Salar De Uyuni and the surrounding landscapes...

Driving that train...

The views are some of the prettiest I´ve ever scene. Here are a few pics. The tour lasted 4 days and the majority of the tour was spent in a ragged out 1986 Toyota Land Cruiser. I love old trains so the tour started out by visiting and old train cemetary. Further along the tour I saw many lakes with beautifully colored water. The color of the water is enhanced by the minerals that float into the lake water. The reflections of the mountians as you can see in my pictures are extremely aesthetically appealling. There was a lot of post and current scenes cuased by geothermal activity on along the tour. I saw red, green, and blue lakes as well as hot springs and steam mud pits. One of my morning highlights was relaxing in naturally made hot spring beside a mountain laced gorgeous lake. I especially enjoyed watching the European women bath freely with their tops off as did the other gentleman in the hot springs.

There are many exotic landscapes to see on the Salar de Uyuni tour. One of the spots is appropraitely titled Dali s Rocks. I also especially enjoyed seeing the wild life at 4000m. Seeing the pink flamingos at that altitude was spectactular. I hope you enjoy the pics that I ve enclosed.

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The group pic was taken at Laguna Verde which is near the Bolivian-Chilean border.

La Paz...and the world´s most dangerous road!!!!

The picture of the bird is for my dad. He´s always been fascinated by colorful birds and birds flying in formation on the South Carolina beaches. This ones for you dad!

The first picture shows the captivating Mt Illamani which sits as the awe inspiring back drop behind La Paz.



On Wed, May 25th I attempted and successfully conquered the world´s most dangerous road. Our group left La Paz around 7:30am and travelled about an hour and a half outside of the city. We started biking at an evelation around 4000m and ended at an elevation of 1000m. The length of the ride was 64km (or approx 44 miles). The morning started out with exhilarating sceneray of snow capped Andean mountains. As we began our descent onto the dangerous road, we watched the bleak foliage from the top of the mtn change into a verdant, lush jungle. Watching the scenery change was truely amazing. Extreme sports do not come without risks! About mid way thru the ride an English girl wiped out, doing a face plant on the road. The woman was alright but a little banged up. A few beers after the ride and she was like brand new!...other than the big bloody kiss of a scar that the dangerous road left her as a momento.

After the ride we stopped for a late lunch at a beautiful spot atop of a jungle mountain. The views were pristine, and I really enjoyed watching the macaws and the tucans fly around the pool. When I returned to the Hostal Solario that evening after the long bike ride, I slept like a champ.

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In La Paz I also toured the infamous Musuo de Coca and the nearby witches market. I´m really looking fwd to trek to salar de Uyuni, which supposedly has some of the bleakest terrain on the planet!

EXCHANGE RATE IN BOLVIA $1 for 7.8 - 8 Bolivianos

Change of travel plans/directions...

The Chino/Canadian, Sandra Do (the only Chinese girl I´ve ever met who has a mustache), with whom I was traveling with flaked out on me and left last night. She barely even told me goodbye. As usual I¨ve managed to turn what could have been a stressful situation, into a serendipitious one. Fortunately, some other folks from my school (2 girls from NZ and a guy from USA-KC) were staying at my hostal. I´ve hooked onto their group and will be traveling to Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats) tonight. I begin the tour of Salar de Uyuni tomorrow...the tour will end on Wednesday and instead of crossing into San Pedro Chile, the tour will loop back to and end in Uyuni, Bolivia. From Uyuni we will make our way on a bus to Salta, Argentina. I´m going to split from the girls in Salta and will cross into Chile. I should still have plenty of time to make Arequipa by June 15th and will get to see more of South America due to this change of plans...

Lake Titicaca

The bus from Cusco to Copacabana took 13 hrs. We arrived on Bolivia on Monday, May 22nd around 9am. Copacabana sits at 3800 meters/approx 12,000 ft elevation. One feels the lack of oxygen and the cold crisp in the air immediately. On the first day we walked around the city and saw the ancient carved Incan tables that sit on the edge of the city. I´m traveling with a Canadian girl from Toronto named Sandra. I met her at Excel, my language shcool.

Our second day in Copacabana we boarded a boat for a 2 hour crossing to Isle De Sol, an island that was settled by a pre-Incan culture known for their craftsmanship in stone building. We took a tour of the island which started with our landing at the North end of the island. We toured the tiny musuem of artifacts and then preceded to the ruins on the North end of the island. At the ruins we saw a perfectly laid out stone sacrifcial table, which was used for llama sacrifices and possible human sacrifces. Not far away from the sacrifice table were the remains of sevral stone dwellings and the ¨Titicaca Rock,¨ which was a rock that had been carved to look like a big growling puma. In the distance was an island that resembled a swimming puma coming to the sacrifice location.

