Floating islands

On our first morning in Peru we woke up with an unpleasand surprise. As is became clear that the Amazone left us both a little souvenir... We both had a tick on our backs, at exactly the same spot. Allans first comment: 'we got matching ticks!' I was a little less thrilled... Luckily they both fell off later.

We took a boat to see the floating islands in Lake Titicaca (Titicaca means 'grey puma' by the way, because of the shape of the lake - like a puma - and because half of the year the water is grey).

The floating islands are really touristic, and as the lonely planet tells us ' horribly commercialized' . Still it was nice to see. We had to see the house of the chief and his wife, and I had to put on a silly hat to take a picture with them.

Then we went on to the island Taquile. It didn't have hostels and restaurants like Isla del Sol in Bolivia, but this island felt much more touristic and a bit fake.

Now we are back in Puno. This area is filled with tourists and the prizes are much higher than in Bolivia. Well, now we have to pay like 4 euro's for a main course instead of 1,50. So don't worry about us, I don't think we will starve to death...

Beautiful Lake Titicaca

After one more night in cold La Paz, we took a bus towards Copacabana. Not the famous beach in Brazil, but a small village on the coast of lake Titticaca. We where supposed to go directly to Puno, but a last chat with a local persuaded us to get off the bus and take a boat to Isla Del Sol.

Isla Del Sol is a sacred isle in Inca folklore, it gave birth to the sun and it is placed about two hours from shorein lake Titticaca. Everything you do, except maybe staring at a wall, in 4.000m altitude takes an effort, and wisely we left our main baggage behind at a hostel and only brought the most neccesary items like laptop, toiletpaper and lollypops.

There are no cars on the island, but there are trails that wind up and down the mountainsides. We followed one of these trails, and after meeting only pigs, donkeys, llamas and the occational farmer, we ran into Ruud. A Dutch traveller who was also out exploring the island. We joined up and tried to navigate with our maps; none of them correct.

After 2,5 hours of walk with breath taking(literally) views,we came to a little beach. On the hillside overlooking the water, there was a hotel, that was not described in Lonely Planet, so our curiosity got the better of us and we climbed the rough steps cut out in stone of the mountain to get there.

There was no one around, and strangely the keys to all the rooms where sitting in the locks...a ghost hotel?

A local woman from a nearby house saw us, and after ushering her pigs out of her house, she went and found the woman who was the care taker. We could indeed stay there if we where willing to pay the outrageous price of 25 bolivianos per person (2,5 euro), we said thank you and went to the local party. This was our cheapest hotel stay on the trip, for Ruud it was the most expensive, we are fake backpackers after all :-)

They only have two party days a year, and we hit one of them. Parties seem to be a little different on an island in lake Titticaca. Two lines of people dance with each other, minimum 2 meters apart and the men mostly sit and drink beer and chew coca leaves. They would applaud when someone brought more beer or made a fool out of himself. We sneaked in, found a corner and joined the 'fun'.

After dark it gets really cold, and we went back to the hotel where the lady had cooked local fish and soup for dinner.

After a cold cold night we got up enjoyed the fantastic view in the morning, walked back to the boat and went to Puno, where we will explore some more.

Welcome to the Pampas

Flying internal in Bolivia is an experience in itself. A small airplane (Sanjay can probably tell what kind) took us through the mountains. Not over, but through the snow covered mountains.

When we landed it was on a strip of dirt cleared in the middle of the jungle and the humid heat hit us like a wet newspaper fresh out of the microwave.

Our first day in Rurrenabaque was very nice. We decided to go swimming because it was so warm. The nice swimmingpool had a great view over the area, but since it was located on the side of a mountain we had to take a taxi to get there. The problem is that there are no taxis, but apparently everybody with a motorcycle is a taxi, so we waved two guys down and took a ride to refreshment. Later that day we went to the Moskito Bar for even more refreshment and we drank a lot of Caipirinhas, Daquiries and other nice alcoholic drinks. We ended up quite drunk, and having spend almost all our bolivianos (At that point it was funny to call them Bavianos) not a good thing when there are no atms in town and nobody takes credit card...

Luckily we where going to the Pampas (Pampers?) so the distractions and need for money would be minimal, or so we thought...

