Sucre

Today I went to see the dinosour footprints that have been uncovered in a cement quarry outside of Sucre. These are the most extensive and importand dinsour footprints that have been uncovered in the world. They are on a huge wal where the cement company happened to stop quarrying because the limestone ran out there.
The cement company continues to quarry away.
Then we went to see a big castle and a view of the city which is quite a pretty city.

Sucre

Today I went to see the dinosour footprints that have been uncovered in a cement quarry outside of Sucre. These are the most extensive and importand dinsour footprints that have been uncovered in the world. They are on a huge wal where the cement company happened to stop quarrying because the limestone ran out there.
The cement company continues to quarry away.
Then we went to see a big castle and a view of the city which is quite a pretty city.

Bus to Sucre

28th 29th Jan
Another day another bus journey.
This time I decided to go for the posh version and got a "bus cama".
I reality this means more leg room and traveling with rich Bolivians.
You still have someone trying to sell you stuff shopping channel style.
Only this time its imitation silver jewlery intead of toothpaste.
You still get wailing children, punktures and stuck behind land slides.
The land slide took up most of the morning turning it into a 19 hour bus journey.
I used the opportunity to go for a bit of a walk somewhere where I probably wouldn`t otherwise had had the opportunity and the countryside was really nice.
Sucre seems like a really plesent city. Prosperous with beutiful architecture and a warmer and so far dryer climate than La Paz.
All of the buildings are white.
Today was a very quiet sunday in alot of the city and it was difficult to find a place to eat in the afternoon, quite a change from La Paz.
All the people were in the park observing the water bombing tradition that they have today.
A dangerous day to walk around the city.

Valey of the Moon

La Paz 27th Jan
Today I went to the "Vally of the moon", which is a stangely erroded "badlands" area to the south of La Paz. This was basicly very odd big columns and holes and was quite dangerous to walk on as it just crumbled away.
What was really striking was how rich the people on this side of town are.
The houses would put Kiliney and Dalkey to shame.
All well protected behind huge walls.
This is quite a contrast to how poor some people are here.
In the city people leave their rubbish bags on corners and the really poor people go through the rubbish picking out bits of food. Keep in mind food it very cheap here.
Here is an idea of what you can get for your Boliviano.

1 Bolivian Boliviano = 0.10269 euro
1 euro = 9.73795 Bolivian Boliviano (BOB)


1B 5 Bannanas
1B or 5 Bread rolls
1B or a saltina (like an empanada or cornish pastry with cheese or chicken or egg)
1.5 - 2B Hot dog from a street vendor
2 - 3B Burger and some chips from street vendor
5 - 7B 4 course lunch menu: salad, soup with bread, main course, desert.

Prosperity tradition

La Paz 24th Jan
La Paz contiues to interest.
The streets were full of people selling imitaion dolors, euros and little modles of every concevible material good that you could wish for. It was more packed than Henry street on Christmas eve.
This is all because today there there is a traditon where everyone buys these symbols of prosperity and get them "blessed" over a charcoal incence burner. If they carry them with them today they will get them for real over the coming year. You get a really good exchange rate on you dollars.

La Paz again

22 Jan La Paz
So I am back in La Paz.
Yesterday was the inauguration of Bolivias new presedent Evo Morales.
The whole of the center of La Paz was closed to trafic.
There was a big party in the square close to where we are staying.
There were lots of bands and rousing political speaches.
The party went on all day and into the wee hours of the morning.
There is a real sence of hope here that the new presedent will be good for Bolivia which has a history plagued by political instability.
There have been more changes of government then years of a republic.
Evo is the first presedent who is indigenous and the majority of Bolivians are indigenous.

Photos

More Photos

La Paz again

22 Jan La Paz
So I am back in La Paz.
Yesterday was the inauguration of Bolivias new presedent Evo Morales.
The whole of the center of La Paz was closed to trafic.
There was a big party in the square close to where we are staying.
There were lots of bands and rousing political speaches.
The party went on all day and into the wee hours of the morning.
There is a real sence of hope here that the new presedent will be good for Bolivia which has a history plagued by political instability.
There have been more changes of government then years of a republic.
Evo is the first presedent who is indigenous and the majority of Bolivians are indigenous.