When we were done looking at the ruins, we began a 3 hour hike to the South end of the island. The hike took us to an altitude (I´m guessing) of 4800 m/14,800 ft. I forgot my cliff bars, but was thankful for the coca leaves that our new found friend Corey gave me to chew. Corey is currently in his second year in the Peace Core serving near Cochibama, Bolivia. Corey was on a much needed vacation to Lake Titicaca. I find that when I´m hiking at high altitudes the coca leaves give me much strength and seem to help increase my oxygen intake. The views on the hike to the South island were absolutey breath taking. When we reached the apex of the trail before the decent to meet the boat, we found an amazing spot to have a beer, as exhibited in the above picture.

Once back in Copacabana we were famished. We took a much needed shower, which thankfully was piping hot; and met for dinner. At dinner we feasted on local trout, Bolivian beer, and pizza from a wood fired oven. Toblerone bars bought from a local merchant were the dessert.

The first picture at the top of this page shows an aerial like shot of Copacabana. I got up at the crack of dawn and hiked to the top of a local hill filled with religious monuments. The top of the hill, as you see from the photograph, offered spectacular views of Copacabana and Lake Titicaca.

Sometimes in the strangest of places we get shown the light...

On Sat May 20th I drank the Ayahuasca jungle juice. This is a coctail that is much revered by the Quecha culture and a potion that is reserved for the Quechan shaman. The Quecha culture is what has survived from the Incan times. The shaman ritually drinks the Ayahuasca, which puts him into a pyschedelic, halucinogenic trance. Ayahuasca has medicinal properties that are very similar to mescaline. While the shaman is under the spell of the Ayahuasca, he is able to see future events; such as crop cycles and other information that will be important for his tribe. The famous Beatnick authors, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, ventured to Peru to experience the effects of Ayahuasca.

I went to the San Pedro market in Cusco and bought the Ayahuasca mix from a Quechan woman for about $12 US dollars. My classmate Rafael, from London, was interested in trying the concoction with me. We drank the concoction on that Saturday afternoon. I would describe the Ayahuasca as tasting like ¨cactus juice.¨ The taste was very earthy. About 30 minutes after drinking the juice we began to feel light headed and noticed that our vision was becoming wavy. It was beatiful afternoon, so we headed to San Blas, a plaza which offers one of the best views of Cusco. The beautiful Andean mtns in front of me began to look like an amazing painting. I also could hears echoes of the conversations that were going on around me. While we were on San Blas both of us noted having intense thoughts and a mesh of thoughts that were connected to past, present, and future events. The effects of the Ayahuasca lasted for about two hours.

Pisac Ruins...Sacred Valley of the Incas

All of these pics, with the exception of the pic of me with the Incan statue, were taken at the Pisac ruins in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Pisac is a 40 minute drive from Cusco. The last photo is a perfect example of Incan terracing. The Incans built the terraces so that they could level out the side of the mountians and grow crops like maize/corn, coca, yucas/potatoes, and beans on the terraces. The Incas built these pueblos and terraces with etreme precision. The aquaducts ruining thru most of the Inca sites are still working to this day!




This Sunday, May 21; I board a bus for Copacabana, Boliva, which is on Lake Titicaca...

If Jack Kerouac were alive today in Cusco....

I´ve included some pics from the last week. The pics include:
1) me enjoying a delicious milkshake with Cusco´s Plaza de Armas in the background. The Plaza is the center of life for the city.
2) Some cuy (guinea pigs) that are about to be roasted. On Sunday May 14th, my host family put some cuy on the dinner table. Against the judgement of my stomach, I tried it. The Peru: Lonely Planet guidebook describes the taste of cuy as being like that of rabbit. I tend to disagree and would advise one that cuy tastes more like a damn rat! No more cuy for me.
3) This pic shows my new friend Carlos. He is the uncle in my host family. I told Carlos that I´d smoke a cigarette with him after I had finished the Inca trail. Carlos didn´t put his cig in the picture. He was afraid I´d black mail him and would send the pic to his priest! The Peruvian cig was pretty tastey.

Cusco´s been a blast; but like all good things, my time is winding down here. I´ve spent three weeks out of four in Cusco. During the last few weeks, I´ve made lots of new international friends, some of whom I´m going to try to catch up with when I do phase 2 of my travels. Phase 2 will hopefully include Australia, NZ, and Thailand. The raison d'etre for starting my travels in Cusco was to take advantage of the dry season which just began in Peru, to pick up some Spanish in language school, to meet some new friends to travel with, and to tackle the Incan Trail and Machu Picchu, which so far has been a highlight in my life!

