Parting Peru

Well following my time in Lima, I decided to take the chance to board an 18 hour overnight bus to Mancora, a little surfing town, in the north of Peru.  Very surprisingly, 18 hours in a bus here is way more pleasant than the same period of time in a plane or Australian bus.  Here you get bells and whistles you thought never possible.  You have seats that are as large as lounge chairs.  Each seat reclines to a ridiculously flat angle and the leg room provided is equivalent to another seat space!  To top it off, you get a host/hostess, meals and even a game of bingo.  Neat!

What can I say about the town of Mancora?  It is a nice little surfing town that has been totally over run by Gringos (tourists).  The locals seem absolutely bemused at what is happening there and it seems all too chaotic for me. 

For accommodation, I ended up staying at a hostel called Loki.  This hostel was more like a resort.  There was a centrally located pool, an outdoor bar, pool table, volley ball court, palm trees etc.  You get the picture.  It also has a reputation as a party hostel and that it definitely was!  One thing I really came to love about the place though was the amount of Aussies I met here.  There were dozens!  It is nice to be around your own kind once in a while.  Lads that is.

 A Mancora sun set

I met some interesting guys during my seven day stay at Loki.  It was during this time I made plans to travel with a group of 7 others north to Ecuador and possibly Columbia.  There were two guys from Sydney, two from Perth, one from Hobart, one from Brazil and another from Israel.  The guy from Israel was called Dor and he is a bit of a weapon.  He serves in the Israeli Special Forces as a killing machine (put simply).  Example: one night his lady friend got her wallet robbed by some bouncers at a local club and when the bouncers were confronted they took offence to being caught out.  Well Dor was put in the sticky situation where he had to straighten a few things out.  And that he did!  He was a little one man army. 

Anyways, I digress.  Together all eight of us travelled to Montañita in Ecuador.  A very interesting bus ride indeed.  We crossed the border at 3am in the morning and it was here where Bill one of the Perth boys was brought aside for a “random” drug search.  Digging through his possessions one of the officers pulled out a piece of paper and proclaimed “you have cocaine in your bag!”.  Bill looked at him and said “no I don´t” (because he didn´t) but the guy said “yes, yes you do, I have found some”.  Knowing the situation was a set up, Bill hit the officer up for how much this was going to cost him.  $50 later and all was ok with the world and we passed through the border on to Ecuador.  The lesson learnt here wasalways carry a little money for bribes!

Montañita ended up being a surfing town much like Mancora.  Over the party scene, both Sam (the Aussie from Hobart) and I got up one morning quickly packed our bags and bought the next bus ticket out of town for Guayaquil.  This was the best thing we could have done as I don´t think we are the party travellers the other are.  We are more interested in the travel experience. 

Guayaquil served as a quick one night stop over on our master route to Baños in the north.  What a dodgy town!  Walking around there we were constantly on edge due to the uneasy general vibe we perceived from the place.  The next morning we were all too happy to buy our onward tickets to Baños.  Having now arrived in Baños, the place seems awesome.  It is up in the mountains at the base of a very impressive active volcano.  It is dirt cheap and the list of activities we are finding here is more than impressive.   This might just prove to be a nice little resting point in Ecuador prior to Sam and I making our way north to Columbia.       

The main cathedral in Baños

Sam and another backpacker, Kelly, recieving master tutelage off me regarding how to take a night photo...

Moving On - Peru

After an unfortunate set of circumstances in Bolivia, I have been faced with the decision of "do I keep travelling on my own around the world adventure?" or "do I go home and get going with starting my life from scratch....again?".  Well, thanks to a number of people and their encouragement I have been convinced to just see how things go in the short term and where it is I end up with my travels.  Good guidance!

