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South America
  • Robin Stacey
Apr – Jun 2023

South America

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  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler
    5

    La Paz

    May 10, 2023 in Bolivia ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Arrived early morning on the night bus, then at 10am did a Walking tour of La Paz:
    - very strange: there’s a big Prison right in downtown La Paz, but it only has 10 guards around the outside and none inside. It functions as a weird community/capitalist market for prisoners that pay rent to rent better fancy living conditions, can have their family live with them, have jobs in the prison etc. it’s famous for cocaine dealing apparently. Used to be tourist unofficial tours to go in but it sounds really sketchy and not allowed anymore. Bizarre.
    - walked to the witches market, where you can buy powders and potions for healing etc. also can buy llama Fetusses. Tradition to offer a llama Fetus when you build a house. Also a myth/maybe true?? that they do it with live human when building a huge building
    - walking through the markets, you see lots of women (cholitas) wearing traditional skirts and bowler hats. Hats are too small because an Italian originally exported a bunch to South America and assumed they have small heads, then it became the traditional style to have a small hat.
    - politics: president in 1940s hanged from lamppost, then they felt bad and made a statue for him
    - in 1990s president took countries money and fled to US. Lots of political chaos in Bolivia and corruption.

    After the tour I rode the City cable cars which was super cool! They built a big network that go all over the city as public transit instead of trains or whatever, and they are really modern and nice and you can see over the whole city! Super cool.

    Had some beers and dinner with some guys from the hostel and then bed.    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler

    The Death Road

    May 11, 2023 in Bolivia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Day Biking Tour from La Paz to the “Death Road”. A 35km section of infamously dangerous road through a valley outside of the city. We drove first 45 minutes up to the summit La Cumbre at 4500m, surrounded by snowy peaks and barren high altitude slopes. Got our mountain bikes and cruises down the first warmup section of road, 22km on asphalt but still quite steep and twisty, with beautiful views down The valley. Then a quick bus ride further along to the start of the Death Road 💀. It is about 33km down a snaking, narrow, twisting road with huge drops of 100s of meters on the edge. Pretty scary, pretty cool! We biked down and it was safe as long as you go carefully and under control, but still scary when you think about being anywhere near the edge. I guess people have died falling from time to time… there is no normal traffic on the road anymore, since they built a new one in the next valley, and a big landslide had nearly destroyed a section that we had to walk our bikes through.

    the ride took about 3 hours, it was Really fun and also super bumpy, my hands and butt are so sore despite the suspension. Also really cool to see the landscape change as we descended to about 1300m elevation, with the air warming and the area becoming thick jungle.

    Then we had lunch and a beer at a jungle lodge thing and jumped in a pool before a long bus ride back to La Paz. Survived the Death Road! 🚵    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler
    1
    1

    Cusco

    May 16, 2023 in Peru ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    After 16 hr bus ride and very chaotic border cording to Peru, I arrived in Cusco. 1st day I went to a fairly boring art museum in an old Incan fortress, then climbed the hill to Sacsayhuaman Incan ruins on the cliff overlooking Cusco. Pretty cool, then walked to some ruins and some more ruins and some more ruins. All kinda cool, but also after awhile it loses the excitement to be honest. Then caught a local bus back to the hostel. Over the next few days in Cusco I did the rainbow mountain tour, had some fun going to a bar/club with people from the hostel, checked out a couple more mediocre museums and got my shoes repaired at a repair shop. Was super cool actually, the shoe guys stand on the street pointing at your shoes and trying to get you to let them fix them. Then in a basement they have like 5 dudes with shoe repair machines and they sew and glue and melt your shoes back together. Sad we never fix things back home!

    Cusco is fairly nice, very touristy but not in an annoying way, and there’s quite a lot to do. Next stop: Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu!    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler
    2

    Salkantay Trek - Day 1

    May 17, 2023 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    5am pickup and drive 3-4 bumpy hours to Challacancha village to start the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu.

    Have 4 others in our group: a Swiss couple, a Romanian woman, and an American guy. Everyone is nice, maybe a little quiet but friendly. We will stay mostly together but hike independently so just at our own speeds.

    First 2 hours beautiful hike along a valley, following a canal made by the Incas to bring water down the mountain. Cool hummingbirds! Purple flowers (lupins like in the Yukon). Amazing views of Humantay Mountain and Salkantay Mountain looming ahead.

    Arrived at the Refugio in Soraypampa village. It’s a funny mix of very nice and very basic. For example: Flowers everywhere, comfy bed, fancy shower, amazing view, super nice family; But: no toilet seat, no door or wall at all between the bed and the toilet 😂

    For lunch they showed us an Inca traditional cooking method of making a fire and a dome of heating rocks over it, throwing the potatoes and pots of chicken inside and then collapsing the rocks onto the it all, covering with herbs, grass, plastic tarps and then dirt and leaving this big mound to cook for half an hour. Delicious lunch of chicken, potatoes, veggies.

    Then tiny nap and started the afternoon hike to Humantay Lake. About 500m elevation gain straight up the slope to a beautiful blue lake at the foot of Humantay mountain. Felt the altitude for sure but really good hike. Then back down to the lodge for dinner and early bed.    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler

    Salkantay Trek - Day 2

    May 18, 2023 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

    Awake at 4:40am 🤪 but they brought a mug of Coca tea to wake up and help with altitude. Little breakfast (always the same in Peru and Bolivia: dry thin bread bun thing with butter and jam and an egg). Then leave before 6am to hike the Salkantay Pass, the longest and toughest part of the trek. About 7km with 700m elevation gain to 4600m at the top of the pass. Incredible views hiking between two huge snow capped mountains: Salkantay and Humantay. Felt the altitude a bit but not too bad. Then 2 hours down to lunch spot. Our “family” Richard and Alberto hiked with us and brought a mule to carry our big bags (feel a bit guilty), and cooked a good hot lunch for us. Always amazing soup!

