Plaza itself was still a hive of bustle and activity with some buskers and street performers in action.

After taking in the atmosphere for a while we set off along a slightly different route back to the hostel. We felt well and truly ready for dinner by the time we reached there so we sought some advice on nearby eateries and set off. The recommended Chinese restaurant was closed,surprisingly, but wandering a little further found us a nice little place, with an English speaking waiter, that served our needs admirably - the gelato was particularly yummy.

Later, after showering in the world's smallest shower recess (I accidently tuned off the water about four times when turning around!) it was off to the land of nod in a double bed where even my feet hung over the end!

The next morning we took the Metro to the Museo de la Memoria, which covered the difficult years under the military dictatorship of General Pinochet. There was an audio tour available in English, and some of the video clips also had English subtitles, so even gringos like us could still learn much from the displays. So much so in fact that it was well after 1:00pm before we finished.

Our plans for the rest of the day were to see the markets and catch the funicular up San Cristobal's Hill. Eschewing the easy option of catching the metro we opted to walk back towards Plaza de Armas, procuring a light lunch from a supermarket along the way. We found both the Central and the Fruit and Vegetable markets without any trouble, though the former were not really as interesting as we had hoped. At the latter Laura managed to find some vegetables for dinner and a very nice fruit salad.

The smog obscured Andes from San Cristobel's Hill

The walk on to the funicular seemed a bit longer than we had imagined and I at least was starting to feel a bit leg weary by the time we reached it. I had been looking forward to the view of Santiago and the Andes from the top but I was rather disappointed. It would seem that the proximity of the Andes to the east and a smaller coastal range to the west form a natural barrier to the city's smog being easily dispersed. Consequently there was a very distinct brown haze over the city, so much so that even the view of the Andes was mostly obscured, making the hoped for photo opportunity a real fizzer.

After catching the funicular back down we continued the theme of the day and hoofed it back to our lodgings - though my knees were really starting to feel it after three days of a lot of city walking and I struggled to keep up with Laura.

After being able to put my feet up for a while I ventured out again to get some dinner while Laura dined on those yucky vegetables she had purchased earlier. The Chinese restaurant was open tonight - not that you would know it from the crowd of diners which, including me, numbered one. Not sure of the last time I ate in a Chinese restaurant that didn't have Chinese staff, but the food was OK so I can't complain.

Later, for the evening ablutions, I opted to use the shower in the shared bathroom rather than the miniature version in our ensuite. We also arranged an airport transfer for tomorrow rather than the cheaper option of the metro back to the bus station and a bus from there.

For the final day of our trip, the final day on the ground anyway, we ambled in to the Museum of Contemporary Art in the mistaken belief that it included a section on photography. However, it did have a very nice display of lithographs depicting scenes in Valparaiso. We worked out that there was a photographic exhibition down at the Catholic University, so going there gave us the excuse of having another coffee & cake break at their cafe. The photo exhibition itself was not very big but it was at least interesting with its focus on photo journalism stories.

And that about wrapped it up for our Santiago sightseeing. It was then just a matter of one last walk back to our hostel - stopping at a nice looking bakery we had spotted earlier to get rid of the last of our Chilean currency.

Our airport transfer was super efficient and had us at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Our last of nine internal flights on this trip was away on time for our return to Buenos Aires, where it had all begun almost five weeks ago.

Full of praise for Valparaiso

Once again we had a flight that landed slightly ahead of schedule as we touched down in Santiago. Our plan was to catch a bus to the local bus station and from there get a coach to Valparaiso, which is about 90 minutes away on the coast. We made it to the bus stop outside the airport just in time to catch a bus to Pajaritos bus station. It wasn't a long trip and we made it just in time to catch a 3:00pm bus. Actually it was already 3:04pm and we just had time to toss our luggage in the hold and climb aboard. We had to buy our tickets off the conductor later.

Our good luck with connections continued when we arrived in Valparaiso. I had a fair idea of how we could get to our B&B on foot if we felt up to the walk of 40-50 minutes but we figured a taxi was worth it. As we were looking for a taxi rank we were hailed by a local who had done conservation work in Tasmania who guided us to the taxi rank and make sure the driver knew the address we wanted to get to, and even gave us a rough idea of what the fare should be. The end result was that we were checked into our room in Valparaiso before 5pm - not bad considered our flight had been due to land in Santiago at 2:15pm.

Valparaiso is an ineresting heritage listed city. It was a major shipping port until crippled first by an earthquake in 1906 and then the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. It rises very steeply from the waterfront and has lots of cobbled streets, brightly paintedTypical streetuses, and in a number of places, "ascencors" or cable cars, to lift pedestrians from the lower streets to higher ones. We went for a preliminary exploration of the area and selected a little restaurant where we had a nice dinner. Then it was a quiet night in - with still lots of blogging to catch up on.

Typical street scene

Another nice breakfast in the morning - I think we were one of only two couples in residence so the breakfast room wasn't busy. Then it was off to explore this hilly city with its quirky nature. A liitle photo gallery in the block above us wasn't open yet (it was only 10:00am) so we explored the steep and winding streets down to one of the ascencors where 100 pesos (less than 20c) was enough for ride down to more or less sea level. We had a look around the main square in this part of town and had vaguely planned to walk to another ascencor which we could see a little way off. However, the guide we had didn't actually suggest going there and when I noticed a slightly dishevelled man more or less following us in what was a seedy looking part of town we decided to abandon that plan.

One of many murals

Instead we meandered back uphill towards our B&B and ended up having some brunch at another nice littel eatery before going to check out the now open photo gallery. During our wanderings we saw quite a few interesting murals painted on the sides of houses, and of course many of the houses themselves were painted in bright colours. Walking back to our B&B Laura spotted another nice looking lizard but decided it was a bit expensive. Instead we returned to base where I had a short nap while Laura did some proof-reading. Afterwards as we headed out again, Laura had had second thoughts abotu the lizard we had seen earlier and we went back to buy it.