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu...

The modern day Inca Trail begins by leaving Cusco at 5am on a bus which takes the hiker thru the pristine Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, an ancient Incan farming spot with many terraces and graneries that are seen on the mountain side as one approaches. The bus stops at kilometer 82 where the hiker begins his journey. The first day of four on the Incan Trail is a relatively easy 10km hike which takes the hiker past magnificent snow capped Andean Mountains, verdant fields, a roaring river, and several ancient Incan sites. The second day is the most difficult of the 4. Before lunch on day 2, the hiker summits a 13,500ft pass. The air is scarce on the pass and the views of the surrouding moutians are like no other. After lunch another smaller pass most be summited. Once the second pass is traversed the hike descends out of the Andies and into the beginning of a tropical rain forest where camp awaits. On day 3 the hiker passes by several stunning Incan ruins which are just percursors to what he will experience at Machu Picchu. Day 3 ends with a campsite next to the roaring Urabama River and at the foot of more ancient Incan ruins. On day 4 the hiker awakes at 4am and walks to Aguas Caliente where he catches a bus to Machu Picchu (the lost city). Normally the trail would take the hiker thru Machu Picchu´s Sun Gate and into the confines of the lost city. However, due to recent landside the trail into Machu Picchu has been damaged and is inaccessible. Until the trail is repaired, the hiker most hike down railroad tracks to Aguas Caliente and board a bus which will take him to Machu Picchu.

If one could only visit 5 amazing places in a lifetime, Machu Picchu would definitely be in the top five. Especially if one is interested in seeing preserved ancient ruins. When Pizaro and his band of Spaniard´s began thier conquest of Peru, they sacked the Incan cities that they discovered and tour down the Incan temples and buildings that they found in the Incan cities. They used the ancient Incan stones to build Christian cathedrals and churches.

Machu Picchu is an excellent example of a perfectly enginered Incan City with remarkably well preserved architecture because the Spainards never found Machu Pichu. Machu Picchu has remained well preserved since it was deserted around 1532. Machu Picchu was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham of Yale Univ in 1911.
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Jonathan´s first person report of the Inca Trail:

The Inca trail to Machu Picchu was a great experience for me. There were 16 hikers in my group. Most of the other hikers were from Australia or the UK. I was the only USA/American in the group. I was the only hiker who didn´t have a porter carry his baggage. My pack was 14-15 kgs (30-33 lbs), and I carried it by myself for the duration of the hike. I trained extensively in SF before I left for Peru and my training paid off. I was by far in top shape for the trail. There were 2 English sisters on the hike. I was discussing my Scottish heritage with them at the peak of one of the passes. One of sisters commented, ¨Jonathan I can´t imagine you being from aywhere, except made out of steel in a factory.¨ The views of the snow capped Andean Peaks, the beatiful flowing Urubamba River, and the marvelous Incan Ruins leading to Machu Picchu along of the trail were exquisite. All the personalities in our hiking entourage seemed to fit together well. I learend lots of new slang from the Brits at our dinner parties such as ¨bollocks¨ and ¨wanker.¨ The meals on the hike were great. This is the first camping trip that I think I´ve gained weight on. The porters, who are Quechan (of Incan decent), prepared our meals for us.

Machu Picchu itself is a mystical, magical place surrounded on three sides by the Urubamba River. The views of the mountain tops around Machu Picchu are some of the most breath taking views I´ve ever seen. It´s easy to see why the Incans picked this site to build Machu Picchu.

I´d walk a mile for a Llama!

I´m coming up on my second week in Cusco, altitude 11,100ft. What an experience! It´s easy to see why the Incans picked this city as the site for their almighty capitol. I´ve encolsed some pictures in my Cusco posts that show some of my new friends...they´re around 600 yrs old! Yeah, you guessed it; the Egyptians weren´t the only ones who had mummies. One shot shows me drinking a "Cusquena," which is the local beer. Drinks and food are relatively cheap in Peru...I´ve yet to try the cuy, guinea pig, a local delicacy.

This week is my second week at Excell Spanish Language School. Slowly but surely my Spanish is getting better. I´ve seen several ruins: Tipon, Coricancha, Puca Pucara, and the famous Sacsayhuaman which sits above Cuzco. The Incans were truely master craftsmen with their avant guard brick laying capabilities. The pictures that I´ve included can not compare to seeing the real thing.

On Thurs, May 4th I begin the much anticipated 4 day hike on the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu.