I´m in a new country as this letter is slowly writing itself. But I´ll start from where I left off.
Bolivia, last you heard I was still in Tupiza getting ready for the 4 day jeep tour. Crammed jeep, coco leaves, the highest elevation I've been to, llamas, beautiful sights and lots of laughs.
But I´ll give the point to point. Waking up exited to be on my way(because I HAD to make it to Peru to meet Flavia) we crammed the newly formed crew of six into the jeep, threw are bags on the roof, and got going only one hour late which is danm good for Bolivia standards.
10:00 We´re on the road.
10:05 We get a flat tire.
10:10 The tire is fixed and the driver is bribing and arguing with the cop at the border to the park lands about his drivers licence.
After a short tour to the police station, and are cook explaining to us that "this is BOLIVIA after all", we go buy a new tube for the tire and we´re on are way again. Driving up steep dirt roads and chewing coco for the elevation, we are greeted with the amazing Bolivian high desert.
The next few days are full of tiny little mining towns, reeealy cold shacks to sleep in at night, pink flamingos, bubbling guysers, active volcanoes and much more that I will explain when I´m home showing you the pictures.
We finally get to are ultimate destination, El Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flats in the world. After waking up way before the sun felt like showing its face, we again pack the jeep seeing are breath hanging in the air. We start a kind of racing with another jeep that is there for the same touristy purpose, and when the jeep in front of us gets a flat, you can imagine a few of my group being angry that are guide is giving them are spare tire and also helping them fix it. "Did we wake up this early only to miss the sun rise on the salt flats?" no, its amazing, driving 80 km an hour and not moving an inch. Lots of pictures you will have to see to believe.
The group splits in Uyuni, everyone going there own traveling ways.
I get on a bus looking forward to the 30 hour bus ride ahead of me, because I know I get to meet my girlfriend in Cusco, Peru. But before I tell you about this place, you should know that no trip through Bolivia is complete without one of the famous bus breakdowns where there put your bags on the ground and tell you "good luck". So here I am, on the side of the road just one hour from the destination I started for just 2 1/2 weeks ago, my bag on my back, and 25 Argentine cents in my pocket because I spent my last Bolivianos on the bus ticket and Peru has another currency entirly. Shit, how do I pull myself out of this one? My saving grace was a middle aged lady from spain, who lent me money to take the taxi to the last town we passed and jump on a bus there.
On the bus I talked to an old guy (in spanish) who has lived in Cusco for the last 4 years, and has only spoke spanish for 7. He was, I think, from bolivia and grew up speaking Qechua the local indiginous language. He showed me pictures of the city and told me storyies of traditional customs.
O.K. Cusco. Well I´ll start off by saying touristy, everyone wants to sell you something. But if you can fight your way through the crowd of people pushing you into there bars and giving you free drinks, the city is beautiful. The original capital of the Inka empire. I´ve spent my days hers walking around the city with Fla and looking at all the alpaca warm weather gear for sale, which has come in handy because its colder than a witches tit here at night.
After a few days of talking to tour guides for Machu Pichu, me and Fla pick one and are amazed by the genius of the ruins of Pisaq and Ollantaytambo, the two we saw the day before climbing about 2000 stairs to Machu Pichu.
We wake up at 4:30 and set out to find the trail, "oh its over there, you cant miss it" says the half asleep girl at reception of are hostal. Well, we asked a few more times and made it to the base of the stairs, climbing in the dark with surprisingly few stumbles we slowly and sweatily climb are way up to the sunrise and the lost city of the Inka´s, amazed by the clarity of the stars the whole time.
So peaceful and sacred, words cant even describe(but you do have to ignore the crowds around you) After the tour that told us the important stuff we should know, we found are own little terrace to sit on and talk about how crazy those people were to build a city on top of a mountain like this.
Hot springs back in town to rest are tired legs. And then to bed because we had to wake up at 4:00 again to catch the train back to Cusco.
What the hell is this! crazy crazy people. After the tranquility of Machu Pichu we were both kind of annoyed with the culture around us. When we asked for directions, people were happy enough to give them exept that they didn´t really know they just like being helpfull, even if it does send us off in the tottally wrong direction.
So you can probobly tell I´m done with this place. Tomorrow I get on a 2 or 3 day bus for Buenos Aires(like I said, noboby knows anything in this country) to spend another week with Flavia and then I´ll see you all soon. I´m not sure exactly when but I think you'll know when I´m in your area.
So until then, peace and love to all my amazing friends.
Isaiah.