Then, in the inerest of seeing if it was feasible to walk back to the bus terminal tomorrow we set off to try it now, since it also gave us the excuse to explore the streets on the other side of town on the way. It also meant catching another one of the ascencors down. (This one was in the final stages of being extensively restored and looked very new). We had a couple of short detours up interesting looking side streets and around a park but otherwise walked a fairly direct line to the bus station. The markets stalls we had seen just on the other side of the bus station when coming in yesterday were not there today, so they must have been just a Sunday event. Having established that buses left for Santiago about every 10-15 minutes we knew that it really didn't matter what time we decided to leave tomorrow.

One of the ascencors, looking up.

We walked back to our B&B taking a parallel street for the first part of the way - which was a much less interesting one, being heavy populated with car repair shops and the like. We took the ascencor back up rather than tackle the climb (lazy us!). We enjoyed another nice meal at one of the nearby eateries - although being a Monday the place that advertised a tempting fillet mignon was closed for the evening. We went for a little walk down the hill afterwards to see if we could buy a postcard but everywhere was closed uo for the evening so all we managed to achieve was a little exercise. However we couldn't help but notice how much easier it is to climb steep hills at sea level than at an altitude of around 4,000m!

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast before checking out and setting off to walk to the bus station. It was a pleasant enough walk on what was yet another lovely day - we haven't had any rain on this whole trip. Sure enough we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus to Santiago and the final stop on our travels (not counting a short layover back in Buenos Aires for our flight home).

At a calmer pace

Our little bus load of intrepid travellers entering from Bolivia passed through Chilean border formalities on the outskirts of San Pedro de Atacama. Fortunately they decided not to fine Laura for the one mandarin she had missed when emptying her bag of fruit while we had been waiting at the Bolivian border.

We had no trouble locating the sightly upmarket hostel we had booked - on the expectation that we would be needing a little pampering after a few days of roughing it in the Bolivian salt flats and deserts - and we had hit pay dirt! Not only did we have the largest room, with a doorway that faced the sun, but there was hot water available 24 hours and excellent water pressure for the shower. And so it came to pass that by 2:00pm we'd had a lovely hot shower, changed into clean clothes, and were sitting in a nice little restaurant feasting on huge portions of tasty quiche - thinking about our poor tour friends in the 4WDs, who were still bouncing along on their way back to Uyuni. Bliss!

Then it was time to make some plans for our two and a bit days in town. There were lots of full and part day tours available but we decided we were well and truly over early mornings, so the geyser tours that involved a 4:00am start were definitely out. So too were the full day tours because we had had enough of sitting in buses/4WDs for large chunks of the day. So even though we would have liked an early night we decided to start with an evening astronomy tour. This gave us the rest of the afternoon to explore the town a bit (which didn't take long) and take it easy.

The astronomy excursion, called "Space", was quite good, despite being an outdoor activity on a cold, cloudless desert night. it was enjoyable not only because they had a lot of telescopes setup that were focused on different things, or because they gave you blankets to keep warm, or because you were given a nice hot chocolate to warm up at the end, but because the Canadian guy who gave the lecture to start with was very entertaining. He explained that his last year in Canada had 325 cloudy nights whereas his first in the Atacama desert had 340 clear nights. A bit of a easy choice for an astronomer. He also used a laser pointer to highlight things in the sky during his talk, which made it easier to follow. When it came to looking through the telescopes it was particularly interesting to see the rings of Saturn with a few of its moons, as well as the dual star system that is Sirius. Afterwards we were dropped off just a couple of hundred metres from our hostel, to minimise the walk in the cold, but there was also the treat of a nice hot shower before bed.

We had a leisurely start to the next day, having booked breakfast for the very civilised hour of 8:30am. During the morning we had a bit more of an explore of San Pedro before booking short tours starting at 3:00pm for today and tomorrow. We also had a look through the museum of local history, which traced the human occupation of the area from pre-historic times through to now. For a small town museum it was actually quite impressive and very well done, with most of the information presented in English as well as Spanish for the benefit of mono-lingual gringos such as us. In the spirit of keeping it simple we invested in breadrolls, slices of deli meats and some salad for a "home made" lunch we could eat in the courtyard outside our hostel room.

This afternoon's tour was to the Valley of the Moon, not far out of town. This offered a number of interesting photo opportunities in a barren but fascinating landscape that in places really looked like it could have been on the moon.

The tour finale was on the top of a mountain overlooking the valley at sunset, which provided wonderful views of the changing colours and light as darkness fell. Afterwards there was time for another nice dinner before spoiling ourselves with another hot shower before bed.

Another leisurely start to the next day with an 8:30am breakfast in the sunny courtyard. Another lazy morning of exploring the town, writing and sending postcards, and having another "home made" lunch before joining our 3:00pm tour to the salt lakes.

 

Sunset at the salt lake

We were forewarned to bring our swim suits despite the water in the lakes being quite nippy. Swimming in the salt lake was actually interesting in a couple of respects. Firstly only the top few inches of the water was cold, with the water underneath that feeling quite pleasant. Secondly the salt content was about 40% so it was impossible not to float high on the water. Not surprisingly Laura didn't last too long in the water and I'm not sure that she really enjoyed having the cold water thrown on her to rinse off the salt afterwards either. I chose not to rinse off because I figured I'd just get salty again at the next stop. However it turned out that the next lake was just freshwater, and without the warmer underlayer. So I just had a quick dip to rinse off the salt that had already dried on me like a crust. The final stop was at another large but shallow salt lake (maximum depth about 45cms) where we took photos as the sun set. Our guide also gave us a history of the geological formation of the Atacama desert and the surrounding mountains - supplemented by a Brazillian woman on the tour who was doing her PhD in geology. All up it was an interesting few hours.