Photos

More Photos

Bus journey from Pergatory

20th 21st and 22nd Jan. Road from Rurre to La Paz
So it turns out that Rurre can be quite a hard place to leave.
There is an airport but the landing strip is just grass so when there is alot of rain the planes don´t land.
So the planes weren´t running for a good few days and these people were starting to book up the busses. We had intended to go to Trinidad but that road was inpassable to busses so we decided to go back to La Paz and booked it before going on the Pampas tour.
It was due to leave at 11am on the 20th, it leaft around 1pm.
The road was so bumpy that the bags fell from the overhead storage onto my head.
Then by about 1am we got stuck behind a landslide which blocked the road.
After 10 hours some guys with shovels had made it just about passable.
Of course it was lashing rain the whole time.
So we headed on 24 hours after the departure time only to be blocked just up the road by another landslide.
This one needed plough trucks from La Paz.
So then we still had to drive all day the 21st arriving at the death road in the middle of the night.
We arrived into La Paz by 4:30 am on the 22nd a good 41.5 hours after our schedualed departure time.
At this point I had lost my ticked and had to fill in some red tape.
Then when we got to our planned hostel at 5:30 we found that it and all other hostels nearby were full because of a party to celebrate the new presedant.
We managed to get the night porter of one to let us sleep in an unusable room untill 7am and then went walking all over town to find accomadation. Tiring at altitude with hill and a big backpack.

Ah well you can´t have it all your own way.

Pampas

18th 19th and 20th Jan. Pampas.
After the jungle we went on a three day Pampas tour.
The Pampas are wet lands which because of their low hight, about 100 meters above sea level it doesn´t drain off the water like the jungle.
We got a jeep out to the start of the river system and from there everwhere was by boat.
The Pampas is a much better place to see wildlife as there aren´t as many of those pesky trees in the way.
We saw lots of monkeys, birds, allogators, snakes, and of course pink dolphins.
The accomadation was a camp, unfortunately no toilet of shower on site.
You have to walk over dodgy planks to get everwhere because everthing is under water at this time of year.
We went swimming with the dolphins which had a practicle element, they kept the allogators and snakes away. The water was the colour of tea.

On the way back our jeep got stuck in the mud for a while and we went fishing for parahna.
The group caught 4.

Jungle

16th and 17th of Jan. Jungle near river Beni.
Rurre is a great place to book Jungle trips and we headed off up the river Beni on a motorised canoe.
The power of the river was quite striking, at this time of year there is alot of water.
There were load of logs and trees being washed down river like they were twigs.
By the afternoon we reached our starting point and walked for ten minuites to reach the local community they we would be staying with. The kids were are very cute and had a great interest in the movies that we could take of them with our cameras.
The woman of the house where we were staying looked about 18 years old although she had two children and a third on the way.
The accomadation was matras on the floor with moquito net of course.
We went for a walk into the jungle on both days. I guide told us alot about the medicinal and toxic plants. We came accross the home of a huge tralanchula (spider I can´t spell).
I guide coaksed it out with a twig and it was a big as both of his hands.
I saw a snake, a giant ant landed on my shoulder which had a sting equivalent to a scorpian.
Fortunately it didn´t bite.
On the way back the river had risen by two meters and had flooded the communities bannana trees, so we could get the boat directly from our accomadation.
No tours were leaving for the jungle because the river was that high, but we were going downstream.
The first street of Rurre was also flooded as was our hostel.

First Photo

Rurre

15th Jan. Rurrenabaque.
Rurre as the locals call it has the real feeling of an outpost of civilisation in the rain forest.
It is on the river Beni which is part of the Amazon basin and it quite big and powerfull.
The streets are mainly mud, with stones to make them useable.
They are lined by huge ditches to carry off the water.
In the rain forest, during rainy season, it rains alot, and heavily.
The houses are for the most part made of wood withh palm thach roofs and everyone whizzes around on motor bikes.

First Photo

Coroico

13th Jan. Coroico,
We spent the day in Coroico.
At this elevation there is cloud forest.
So as the name suggests you spend alot of the time in the clouds.
The climate is quite plesent and this is the first time I am seeing things like Bannana trees.
We went for a few nice walks.

