wbk: Bolivia to Peru, Death Road and the Inca Trail

Hi,

Right since last time was a bit vague on what had been going on I´ll give a brief explanation. We travellend from Salta to Jujuy by bus and then rented a car in Jujuy for the day going to various sites North of Jujuy in what is known as the Quebrada de Humahuaca. The Quebrada de Humahuaca is a narrow mountain valley which was recently made a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we stopped off at various places along the way and also managed to make it to the Salinas Grandes.

Following this we got the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, via the Paso de Jama (4200m, Ben Nevis is 1344m), in San Pedro we visited the Valle De Luna (Moon Valley) and Valle de Muerte (Death Valley). In san Pedro we booked a 3day, 2 night 4x4 trek to Uyuni through the Los Flamencos National Park and crossing into Bolivia. During this we slept at over 4500m and at one point went over 5000m higher than anywhere in Europe (Mont Blanc 4810m) so was quite breathless when sleeping.

After Salar de Uyuni (worlds largest salt flat) we got the bus to Sucre, Bolivia´s Constitutional Capital for a few nights with some of the people from are 4x4 trip and then on to Cochabamba with Dan (who´s from Taunton) from are 4x4 trip, in one of the worst busses I have ever been in (but only 20 bolivianos about 2 pounds for 12 hours).

Right so that pretty much explains the photo´s from the last post I think. So in Cochabamba we went to see the largest Jesus Christ Statue in the World standing at just over 40m tall on a large hill over the city.

Cristo de la Concordia

High five

From Cochabamba we all went to La Paz, highest capital in the world (3650m) where we left Dan who is off volunterring in the jungle for a month. In La Paz we met up with a couple of the other guys from the 4x4 trip and Mitch´s friend Kieron who is doing/has done the Inca trail with us.

Other than going out in the evenings we also went to Cholita´s/woman´s wrestling (weird) and did the Worlds Most Dangerous Road/Death Road which was excellent getting up to 75/80kmh on new asphalt bits and a bit slower (not to much) on the "old death road" most dangerous bit.

Near the start of "old death road" (Yungas Road)

La Paz, Mirador Killi Killi

We stayed in La Paz for about a week before heading to Lake Titicaca and the town of Copacabana, with the plan of spending a night on Isla del Sol. However the weather turned rather stormy so we instead headed from Copacabana straight to Cusco.

Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana, Copacabana

Lake Titicaca

Cusco is really nice (where I am now) the city itself isn´t to large and has alot of nice squares/plazas as well as some nice museums and older spanish and Inca buildings. We had a couple days in Cusco before doing the Inca Trail.

Found Mitch´s dad´s twin in one of the Museums

Plaza de Aramas, Cusco´s main Plaza

Plaza de Aramas at night

We started the Inca tour on the 14th for a 4day 3night trek, which is incredible. We carried our sleeping bags, clothes, sleeping matt, camera etc. But food and tents were carried by an army of porters (19 for 14 of us plus 2 guides) The walking was reasonably easy for the majority of the trek although in parts quite demanding due to the altitude. We never went below 2400m (Machu Pitchu itself) during the trek and are mostly walking at well over 3000m. The highest point is over 4000m at one of the passes on the second day.

Everything was excellent although on the third day after getting up at 3.30am and walking 2.5hours to the Sun Gate all we saw was a lot of clouds except for a brief spell when it cleared just enough to see Machu Pichu. But other than this minor blip a great trip!