Back in town we tried a new place for dinner before returning to our hostel to pack and get ready for our 8:30am pickup tomorrow morning to take us to the airport in Calama. It is time to leave the desert and return to a temporate climate.

It was just the two of us in the little minivan the next morning, with the driver putting on a DVD about mining in the Calama region that ran for much of the hour or so that it took to reach Calama airport. Not that we watched it all as the stark desert landscape still held most of our attention during the drive. Even when we were in the air it was still interesting to see the desert and Andean landscapes passing below us for most of the flight to Santiago.



Salt far from the sea

Having to be up at 4:45am would never be Laura's favourite way to start a birthday, but that's how our schedule worked out for this trip. Though it turns out that we needn't have been quite so quick off the mark, because by 5:40am we had made it to the airport, checked in, passed through security checks and seated ourselves at our departure gate with plenty of time for our 6:50am flight. Compounding the early start for Laura was the fact that she wasn't feeling 100%.

When boarding time came we had to walk, outside, what seemed like the length of the airport to the very last plane parked on the tarmac. Otherwise the flight went very smoothly and we were actually on the ground in Uyuni slightly early. There was no taxi waiting specifically for us as Red Planet Expeditions had led us to believe though, so we ended up just getting one ourselves.

Our initial impression of Uyuni was that it would be a waste to have to spend any more time here than necessary - dusty unpaved streets, drab buildings and a general lack of any entertainment. Still, we were only due to be here for 2-3 hours. At the office of Red Planet we completed the formalities and paid for our trip. More importantly I was able to collect the parcel I had sent on ahead from home about six weeks ago containing three birthday presents for Laura. The parcel had evidently been scrutinised closely by Bolivian Customs - the t-shirt had been unwrapped and the wrapping discarded, and the packet of scorched almonds had been opened before being roughly re-wrapped. At least the mixed bag of macadamias and cashews was intact.

With a couple of hours to fill in we went for a stroll round the block. We had to buy a few litres of drinking water and some fruit to supplement our supplies for the 48 hours we would be on the 4WD tour. And although Laura didn't have much of an appetite I was able to have some breakfast to tide me over. We also visited the Migration Office to get our Bolivian exit stamps, since we will be transferring to Chile on Thursday at a remote border crossing.

Soon enough it was time to meet our travel companions for the next couple of days and get underway. Our party consisted of 11 trekkers - two middle aged French guys, two French woman in their twenties, three Canadian air hostesses, two Danish girls and ourselves. Plus Lucio, our English speaking guide and of course a driver for each of two Toyota 4WDs.

An exhibit at the railway graveyard

Our first stop was just on the edge of town to see the railway graveyard - the final rusting place of numerous old steam trains and carriages. These were abandoned after the 1940 collapse of the mining industry, which used to transport minerals to ports on the Pacific coast. A lot of the metal has now been salvaged from the old engines and boilers and sold as scrap metal.
 Our next stop was a "salt factory" on the edge of the salt flats. This really amounted to a small family concern where salt was dried and bagged. It was part of a small community where there were, of course, the obligatory collection of market stalls selling local crafts and wares. It was also our lunch stop, which included llama meat as well as quinoa.

Harvesting the salt flats

After lunch it was on to drive over the salt flats proper. A little way out we stopped for about 10 minutes just to see what it was like and take a few photos. We continued on to the Salt Hotel - the only place built actually on the salt flats and considered to be something of an environmental pariah. Not that we actually patronised the establishment, it was mostly an opportunity to take funny photos by making use of the absence of any reference for perspective in the all white environment.

View of the salt flats from Isla Incahuasi

Our next stop was at Isla Incahuasi, an island in the salt flats that was created from an outcrop of coral when the area was originally under the ocean millions of years ago. This "island" in the salt flats was covered in cactus plants and rose fairly high above the surrounding plain. There were some nice views from the top.

It was late in the afternoon by the time we left there and we drove west off the salt flats to our first night's accommodation. It was a very basic hostel but all the groups had their own room. There was only electricity until about 9:00pm so there was no scope for sitting up and partying on - not that we felt like it anyway, after being on the go since 4:45am. At least (for a modest fee) there was a low-pressure, but at least adequate hot shower, before turning in.

The next morning was arctically cold in our little room made of salt bricks. Breakfast helped us get started though, and Laura was feeling better. I was able to get a photo of Isla Incahuasi in the distance in the early morning light before we set off. Today Lucio transferred to our vehicle (one of the Danish girls moved to the other one to make room) so we had more ongoing commentary than we had yesterday. No more driving on the big salt flats today, though we did pass close to or over a couple of much smaller ones.

Our first stop was an unscheduled one to assist another Toyota 4WD which had managed to get a second flat tyre after having already used the spare. We lent him our spare and drove on to the next little town to wait for him to catch up. Once he arrived he apparently wanted to keep using our spare wheel until the end of his tour (rather than spend the time getting at least one of his flat tyres fixed) on the basis that we were travelling with another vehicle that still had a spare. However Lucio and our driver Pedro were having none of that and apparently some words were exchanged before we got our spare wheel back.

In a landscape of gullies and caves...

So after our unscheduled stay in this little town we hit the road again. At one point we piled out while the 4WD negotiated the crossing of a steep railway embankment - which provided a few photo opportunties of the surrounding mountains and the dead straight railway tracks vanishing into the distance in each direction. The next stop was to explore what had once been a lava field, and now consisted of a surreal arrangement of little gullies and caves. Some of the rocks also had a moss-like plant growing on them that in some cases is hundreds of years old. It is still used for medicinal purposes by the locals.

Flamingo feeding on the lake

From there it was on to our lunch stop at Flamingo Lake. We had time to take photos of the flamingos and the surrounding mountains as the crew first setup and later cleaned up after our picnic lunch of chicken and salad. It was a short drive after lunch to the next lake, where there were more flamingos and more photo opportunities.