Not waisting too much time, I left La Paz and an invite from two similar solo travellers to stick around and have an awesome time with them.  I really needed the fresh start approach and this wasn´t in La Paz, it was in Arequipa, Peru.  Immediately at the bus station things picked up.  I ran into a nice couple I had been travelling with in the Amazon, Lolo and Lucas and they were heartfelt in the wishes they offered me.  On the bus I lucked out and got a front row seat on the second deck next to two Brazilian girls which was cool (awesome actually!).  Chatting and laughing we made it to Puno, Peru, before we unfortunately had to part ways.  Me to Arequipa and them to Cuzco, bugger!  But, what a small world..... Next it was in Puno that I met up with some French girls I had met in the Amazon as well as my first Aussie, YAY!  Unfortunately the French were off in a few days back home, but the Aussie, Cassie was heading my way.

Catching a cab in the wee hours of the morning with Cassie we ended up at the Wild Rover hostel in Arequipa where they gifted us some early beds so that we could sleep and recover.  Cassie too is a solo traveller and like myself a little less prone to planning and stuff.  The mentality of go to do what you want, when you want it was her perspective.  With each of us feeling like resting rather than hoping on the tourist gravy train we spent 4 days in Arequipa eating at the local markets (which have the most amazing food and juices!) and relaxing.  Bloody awesome!  It was during this time I met a lot of other solo travellers and soon I came to realise that this approach to travelling is totally different than the couple thing.  No ittineraries, do what you feel comfortable with and just relax into the travelling experience, that was the theme.  Travelling alone opens you up to so much more possibilities and you find the locals as well as other solo travellers are so much more likely to interact with you.

After 4 days in Arequipa, which is an awesome place, I made plans to head for Lima and 2 couch surfing dates with some local girls.  It´s probably at this point you are thinking, ha! he is really chasing the girls.  Well not really, I just seem to be meeting more of them and what I found out later after my first couch surfing date was that here in Peru, the girls are more aggressive at chasing guys than visa versa.  This explained why I only had girls responding to my couch requests....

Well hopping on the bus to Lima I found myself again up the front but this time I was seated next to a local guy from Lima.  Immediately we got to talking (which is my style) and for the whole trip we traded stories, recommendations, etc.  Arriving in Lima he hit me up to come and meet him and his girlfriend during my stay and gave me a hand bargaining the pesky taxi drivers.  I think it was the Aussie hip hop I played for him (on my stellar new shiny laptop!) from the Hill Top Hoods that sold him on me ;).

Arriving at my hostel, where Cassie was already staying, I quickly prepared for my first couch surfing date with Maria.  Well ain´t the Peruvians a friendly bunch!  Marie was a bubbling collection of enthusiasm and curiousity.  She gave me three choices for what to do:
1) Grab some coffee and later some dinner (eh...).
2) Grab some beers and later some dinner (tempting....).
3) Go to a local soccer match and see her favourite team play for some big stakes  

Being the Aussie I am, I picked the soccer match, not for the game, but for the craziness I new was to come...  Well quickly scooting off to the stadium, which was right off in the burbs, I was not dissapointed in the least.  Hopping off the bus, we were straight into a taxi, because walking around in the burbs being 6 foot 2, white and with lighter coloured hair was not a good idea I was told.  Soon enough I got to see why!  Being told to shut up and not speak a word of English (or bad Spanish) we dashed from the cab, through the massive mobs of brawling hoons and riot police to the secure area at the gate of the stadium.  I can definitely say I was the odd one out and people knew it.  Oh My God!  The riot police here are carying equipment that looks like it gets daily use!  Bean bag guns, battons, whips, shields etc.  They are kitted!  Not taking any crap they also had attack dogs, horses etc and they were hitting anyone not progressing the ticket line, getting in the way or just looking funny.  This was full on!

Inside the stadium, people were off the chain!  Drums, fireworks, chanting and general hooning was rife.  All the local kids were yelling stuff at me while Maria was kindly translated what it was they were saying.  Well, apparently I looked just like their team goalie and they were chuffed with this, and so was I....for a while until I saw how crap he was.....  Then we began to think this was a bad thing, because if he let a goal in.......oh crap.  So I cheared like buggery for the goalie!  Luckily the game was a nill all afair!  Phew!