Photo

14th Jan. Bus to Rurrenabaque
We got an 18 hour bus journey today.
Although we had past the most dangerous road in the world before Coroico the road after didn´t exactly seem like the safest.
The rules of the road here are kind of unique.
When someone asks you what side of the road they drive on in Bolivia you can say, well it depends.
The vehecles climbing take the inside (away from the big drop) even if that is on the left.
The when two have to pass the one going down has to reverse up the hill to a point where they can pass. So going down is more dangerous.
The road wasn´t paved and was so bumpy that you would be thrown in the air just off you seat.
A fun night.

Death Road

12th Jan. Road to Coroico
Today we cycled down the colourfully named "road of death" between La Paz and Coroico.
It got this name by virtue of being the most dangerous road in the world averaging over 100 deaths a year. We started on our bikes at the high point of over 4600 meters.
It was snowing and quite cold. From there we start the decent of over 3360 meters ending up at the low point below Coroico at an elevation of around 1300 meters.
The road starts off as paved and fast.
Then you reach the "dangerous" part. The road is mud, barely wide enough for the busses and trucks that have to use it, in one direction. Oh and the drop is quite far if you fall off.
You are much better off on a bike where you don´t need it to be that wide.
You just have to hang on to your brakes for dear life as it is quite bumpy.
For most of the way we were in clouds so the view was at times obscured.
We all got there safely in the end.

First Photo

Wed 11th
Another day walking around La Paz.
If you ask for directions here you never get a left or a right.
It´s always up, or up further.
All the roads are as steep as Patricks hill in Cork and at altitude that can get a bit tiring.
I got my camera stolen today.
The scam is a fairly straight forward one.
First a distraction, in this case a big spit on my arm.
When you look down to see what it is you hear someone say something like "what´s that".
Then you know you are being robbed.
Someone is brushing past you at a tight and buisy spot and then there are about six people moving off in different directions and you don`t have a chance of getting it back.
So in the evening I bought a new camera.
Much better than my old one.
One of the few things that isn`t cheaper in south america is electronic equipment.
You can´t help thinking things like, that's about a years worth of dinners in Bolivia.
Ah well.

La Paz

17th November La Paz
The bus arrives into La Paz from the suburb of El Alto, or the high, and boy is it high.
It sits just below the snowy mountains. Then you get a view of the center sitting down below in a bowl and climbing the sides it is quite spectacular.
This is a great place to walk around and get a taste of the city. You can get your freshly squeezed (in front of you) orange juice, a sousage with rice for 1 boliviano (10 cent) and anything else from the vast markets at the side of the roads.
The people are very friendly too.

Photos

Lake Titicaca again

I got the bus to Puno where we stayed the night and got the bus to Copcabana in Bolivia in the morning. At the border we had to get out, walk to the other side and get on a different bus, after all the paper work of course.

Copacabana is on lake Titicaca. We walked to the top of the local moutain for a good few of the town.

The next day we hiked to the point nearest to the Isla del Sol and got a woman to row us out to the island.
The island is right in the middle of lake Titicaca and had great veiws of the surrounding mountains.
We stayed the night on the south of the island and the next day hiked to the north and stayed the night there.
The island was amazing.

The next day we got a ferry back to Copacabana and a bus to La Paz.

Photos

So where the photos are is getting a bit messy now.
This is because I am keeping them with flickr which only allows so much a month.
The oldest photos are part of the blog, these old pages can be accessed in the "archives" section at the side of the blog.
Then there are 3 flickr accounts.
photos 1 (oldest and current before dec 16th and after Jan 2)
photos 2 (Dec 16th to 27th)
photos 3 (not many 31st of December)

Happy new year

Yellow is the colour of new year hear.
It's yellow for happiness, so balloons confety banners everything is yellow.
It's also red for love and green for money.
I organised a little party at my hostel so that we could all go out to the main square at midnight.
The square was packed with people many waring yellow underware outside their clothes.
The big crowd then ran a lap of the square, great fun.
Then it was off to the Irish pub which claims to be the highest irish owned pub in the world.
Well I guess it's a bit higher than Johnny Fox's anyway.

Then new years day it was on to another Peruvian family party, great fun.