The rock tree

It was a little further on before we came to the "Rock Tree", which is actually one of a number of rocks that have been sand blasted in winds of up to 100km/hr over thousands of years. The Rock Tree and its less shapely companions rise from the soft sand between two large dunes.

Due to our delay earlier in the day we had to hot foot it on to the thermally active area where numerous mud pools and steam vents bubbled and spurted. The light was fading fast as we left the sulphorous odour behind and continued in the twilight to our night's accommodation.

As basic as last nights lodgings were, tonight's was more basic still. There was one mixed dorm for the passengers of each vehicle and shared bathroom for all. I use the term "bathroom" advisedly as it consisted of one pit toilet (up from which drifted a cold and foul smelling breeze, which assaulted the nostrils annd chilled any exposed bits) and a basin with no running water. There was no shower, heated or otherwise.

About 50 metres away there was a pool fed by water from a hot spring that there was initially some enthusiasm for (despite reports we had heard from other travellers in recent times about nearly everyone who used it getting sick). However by the time we had eaten dinner and the outside temperature had dropped below zero, the only person still willing to go down for a dip changed his mind when he found that it also involved getting changed in the open air, because the change rooms were locked. As per the first night there was electricity for only a limited time so we were all in bed early.

Most salt flats tours start the third day early in order to make it to the aforementioned hot pool by about 7:00am. Since we were staying just across the road we were able to "sleep in" until 6:30am. One of the Frenchmen in our party did have a quick dip after breakfast and by the time we hit the road a little before 8:00am there were eight 4WDs parked alongside the hot pool from various other tour parties.

The Salvador Dali landscape

Our first photo stop was in the midst of a desert landscape that has been described as looking like a Salvador Dali painting, and it did indeed have a sort of surreal quality about it. The next site was the Green Lake, where a combination of sun and wind on the mineral content used to make the surface turn green about noon. However Lucio explained that this change seemed to be far less reliable now as a result of climate change.

The Bolivia-Chile border

At this point our two vehicles diverged - ours taking us to the Chilean border while the other one heading back to a rendousvouz point. Laura and I were the only ones taking the option of the transfer to Chile and we were dropped at the border at 9:30am for our connecting service. Despite the sun it was quite cold in the morning breeze and we were pleased when the bus arrived shortly after 10:00am. We were even invited to share in the breakfast supplied for others catching the bus, who were at the end of their four day round-trip excursion that had started in San Pedro.

Thereafter it was a pleasure to be sitting in a warm bus on a sealed road driving down to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile at an elevation of about 2,400m - no more travelling at altitude on this trip.

Breathtaking La Paz (in more ways than one)

Guide books have described the impact of ones first sight of the city of La Paz as you approach from the plains (El Alto) and first glimpse the city's buildings clinging to the side of the canyon and spilling down into the valley below. That first glimps is every bit as breathtaking as it is suggested. It was late afternoon as this sight came into view for us and that golden light made the view all the better.

We were fortunate that our accommodation was only a short walk from the bus station and we had no difficulty finding it and checking in. The hostel (Artty's) has been described as an oasis, and behind the unobtrusive security door on the busy street you go upstairs to a very quiet and peaceful environment.

We were given a map and directions to a nearby street that contains numerous dining establishments so that we might procure some tasty commestibles for our nourishment. Just before we reached said street we were side-tracked by a little night market which we deemed worthy of a closer look. We then started towards the restaurant area but decided we didn't feel up to a full-on dining experience tonight (still feeling sleep deprived after last night's cacophony in Copacabana) so we just doubled back to one of the Bolivian fast food type outlets we had seen near the night markets. It wasn't gourmet food by ant means but it was enough for the occasion.

After a good night's sleep, we enjoyed another nice complementary breakfast. While I managed to complete the web checkin for tomorrow morning's flight to Uyuni, Laura delivered a bag of clothing in urgent need of cleaning to a nearby laundry . Laura reported that the look on the face of the lady at the laundry suggested that she seriously considered a surcharge!



Mural on side of shopping centre

To start the day's explorations we set off for the San Francisco church, along the way passing through a "shopping centre" that consisted of hundreds of little shops not much bigger than a market stall - many of them catering to people having breakfast it seemed. Once we reached the church we realised that we had forgotten to bring the guide book with us so Laura returned to the hostel to fetch it while I perused the nearby shops and stalls to try and gauge our prospects of finding a lizard.

When Laura returned we decided not to bother with a tour of the church, since although it was supposed to include a view of the city from the roof it didn't seem likely that we would be able to see much with the number of tall buildings in the vicinity. Instead we continued to do a proper explore of the shops and eateries along Sagamaga street - noting in the process a suitable slightly up market establishment that we decided would be appropriate for tonight's planned "pre-birthday" dinner. Our sightseeing included the famous Witch's Market, and although they were not actually that big, there were a few gruesome things on display like dried bat carcasses.

A view of La Paz with the mountains as a backdrop

Next we crossed back over the footbridge to the site of the previous evening's night markets, now just a regular street. This took us to Plaza Pedro D Murillo which is surrounded by a number of noteable public buildings. One of these is the Presidential Palace which still shows some bullet marks on its facade from a previous military coup. After a quick lunch we set off to tackle the climb to a lookout in the San Juan district, which had been recommended to us by the hostel staff. The latter part of the climb was steep enough to have had us puffing at the best of times, but at an altitude of nearly 4,000m it was particularly hard work. The end result was definitely worth it though because the panoramic view of La Paz and the surrounding mountains was positively dazzling and had us lingering a while just to take it all in. It is a pity I hadn't brought my tripod to shoot a proper panorama, but I tried doing one hand held and will just have to hope it works out.

We retraced our climb and continued on to a small square, close to which was the Museo del Litoral, about the war in which Bolivia lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the 1880s, that we would really have liked to see. Unfortunately, as we suspected, it is closed on Mondays. We were still able to wander down the little cobblestoned laneway where this museum and number of other buildings of historical significance have been beautifully maintained. And quite fortuitous that we did so as from the laneway Laura spotted a most beautiful woodwork lizard on display on the back wall of a little craft shop we were passing. At this rate our front wall at home will soon be full!