Dashing from the stadium and trying to keep my head down we scored a ride with a local father and son back to my area in Lima for free!  People here are so generous.  Then it was on to eating some local specialities and drinking some beers.  Maria told me just how full on the situation was I was just in....nice to know after the fact!  Later we chatted exchanging other stories and experiences.  Dissapointingly, I had to pull the night up short because of a chronic lack of sleep I had been having over the past 5 days (too much partying in Arequipa with some Cassie and some American girls, hehe!).  

Sooo....I think I can get into this lone travelling thingy!  For now I recon my compass is pointing to Columbia.  I will eventually make my way out of Lima and on to Mancora, a surf town in the north, before entering Equador and finally arriving in Columbia.  Cause Columbia sounds awesome! 

Into Obolivian

Bolivia has been pretty epic so far.  It is a bit of a wild ol country with safety being a little backwards and organization being a fleeting dream.   Hell it is cheap though!  In plodding our way around over these last 3 weeks I have been electrocuted in the shower, hit my head on many non-regulation building awnings and eaten in some very questionable premises.  

Here are a few observations I would like to share with the reading public.

1. I don’t believe there is such a thing as electricians in this country.  All the wiring around the place is basically speaker wire with no positive or negative brandings.  Best of all there is no such thing as earthing and insulation is any kind of tape you can wrap around a joint.  Fixtures hang directly off the wiring and junctions, be them high tension, external or even in the bathroom are completely open to the touch.   
2. Bolivia is cold at altitude, really cold and showers are made to match.  Cold!  WHY!
3. Drivers here know how to fix cars so that they can hop in them and drive them like maniacs.  The only problem is the fix it when it is broke mentality rather than preventative maintenance.  When you are flying along a dirt road at 80km/h looking out the windscreen to see only 10m through the dust, the thought of the bald tires bulging on the front of the car are not reassuring. 

There are so many things like this that crop up and play on your mind here in Bolivia.  It helps to be a man of faith or simply naïve if you want to sleep at night.

Another funny quirk regarding this country is the monkey see monkey do mentality of the local entrepreneurs.  If one guy has a good idea, 15 look alikes pop up.  And they copy everything, except the proper levels of organization.  This applies to shop stalls, tours and all manner of businesses.  How can 15 mandarin stalls all next to each other be viable?  HOW?  

But we have observed the craziness, marveled at the workings and saved some money along the way.  Unfortunately, Bolivia has another memorable point.  It is the place where the Dutch-Didi team has ended.  Annalie and I have decided to call it quits here after 4 months of travels together.  We will each be going our separate ways from here on.  With her goes the computer and my means of easily writing blogs.  I do plan however on keeping up with my travel observations so keep tuned and maybe I can still provide some insight to my traveling world.           

Cities of Gold

Well isn’t Bolivia the land of backpacking opportunity.  We have mountain biked, canyoned, ate and drank like kings.  More, I want more I tell you.  So more it was.  We booked a 5 day adventure tour that would take us from La Paz to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon jungle.  The tour was a little more expensive than we had originally hoped (and been told by our Lonely Planet guide book, grrr!) but it had 2 days of downhill mountain biking and 3 days of camping on the Beni river which flows into the Amazon basin.  How could we say no? 

To fill in the time until our departure, we decided to fit in a spot of local Cholita wrestling.  For $10 each we were picked up from our hostel and driven by bus to the arena where the pain was to be brought.  The wrestling was a brilliant affair, totally ridiculous but thoroughly entertaining.  The crowd participation at these events is huge.  You can throw food, yell, taunt and even have a wrestler thrown atop of you.  Really cool!  

 Cholita

Back flipping action

Girls in gear

One crazy fan!

With grins ear to ear the wrestling finished and we prepared for the next days adventure into the Amazon.  Catching a local minibus to Sorata, we met up with our tour group at a local eco lodge.  The place itself was something to be seen, it came complete with a myriad of animals including a charging cow, cranky turkey and dogs, ducks, geese galore.  The owner was super friendly and the food he provided for us was absolutely delicious.  Good food = good start. 

