Off to Peru again...

Last night we spent our last night in La Paz, sad times. La Paz is a great town. We got some ice cream for old times sake. We watched X Men III, then we checked out this free concert they were having in the middle of downtown. It was super fun. Erik and I dressed up in our Bolivian garb and still stuck out like marshmellows in chocolate. It was funny, I never realized just how short the Bolivian people are as a whole, until we had to fight our way through the crowds. Everybody saw us, I think we were the only Gringos that braved the affair. They all wanted to practice there best English phrases on us, like "what's your name" and "where you from". They also really enjoyed giving us some of there drinks, which was warm watered down whiskey. It was really cold out, so they heat it up. Anyway it was a nice last night. The next morning, today, we hopped on a direct bus to Cusco, Peru. 12 hours later and we were in Gringoville, Peru. Tomorrow its time to join the masses and see the many Incan Ruins.

We are back in La Paz. We did the Chorro Trek and then went to Rurrenabaque. Internet was scarce. Thats why its been so long since you heard from me. We decided to fly back to La Paz because the bus ride there was horrid. The bus ride is 17 hours on a dirt bumpy road, plus you go up ¨the worlds most dangerous road¨ on the way back. The air plane flight was less than an hour.

The Chorro Trek was beautiful, but I got sick, so I couldnt enjoy it too well. I must have eatten something bad. It took a few days and I was feeling fine again, but it came on right on the first night of our hike. The total trail takes you from 4800 meters all the way to 1200 meters. I think it was about 54km. We did three nights 4 days. The trail takes you down an ancinet Inca trail, and past some Inca ruins. The views are spectacular. The last night you come to a place where a Japanese man moved to back in the 40`s. He keeps a Japanese garden, even today in his old age, he is out there picking away at the garden. The view up the canyon from the garden was one of the most magnificent. We could see the way we had come with snow covered peaks looming in the distance. I really wish I could have better enjoyed it. Both Erik and I got blisters, I think our feet got soft from wearing only sandals for the last month and a half. Erik had to carry my pack some of the way just so we could even go any where. One of the days we hired a porter to carry most of our stuff. We only did that about half the day, since the old man wasnt doing to well on the uphills. I thought he might die on some of the hills. I felt like dying too though. We made it to the bottom though.
Then we spent a night in Coroico and hopped a bus to Rurrenabaque the next day. The bus was really bad. We were in the second to last row, which for some reason had half the leg room of every other row. Both Erik and I had to sit sideways for 15 hours on a rough dirt road. But we made it as always. Our motto now is, "it could be worse".
We arrived in Rurre about 6AM and signed up for a Pampas tour right away. We left about 10 and headed to the river. After a three hour Landcruiser ride we got on a boat. From there the tour really starts. We had 8 people in our group. We saw tons of alligators and crocodiles. Capibara (the worlds largest rodent, R.O.U.S.´for those of you Princess Bride fans), squirel monkeys which jumped all over us to get bananas (not too eco friendly, but fun. We also held the crocs and an anaconda). We hunted and found an anaconda, only about 1.5 meters longm but neat. Frogs and birds were also plentiful. We also fished for piraña and ate them for dinner. Pretty cool over all. Then we got back and headed to the jungle for another three days. We had a native guide who showed us all of the cool trees and plants. Ones with water, poison, milk, medicine. One was the tree they make malaria pills from. We saw enormous mahogany trees. Not too many animals however. Some alligators, capibara, birds, and from a distance some boars. We also ate termites that tasted slightly like mint. One night we decided to go fishing. The guide told us we would catch neyr large fish. The sizes ranged from 10 to 50 kilos, depending on how much he wanted to eggagerate. He caught two small 10" fish to use as bait, and we headed for the river. The river is called Tuichi, it flows eventually to the Amazon. The whole area where we were is the Amazon Basin. Anyway we fished for a few hjours and caught nothing. We came back that night, when the "real big ones" are out. The primitive fishing method involves a rather large line wrapped around a block of wood. The guide likes to be the one to throw the line outm but then he gives it to his tourists to hold. We found out why, the hard way. I have caught fish with a line wrapped around a can before, and I know that even a small fish can pull pretty hard when all you have is a line in your hand. I decided that if the fish were really as big as he descibed them, I did not want to be holding the line. I let Erik and James (our British companion) hold the two lines. I think it was more of an intuition thing, I did not really forsee what would happen. We sat for sometime, then sudenly Erik almost lost his hand. The line he was holding got snagged on a passing whale or some other such creature. In a matter of seconds he had dropped the line with a loud yelp. His had got cut pretty deep. ill try to get pictures up when i can, of everything.
Overall the experience was very memorable. Now we are back in La Paz. Its time to do some shopping and head to Cusco and the famous Macchu Picchu. I think we only have about 10 days left, so we will be home before you know it.

Bolivia once again...

Okay, so I have been doing a poor job of keeping this sight updated. But here is a breif rundown on the last few days.
We left Rio about a week ago, took a 21 hout bus to Campo Grande. From there we caught another can´t remember how long bus to Bonito. Bonito is a town that seems to live off tourism. They have a river that is very clear and has lots of fish to see. We opted for the cheap public swimming hole. We rented bikes and rode the 10km which turned out to be like 5km to the river. There we were going to rent snorkeling gear, but the water was pretty chilli and there apeared to be only on type of fish. The fish reminded me of carp at a dock, scavengers looking for anything you`ll throw their way. We tossed bits of cookies and other things and they gobbled them up. Then we layed pieces of cookie on the ledge of the steps and they got brave enough to stick their heads out to grab them. So I took a ritz cracker and held in my hand over the water, one fished aimed with his sofficticated underwater eyes at the cracker and ended up biting my finger. He has tons of little teeth that actually left a pretty good cut that bled for a while. That was about the extent of our adventure. We also ate aligator too.

We decided after talking with other tourists to skip the famous Pantanal tour. The animals seem to be in hiding this time of year. So we headed for Corumba on the border of Bolivia. There we had a military escorted visit of an old Fortress on the Rio Paraguai.
We crossed the border the next day.
There had been quite a lot of political issues going on in Bolivia, so we didn´t quite know what to expect. The border was open now so we crossed. The infamous ¨death train¨to Santa Cruz was shut down so we had to opt for the "Extreme death bus" to Santa Cruz. This bus ride was one to remember. We hoped on with a few other gringos and a lot of Bolivians, for a 20 ride. 95% of the way was dirt road. There were people standing, sitting, and laying down in the aisle. My legs are just too long for that kind of bus. As I became accustomed to the uncomfortable feeling the ride got easier to endure. I has a few feelings of panic in the beginning. You know when you feel like freaking out, but you just catch yourself in time to calm yourself down. Well needless to say we made it.
Santa Cruz is a town in the middle of Nowhere, Bolivia, that has had an enormous rise in population in the last few decades. Coincidentally the rise in cocaine sales from that area has risen also.
The town plaza (which every town in Latin America has, no matter how small or inaccesible the town is. Its always situated in front of the Cathedral) was one of the most modern and well layed out I have seen. I am continually jealous of the Bolivians and Peruvians because they have all sorts of Toyota trucks and Landcruisers that we can´t buy in the states.

After one days rest, a few good empanadas, and some great ice cream, it was back to life on the road.
From what we have heard, the bus companies here are refusing to pay taxes, so the bus terminals are all closed down, with military police guards. The Floatas (nice big busses) are not opperating, but there are people infront of the terminals selling tickets to where ever you want to go. So we took a bus to Cochabamba, 12 hours turned into 17 or so hours. In the middle of the night we had a traffic jamb. It seems as though they are doing construction on a mountain pass, but there is no one there to direct traffic. Picture a bunch on busses and big rigs driving up a hill on a narrow one lane road (thats only one lane at times, not one in each direction) and coming upon a bunch of the same sort of vehicles coming the other direction. ¿What do you do? Well I´ll tell you what they do here. They stop and honk, then honk some more, when that doesnt solve anything they just start squeezing by. Some how we made it. At times we were dead stopped for hours, but we made it. In Cochabamba we hopped directly onto a Micro bus to La Paz. After 24 hours of safe travel we made our way to a hostel with one of the nicest rooms we have had yet.
Now I am writing from an interbet place in La Paz. Erik and I have been looking for backpacking gear today. Although we have everything we need at home, we did not bring it with. The rainy season is over now, but that means its cold. We plan to do a 3 day trek called the Chorro Trek tomorrow or the next day. Then we are going to the Amazon basin to see all of the wonders it has to offer.
After that, its off to Peru to Macchu Picchu. We have not reserved a tour in advance because of the extreme cost, but we hope to do a longer back route trek that should be do able with out advance reservation.
I will update more as i can.
Chris