One of the Zebras in action

It was not much further back to our hostel where we put our feet up for a while before heading out to the post office further down Prado (the main thoroughfare). On the way we saw one of the most surprising and entaining things we have yet seen on this trip. At a marked pedestrian crossing flanked by traffic lights there were two people dressed in zebra costumes. Whenever the lights stopped the traffic they would skip out onto the crossing and dance around, waving their black & white stripped flags to encourage people to cross safely. As the lights changed to green they would waltz back to the side of the road and wave the traffic off as though it were the start of a car race.

You would think it would be a good idea for any post office to have stamps in the denomination required for a basic item like a postcard. No such luck here though, with the postage for our postcards to both Australia and Canada requiring two stamps each. And they were two BIG stamps, that in some cases encroached on the text we had written on the cards.

From the post office it was back to Sagamaga street so that I could do some serious hat shopping to replace the replacement hat I had managed to lose between Puno & Copacabana. (I am sure that I managed to get a sunburnt scalp during our hike on Isla del Sol and the boat back therefrom). With that done we went to the restaurant we had spotted earlier today for the special pre-birthday dinner for Laura's birthday tomorrow. (We don't expect to find any fancy restaurants on the Solar de Uyuni!). Laura celebrated by tucking into an Argentine Fillet Mignon, which although not as mouth watering as the one we had while actually in Argentina, was nevertheless very nice. The cheesecake that followed for dessert was of course not up to my home-made standard but also went down very well.

All that remained afterwards from our all too brief sojourn in La Paz was to collect our clean laundry and try to get to bed as early as possible to cope with tomorrow's early start to catch our 6:50am flight to Uyuni. 

Lake Titicaca - At 3,800m it's breathtaking

View of Puno from arriving bus

To anyone titillated by the name of this lake I will start by explaining that in the local tongue "Titicaca" means "great puma". Though I never did find out why they thought it looked like a puma, great or otherwise.

We slept well in the back room we had chosen (Alberto had offered us the alternative of a larger room on the top floor but it faced the noisy street) and the complimentary breafast was nice. Though it's just as well eggs are no longer considered the cholesterol poison they once were, because they tend to figure prominently in complimentary breakfasts in this part of the world. The free transfer to the port for the tour to the floating islands also went smoothly. The boat was never likely to set any speed records but this didn't matter because it didn't take more than 30 minutes to reach the floating islands anyway.

One of the floating islands

These islands are constructed by bringing in peat blocks that float and anchoring them to the lake bed up to 30 metres below using long poles. Reeds are laid in alernate directions on top of the peat blocks, until they are up to three metres thick. A fresh layer of reeds is added every 2-3 weeks but the island itself will last 30-40 years before a new one is needed. Originally the inhabitants of these floating islands made their living from fishing and sailing their reed boats around the lake to trade. Nowadays of course much of their livelihood comes from tourism - with an entrance fee to the islands precinct and from the sale of handicrafts and souvenirs.

One of the twin-hulled boats made of reeds

Our visit included an explanation from the tour guide of how the islands are constructed and maintained and, for another small fee, a ride in one of their twin-hulled reed boats to a neighbouring island. So yes, it does seem a bit commercialised, but on the other hand it is hard to see how they could maintain their unique lifestyle in today's world otherwise.

The return trip to Puno harbour was uneventful and the free shuttle had us back at our hostel with an hour to spare before we needed to leave for the bus station. We filled in our time by going for a walk to the main square for a look around and to explore the many craft shops in that area. We found a nice bakery and bought ice creams along the way. Our assessment of the town's traffic fumes from last night wasn't improved, however.

Once we were back at Totorani, Alberto flagged down a taxi for us and paid the driver to not only take us to the bus station but to find the counter where we had to pay our departure tax and show us the gate number we needed to wait at for the bus to Copacabana. The scheduled departure time was 2:00pm, but in Peru time that translated to about 2:40pm or once potential passengers had finished turning up - we're not quite sure which was the critical deadline!

Nothing of note to report about the bus trip other than the process of crossing the border into Bolivia. This involved getting off the bus to get an exit stamp from Peru, then walking a few hundred metres to the Bolivian checkpoint to get our entry stamp for Bolivia. There were no customs procedures, in fact our lugguage never left the bus which drove through the border and picked us up after we had cleared Bolivian immigration. There was also the opphortunity to change some money before getting the Peruvian exit stamp. Forewarned that there was only one unreliable ATM in Copacabana (albeit in a guide book that was printed three years ago) I took the opportunity to change some of my leftover Brazilian Reals - though I strongly suspect that the exchange rate was not very flash. Of course the other thing we had to do at the border was put my watch forward an hour as we were changing time zones.

It was dark by the time we were unloaded in the main square of Copacabana but our room at the Utama Hotel was only two blocks away so it didn't take us long to get there and check in. Though the short walk uphill had us puffing, given that we were now at about 3,800 metres above sea level.

The plan was to take a day trip to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) tomorrow and then catch a bus on to La Paz on Sunday morning. The receptioist at the hostel said they could arrange tickets for both and just include the cost in our final room bill. However there was no "tourist" bus to La Paz until 1:30pm and catching a local bus to La Paz (with all our luggage) was strongly advised against by both the receptionist and the guide books - it is not considered safe - so it looks like only a day in La Paz and not a day and a half as we had hoped.

But now it felt well and truly like dinner time so after a brief look around (to locate the two ATMs now in town, and confirm that 1:30pm was the earliest tourist bus to La Paz) we settled on a dinner establishment that boasted both apple and lemon pie for dessert and the acceptance of Mastercard. The meal was pretty good, and after initially saying that he had no sparkling mineral water the waiter apparently ducked out and procured some from elsewhere in the street, which was nice. The lemon pie actually turned out to be lemon meringue pie - which was OK but not what we had hoped for.