The tour group was 12 people in total plus our 2 tour guides Maritcio and Alehandro.  Maritcio was our guide for the mountain biking segment and little did we know the best rider in Bolivia on the downhill racing scene while Alehandro was our guide for the entire tour.  Both guys spoke English and were very easy to get along with.  

The next day they packed us and our gear into two four wheel drives and we were ferried up 4,800m to the top of our first days downhill run.  Kitted up with brand new downhill bikes and some armor we were thrust back into the mountain biking scene once again.

 Top o'the world to ya!

 Kitted up with some nice bikes

 

Time to burn some rubber

The ride was fun and the scenery just breath taking.  At the end of the first day everyone was thoroughly happy to be off the bikes and away from the shake and rattle of the dirt roads.  At our hostel for the night, the guides cooked up a big feed and brought us some beers.  An excellent social bonding recipe fellas.  On our tour we had only couples, one a piece from England, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland and Spain/France.  This was a good mix and immediately everyone clicked.

The following day we were back on the bikes and back on the downhill slopes.  This day we had graduated from the more arid highlands to the tropical jungles.  With this came humidity, rain and the unfortunate scourge of this part of the world, gold mining.  This part of the country is in its mining infancy with many backyard operators tearing apart the local hillsides and river banks in search of a golden dream.  It really is disturbing to see how they scar the land, pollute the rivers with runoff and poison nature with their use of mercury as a gold fossicking agent.

Making up for the first days lack of incidents, day two saw two people come off their bikes.  Nothing too serious though, just some cuts and bruises.  When day 2 finally came to an end it was fair to say we were all happy to be off the bikes and wrapping our hands around another cold beer rather than some handle bars.  To spice up the night a little more, a fist fight broke out between our guide Maritcio and one of the jeep drivers over the drivers plans to get drunk and crack onto some local women rather than work.  Dids being present for this event managed to mediate a solution and relax the night back down to a more social occasion.  Ahh, touring Bolivia! 

The following day we were in a boat and bouncing along the rapids down towards our first nights jungle stay.  The ride and scenery were awesome and a dip in a crystal clear waterfall for our nightly shower was brilliant.   The food on this leg was a step up from the other nights with our boat bringing along a dedicated local lady to cook.  Camping was interesting too, there are some crazy animals here, even for an Australian.  There are ants called bullet ants which are large enough to nearly move a car.  They are heuuuuge! And apparently they can cause fever if they bite you.  This didn’t happen to the hyperactive Irishman (Ronan) though who with great Irish pride was the first to step on one and feel its wrath.  Ahh the Irish, they definitely are not meant for the wilderness.

  Two motorised canoes acting as a local car ferry.  Crazy Bolivians...

 Local hut on the river bank.

 Less posh local accommodation.

 Local river transport.

The unfortunate reality of gold mining along the river.  This was a large operation, much smaller ones litter the banks nearly everywhere you can see.

Continuing our jungle education we learned about many different plants, herbal remedies and whacky creatures.  There is a snake that sings like a bird, ants that eat your tent and cloths, ants that can devour a person in 6 hours and a spider that can jump, sting you with its fangs or tail as well as shot its hairs at you.  Who comes up with this stuff! Seriously!  All this was explained to us by our guide who was just brilliant.

All in all the jungle was eventful.  I fell 2m from a vine when it broke as I was swinging along, got bit by a fire ant and saw some cool nature.  The trip finished up in Rurrenabaque during a torrent of unseasonal rain and now we sit in a hostel planning our next move.  We had a great time on our tour and met some awesome people who we are hoping to keep traveling with in the short term.  As the Irish would say, they all have good crack (fun/banter). 

 The second nights camp ground.

 Leisurely dip in a waterfall

 Some boisterous Macaws

 My 2m jungle drop

The entry into the Madidi National Park

The river entry at Madidi National Park