    Then continue down down down (1600m all together) the other side of the pass to Chalway village. Cool to see the landscape change from high altitude mountainous, no trees, into thick hot jungle. Here we got a ride (also feel a bit guilty not to be trekking, but the trail was closed for this section) down to our next home stay in Lucmabamba. Super nice family that have a coffee farm and cute home stay. Relaxed a bit, then another deliscious dinner of soup, rice, fish, guacamole (they have insane huge avocados everywhere!), and early bed! Over 23km today!    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler

    Salkantay Trek - Day 3

    May 19, 2023 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Huge avocados!
    Cute little family Coffee tour, the family showed us how they pick the beans from their little farm, shell them, ferment and dry them and then roast. Not that hard actually!
    Couple hours at nearby Cocamayo hot springs, quite nice and beautiful surrounding mountains. Then back for lunch and our short hike today up to the next stop. Steep but short up to the top of the mountain nearby.
    Amazing views of Machu Picchu across the other side of the Valley!!! So beautiful. Watched the sun coming down and looked through a telescope to see the cross in Machu Picchu
    Good soup for dinner.
    Amazing stars! Milky Way, huge asteroid or something burning up
    Wake up to sunrise, incredible experience! Saw a cool toucan aswell.    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler

    Salkantay Trek - Day 4

    May 20, 2023 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Watched the sun rise over Machu Picchu from the window of my room. Pretty awesome! Then had breakfast and started the hike waaaaayyy down the valley to the river (about 1000m down in 5km or so). Getting really hot and humid, jungle getting thicker at lower altitude.

    Delicious lunch at hidroelectrica, a tiny village named after the dam there. Then a 2,5 hour walk along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes aka Machu Picchu Pueblo, the town at the base of the famous ruins!

    Checked into a pretty fancy hotel (by my standards) and chilled for the evening.    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler
    1
    2231

    Machu Picchu

    May 21, 2023 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Awake at 4:30 to hike up to Machu Picchu in time for the opening at 6am. Dark sweaty hike up and got in at opening time to avoid the crowds. It was cool to go in early with barely any people and fog swirling through the ruins. Slowly followed along the path (you can’t explore at all by yourself), and then hike up Huaynapicchu, the mountain to the north of the ruins. Steep hike up but worth it for some awesome views, especially as the clouds cleared and sun shone on the city. Then hiked down and got jostled along the rest of the path to the exit by the by-now-huge crowds. Hiked back down and that was it! Felt kind of fast.

    Not sure how I feel all in all about Machu Picchu. It was really impressive, the ruins and old buildings, the mysterious history, the beautiful location and surroundings, etc. But I guess it was just soooo touristy that diminished it for me. You can’t explore at all by yourself. You have to buy a (expensive) ticket for a specific circuit, so you can only go on that path through one part of the city. Employees blow a whistle at you if you try to go backwards at all or even stop for too long in some places. The crowds were fine in the morning but pretty huge in the later morning/afternoon, it kinda just felt like you were filing past in a queue. I did the hike up the mountain which was really cool and great views which I’m happy with, but with that ticket you can’t visit the Inca gate or Inca bridge or famous viewpoint from the front of the city, or a huge chunk of the ruins at all. So it feels a bit incomplete to be honest. But I guess that’s how it is, the experience is the experience, and I think i did it about as well as you can without spending tons of money.

    Took the train back which was pretty nice, winding along the river. There was a funny/bizarre performance where the employees dressed up like Incas and lip-synced along to a strange love story thing. Kind of odd.

    Back to cusco for a recovery day before heading to Lima.    Read more

  • Robin StaceySouth AmericaTraveler
    2
    111

    Lima

    May 23, 2023 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Last stop before I head home is Lima. Haven’t heard much good about it and I’m tired of big cities so I just have a night and a day here. Ate a tasty Peruvian fast food sandwich for cheap and walked around John F. Kennedy park (didn’t find out why it’s called that).

    Last day! Did a walking tour (of course) that was pretty good, we took the bus across the city to the historic centre. Tourists don’t stay there much (Miraflores neighbourhood instead) because it’s dead in the evenings apparently, but in the day it’s pretty nice with colonial architecture etc. (although I’ve seen plenty of that). The guide was good, learned a bit about the failed coup that happened in January leading to the protests that hurt the tourism a lot this year, but things are basically back to normal now. They have a hill neighbourhood that the houses are painted so it looks like a flag from far away.

    After the tour I bought a poncho (not a South America backpacker without one), and then had lunch with the guide and some Germans from the group. Local dish called Limo Saltado (rice, fries, meat and veg with sauce).

    Then back to the hostel and ran into someone I met in Cusco so we had a beer and then I took the bus to the airport. 4 months in South America done! Definitely want to come back to see more of Peru and Bolivia, plus Brazil. But right now I’m really happy to be going home. It was a good trip and I did lots of awesome things, but I am ready to have some time not travelling, planning, moving, stressing, all the annoying things about travelling.    Read more

  • Trip end
    June 2, 2023
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