The next disappointment became apparent after we had retired to our room. It transpired that the function centre about 50 metres up the street was hosting some sort of event that entailed the almost unbroken performance of a brass cacophony on maximum volume, accompanied by even louder drums. (To call it a brass "band" would imply that they were well tuned instruments being played in synch by skilled musicians). The effect was as though a load of brass bells was continuously being dumped on concrete right outside our second floor window. The only merciful thing about this performance was that it wound up at about midnight.

The next morning we enjoyed a very fine breakfast in the heated dining room before commencing the day's activities. It transpired that although the receptionist last night had offered to arrange tickets for today's boat trip to Isla del Sol he hadn't actually done so. However the hotel owner did still drive us down to the "dock" where we were able to buy the tickets ourselves for the trip. I used the word "dock" advisedly because in this case it actually consisted of a rickety path of wooden slats about six inches above the water level, which they were careful not to let too many people on at once as we made our way out to the boat.

The boat itself was a state of the art affair that had even more crew members than it had life jackets. The crew - including the captain - numbered one. The other noteworthy feature of the boat was that those of us sitting downstairs in the shade, instead of up on the roof in the sun, were in danger of being suffocated by the exhaust fumes from the two outboard motors that seemed to contibute about one knot each to our bracing speed through the water. We were in no doubt as to why this was to be an all day excursion!

Our first stop, after about 90 minutes, was at Yumani on the Isla del Sol, where only a couple of travellers got off and a couple of locals got on. Most of us hardy day trippers were headed for Cha'llapampa which was about another 30 minutes onwards. Here we all alighted for the 45 minute hike to the Chincana, the former Inca temple on this island which Incan legend records as the birthplace of the sun. We fell in with a host of others, following a tour guide who spoke only Spanish, at least long enough to find our where we had to buy the entrance ticket for the national park in which the Chincana is located.

Thereafter we pretty much made our own way, as the path was well defined and in any case was populated with a host of other day trippers headed the same direction. Bearing in mind that it was a hot, cloudless day, we were at an altitude of over 3,800 metres and the path was mostly up, the going was not quick and we were content to take our time. I was not helped by the fact that I had lost the good replacement hat I had bought in Cusco so was feeling a bit exposed to the high altitude UV.



Remains of Chincana

The hike offered some good views, many of them reminiscent of the Greek Islands. The remains of the Chincana was an interesting maze of now roofless rooms, the stone work not as fine as other Inca structures we had seen but it has nevertheless withstood the passing of a few hundred years in pretty good order.

At this point the really keen hikers were heading off to walk 3-4 hours down the spine of the island to Yumani to meet the boat there. We didn't number ourselves in that group and were content to stroll back downhill to Cha'llapampa where our boat was due to depart at 1:00pm. True to Bolivian time it was more like 1:30pm before we were underway, so by the time we made it back to Yumani we only had about an hour ashore to explore before our return to Copacabana. We made use of the time to climb the steps of the Inca Stairway then continue on up hill - with frequent stops to get our breath back - until it seemed we were on the back of the path from Chincana. At this point we turned around and returned to the port.

Mindful of nearly being asphixiated this morning we sat on the roof of the boat for the return leg, despite the exposure of my hatless skull to the sun. Once safely back on the mainland we started back towards our hotel but detoured to investigate the sounds of brass "bands" and whistles coming from a nearby square.

Some of the dancers in the street parade

There we found in progress a full scale parade of bands and groups of costumed dancers. Obviously there was some kind of festival in full swing. We watched the festivities for a while before making use of one of the nearby ATMs and returning to the same establishment as last night for dinner. Not very adventurous, I know, but we had to try their apple pie this time.

Back at our hotel we were surprised (but pleased) to find that after our complaints this morning about last night's noise - and being told that there were no spare rooms to move to further from the function centre- we had in fact been moved to a spare room on the other side of the hotel. Unfortunately this didn't help as much as we had hoped because tonight's brass cacophony party noise came from a slightly differnt direction, so although it no longer sounded like it was just outside our window it was still quite loud. But worst than that, this time it went on until about 2:00am. Worst of all was that it started again - as loud as ever - at 6:00am!!

View of Lake Titicaca from Cerro Calvario

Thus we were feeling a little sleep deprived when we staggered down to breakfast this morning. After checking out and putting our bags in storage for a few hour we set off to climb Cerro Calvario, the hill a couple of blocks behind our hotel. As the crow flies it wasn't far to the top but the steepness of the climb and the altitude meant that it was a pretty hard slog. Part way up we were "rewarded" with a view of the open area where the brass cacophonies were still taking it in turns to drown out any hope of a quiet and peaceful Sunday morning. Despite this distraction we did manage to make it to the top where we were rewarded with a nice view of Lake Titicaca and Copacabana.

After walking down we bought some snacks and retired to the hostel lobby to rest a while before catching the 1:30pm bus to La Paz. Boarding the bus was the easy part. The bus actually being able to get out of town was much more difficult. The traffic jam caused by the ongoing street party (which had since left the open area above town from whence it had assaulted our ear drums most of the night to once again parade around the streets) was causing a bit of a problem. And it was exacerbated by a guy at the top of our street who was blocking one lane for a couple of hours as he jacked up his car to do some repairs on one of his front wheels. Our bus had no room to do a right hand turn as it needed to. Instead it did a left hand turn and proceeded to drive in reverse down the street we needed to be in for the first block. It then manage to do about an 11-point turn to get facing the right way before it could continue on its way.

Vehicle punt crossing Lake Titicaca

At least the first part of the trip provided many views of Lake Titicaca. After about an hour we reached the point where we had to cross a narrow part of the lake. There is no bridge of course, and not even a proper vehicle ferry. Instead we had to all get off the bus and pay to cross on one of a fleet of small boats that continuously plied back and forth. The bus meanwhile was eventually driven onto one of a similar fleet of punts which could carry just two vehicles at a time across the narrows. Once we were reunited with our bus on the far side it was then just a matter of onwards to La Paz. We gradually left views of Lake Titicaca behind as our next destination,La Paz, drew nearer.

 

Cusco to Puno

It seems a measure of this trip that having to rise at 6:00am is barely considered an early start any more. Such it was today so we could fit in one last, delicious breakfast at the Amaru hostel before catching a taxi to the bus station for our trip to Puno.

We had been given a strong recommendation that the PeruRail trip from Cusco to Puno was a "must do" because of the scenic vistas it offers from the special viewing carriage as it trundles through the Andes. We had seriously considered doing so, despite the hefty price tag of more than US$300 per person, but in the end it turned out that the train doesn't run on Thursdays so we had no choice but to catch the bus at a fraction of the cost (about US$45). However the bus follows the train line closely and has its own attractions, in that it stops at three sites of historical/archealogical significance as well as at the pass which is the highest point of the trip. Plus a stop for a buffet lunch that is included in the fare. So it didn't look like such a bad outcome.

Our first stop was at Andahuaylillas, just 25 minutes into the trip, to see the St Peter & St Paul church that has been called the Sistine Chapel of the Americas. It certainly was incredibly decorated inside but since no photography is allowed you'll just have to take my word for it. In fact it was a little too overdone for my liking and I couldn't help wondering what the historical Jesus would make of the elaborate decorations and iconography done in his name.



Part of the old temple wall at Raqchi

 The next stop was at Raqchi, which featured the remains of a huge temple complex that was dedicated to the god Wiracocha in Inca times. It was also a centre of pilgrimage. The remains featured an impressive mix of stone work and mud brick construction.

It was not too much further until we arrived at Sicuani for what turned out to be a pretty good buffet lunch. There was time afterwards to take some photos of the llamas grazing next to the restaurant and some scenes of the surrounding mountains. Our next stop was only for 5-10 minutes at La Raya, which at 4,335m was the highest point of the trip. Luckily we were not doing any hiking or climbing so the thin air didn't affect us too much.

The view from the pass at La Raya

Our last sightseeing stop was at Pukara, where a museum containing ceramics and archealogical finds, documents the first civilisation in the area. This dates from about 1,600BC - a long, long time before the more widely known Incas.

A view of Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca

From there it was on to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, where we arrived pretty much on time at 6:00pm. At the bus station there was a taxi waiting for us for our free transfer to Totorani Hostel. I had originally booked accommodation at Quechuas Hostel but could not find any electronic confirmation of the booking. Before we went to the Amazon basin I had tried sending an email to the two email addresses on their website - one bounced with an invalid address and the other wasn't answered. I had the receptionist at Amaru try to call them on the phone number given on their website but the number was apparently invalid. Thus, on a recommendation from Amaru (confirmed via Trip Advisor) I had booked a room at Totrani. (I did eventually receive a reply from Quechuas after about three days but I had already rebooked by then, so they missed out).

Anyway the owner at Totorani, Alberto, couldn't have been more helpful. We had vaguely planned to just catch the bus to Copacabana, Bolivia, at 8:00am the next morning. However we had also received recommendations about seeing the floating islands, some of which it turned out were only about 30 minutes from Puno harbour and not about three hours away as we had initially believed. Alberto assured us that it was entirely feasible to do a morning tour to the floating islands and still have plenty of time to catch a 2:00pm bus to Copacabana so this is what we decided to do. And Alberto was able to arrange the floating islands tour (including a free pick-up) and bus ticket for the 2:00pm bus (including free transport back to the bus station).

It turns out that we will be seeing Lake Titicaca from both Puno (Peru) and Copacabana (Bolivia) after all.

Up The Creek (in the Amazon)

Our flight to Puerto Maldonado was not until 11:30am so there was no need for an early start for a change. As we were checking out we met an Aussie couple on their honeymoon who were catching the same flights to and from Puerto Maldonado so we arranged to share a taxi back from the airport (since they had to dash off to get some cash before heading off to the airport this morning).

Otherwise the whole flight and transfer process went quite smoothly. We didn't score a window seat but we found ourselves next to a wildlife photographer from Denver, Colorado, who has lived and worked in Peru for about 10 years - mostly leading photography tours in the Amazon Basin for the "seriously rich".

A capybara on the river bank

After being met at the airport by representatives from G-Adventure Tours, a group of 11 of us went to their office to repack our gear into duffle bags. Our group consisted of three Norwegian girls on a whirlwind three-month round the world trip, a young couple from Vancouver on their honeymoon, two older woman from Vancouver and a couple from Denver Colorado who were looking forward to being home with their grandkids next week. Once repacked we scrambled back aboard our minibus for the 45 minute drive down what passes as the road (aka a bumpy track) to the "commercial port". Apparently money to upgrade this road was allocated some time ago but corruption and graft siphoned off many of the funds and the series of unfinished bridges we passed bear testimony to what might have been. After alighting from the bone shaker we boarded our long boat that was to take us and our guide Ricardo to our lodge. This was a two and a half our trip up the Tampopata river. Towards the latter stages the trip was punctuated by stops to see white caimans, a capybara and an anteater on the banks of the river, as well as vultures circling in the sky above (not above our tour party thankfully!).

An anteater comes to the riverbank for water

After arriving at the Tambopata Lodge and checking in, we started the evening with an introductory slide show about the Tambopata National Park and the fauna and floral found within it. After dinner we were off on our first excursion - a night walk along one of the walking tracks around the lodge. With Ricardo leading the way and torches in hand we managed to see jumping spiders, web building spiders, a stick insect, cicadas, a tree frog, a lizard, leaf cutter ants and a range of different beetles. Not bad for a 20 minute stroll in the dark on our first night.

Then it was just a matter of retiring to our bungalow to wash off the layers of insect repellent before climbing under the mosquito nets for our first night in the Peruvian jungle.

A baby monkey enjoys a banana

Day two was a 6:00am start for breakfast before heading a bit further up river for a walk to the Condenado Lakes, an old ox bow lake that is gradually shrinking and being taken over by the surrounding jungle. Before we even started down to the boat we were treated to the sight of a recently-rescued baby monkey, that now hangs around the breakfast room to feed on bananas. An agouti also wandered past as a couple of colourful parrots squarked from nearby.

A tarantula teased from its burrow

A "stinky" bird in flight

The walk to the lake was only about 90 minutes, but we stopped from time to time as Ricardo or members of our group spotted different insects. Some were brave enough to let millipedes walk along their arms. Ricardo was also pretty good at teasing tarantulas from their holes in the ground. We also spotted a small green snake in the branches next to the trail. At the lake we transferred to twin-hulled raft, which Ricardo propelled around with a single oar as we saw dragon flies, "stinky" birds (so called because their diet of a particular kind of leaf gives them a smell unattractive to predators) and piranhas. We fed the latter with some crumbs from our morning tea biscuit supply, which stirred up the water a little.

We were back at the lodge in time for lunch. After eating we were presented with a range of options for the afternoon. A few of us chose the option of the tree climb - which involved scaling a rope net to a viewing platform high in a tree behind our bungalow, before abseiling down. This was scheduled for 3:30pm, which gave us a bit of time to relax before our climb. Alas, when the appointed time came Ricardo announced that there were not enough qualified staff available to actually conduct the activity (due to the need to check harnesses etc). This sounded very much like either incompetent scheduling or a cop-out because he was actually too lazy to run the activity, and would have preferred everyone chose the plantation tour that he had seemed to be pushing. Ricardo said he would try and organise it for tomorrow afternoon instead (but in fact it was never mentioned again).

A howler monkey in the tree tops

Anyway with plenty of free time Laura and I decided to do the 2km walking track ourselves. We were rewarded with the sighting of a group of howler monkeys in the trees overhead, which was a bonus because Laura had been looking forward to seeing some monkeys. The end of the walk brought us to the other end of the lodge compound where we followed the track down to the designated swimming hole in the Gallocunca Stream. Despite the steamy jungle conditions the water itself was quite cool, which was pretty refreshing after the hot walk.

Before dinner we embarked on a night safari on the river to see what we could spot along the river banks. We saw a few more white caimans and lots of glow worms, but nothing else. So it was back to the lodge for dinner and then a relatively early night.

Day Three began with a slightly later breakfast (6:30am) before setting off down-river, this time for an even longer hike than yesterday - seven kilometres each way to the Sachavacayoc Lake. This is a younger and hence larger ox bow lake than yesterday's. Along the way we saw more local wildlife, including a poison dart frog, whose toxin was used by the locals to poison the tips of their arrows (we made sure we didn't get too close to this specimen!).

The lake itself was quite pretty but the heat by this time was stifling and Ricardo tried to keep our uncovered canoe in the shade near the shore as much as possible. Finally, as we moored in the shade we ate our packed lunch of chicken and rice cooked inside a wrapped palm leaf. Quite tasty, and the container was biodegradeable!

On the walk back we saw two black weasels descending from the trees. One of them ran across the path in front of us, showing just how quick they are. We also saw quite a few smaller variety of black monkeys being very playful amongst the branches. We arrived back at the lodge satisfied with our rambling but covered in insect repellent, sunscreen and sweat. We had time to relax and unwind before heading down to have another refreshing dip in the water hole. Although the water did seem a whole lot more "refreshing" than yesterday (judging from Laura's squeals as she inched into the water), perhaps because we hadn't come fresh from a hot walk.

Later, as we made our way to dinner, Laura learned the folly of walking barefoot in the jungle, even within the confines of the lodge grounds, when she trod on a bullet ant and was rewarded with a searing pain in her foot. (Fortunately after a couple of pain killers and a night's sleep everything was fine by the morning).

Our last day started with a relatively late breakfast at 7:00am. Thereafter it was back in the boat for the faster downsteam trip back to the "commercial port" and then the 45 minute bus ride back over the same goat track to Puerto Maldonado. After calling in at the office to repack our bags we made it to the airport by 11:00am - just in time for our 1:20pm flight! Still it could have been worse, some in our group were not due to fly out until 3:15pm. And let me tell you, there isn't much to do at the small, regional Puerto Maldonado airport.

We enjoyed our time in the Peruvian rainforest, it was a very interesting place to visit. However we couldn't imagine having to live here, not so much because of the heat and humidity, but because of the need to constantly slather yourself with sunscreen and insect repellent, the latter needing to contain fairly high levels of DEET to be effective here.

Once back on the ground at Cusco we met the Aussie honeymooners who were also heading back to the Amaru lodge, so we shared the taxi booked in our name. The driver seemed to be a bit worried that we would all fit in his car and tried to get a bigger van, but we assured him that we could all fit in the car he had. However, it turned out that space wasn't his primary concern. On one of the steep streets enroute to our hostel the car slowed to a crawl and I seriously thought one of us was going to have to get out and push as the poor little machine appeared on the verge of internally haemorrhaging. However it just managed to get us up the hill and complete the rest of the trip safely.

After we had checked in I had to unpack our sweaty (and quite frankly, rank) clothes, made so by our jungle hikes. They had just refused to dry in the Amazon humidity so I hung them out the upstairs window of our room to dry - as there was no time to get them washed before our early departure for Puno the next day. At least that enabled us to repack them dry - inside a double layer of plastic bags!

As this evening was my last chance to do so I went out and took some night photos of Cusco, mostly featuring the stonework in the old walls and laneways. Cusco is a nice town and it seems quite safe. There are certainly some places on this trip where I would think twice about venturing out on the streets at night and drawing attention to myself with a tripod and an expensive camera.