After only three hours in a 4x4 jeep we arrived at the river that would take us into the heart of the wetlands. The wetlands of the Pampas are amazing. We've never seen so many animals and beautiful trees. During our three hour boatride down a winding river we saw caiman, caipibaras, dolfins, turtles, monkeys, all kinds of birds etc.

We stayed at a pretty primitive camp (when I -Miriam- used the toilet, a frog jumped out when I flushed... ieeeee!) We also went on a four hour hunt for anacondas, but we had to abandon the search without any luck.

After a whole day in the sun, nothing would be nicer than an ice cold beer, unfortunately our bolivianos was nearly up, so he had to stick to the lemonade which was free and also a bit refreshing even though it was warm.

We stayed two nights in the camp and each morning we woke up by the noises of the amazonas. Imagine about 1 million crickets, add a hundred screaming birds and a lot of other animals. And most important: the immensly loud noise of what first seem to be alien monsters invading the camp.

Then it turns out they are just howler monkeys. Apparently they howl every time the sun comes up, and it is not something you can ignore. We had to get up anyways, because piranha fishing was on the program for the morning. Miriams first fishing experience ever, and my first at trying to catch piranhas.

We must say, three days in the Amazonas was an amazing experience, but now we are very glad to be back into civilization...

Leaving La Paz

It is time for us to leave La Paz and journey into the jungle. It's a bit sad because now we have to miss our dayly spanish synchronized japanese soap opera ' Escalera al cielo' (Stairway to heaven / Roltrap naar de hemel) in the morning. After only two days we were already addicted (and now we probably never know if Jungsu finally will get better from that terrible illness and marriesher true love that stole her heart back from that other guy...)

La Paz is hard to understand...why do people choose to live here?We have been dragging our bodies up and down the hills, breathing like a school for astmatic smokers.It is not only us who are struggling with the altitude. The local people have set their pace to a slow stroll that makes us westerners stop and think a bit on how our lives always seem hurried and full of chases after trains, busses when we could really just slow down and get there when we get there.

Great things about La Paz:

- The view is magnificent, mountains and fresh (but very thin) air.

- No appetite at all, we can't finish the meals, and that is not normal for Allan.

- You can always find each other in a crowd, the average hight must be around 1.22m

- Cheap, a 3 course meal cost 2,50 euro...and no we could not finish it.

- Weather forcast says 18 degrees and rain, but it is always sunny and feals like 30.

Nowwe are going into the hot sticky malaria ridden jungle. I am sure they have wifi and airconditioning everywhere, if not, we are going back to La paz...or somerhwere else. First we'll take the 45 min. flight and find our welcome caipirinha waiting for us...

Getting high in Bolivia

Yesterday we arrived in Bolivia. Our passports are already filled with stamps, and it's a weird idea that in one week we've travelled through 4 countries.

We spend the night in a nice hotel in Santa Cruz and in the morning we enjoyed lying by the pool and getting some sun. In the afternoon we arrived in La Paz whichis on 4 km height above sealevel. I was a bit afraid we would get altitude sickness, butI didn't really feel anything when we arrived (Allan felta bit different). But then we had to climb up 6 stairs with our backpacks on our backs to get to our room... We were out of breath for half an hour when we finally got there!

For some reason we can't upload pictures here. So we can't show you the colorful women, the scenery and how we had dinner in the highest curry restaurant in the world...

Bai bai Paraguay

We are leaving Asuncion with a feeling of having travelled a path less travelled and done all that we could do in a city that tries its best to hide its charms. I don't know if it is the diesel exhaust fumes from the ancient busses that race every street or just the ever present dengue fever in form of mosquitos, but Asuncion makes it hard to love her deeply.

The things you have to love are that this city is cheaper than anywhere I have ever been. The 1 hour bus ride to the airport for 20 euro cent was just a culmination of the trials we had in spending the guaranis that I exchanged on the first day. A three course meal with wine, a special fish dish baked in a claydish together with rice and mashed potatoes big desserts at the fanciest restaurant the city could offer came to a total of 30 euros...

The friendliness of people is hard to believe. When you live in Amsterdam and you are used tothe less than friendly service, you are continually amazed at how people will go out of their way to help you here. No habla English, butstill, its the thought that counts.

All in all a great place to visit,and a great place to leave. I don't think we will ever return, but we are glad that we came...does that make sense?

Op dit moment zitten we ons te vervelen op het vliegveld van Asuncion omdat de vlucht minstens anderhalf uur vertraging heeft. Ons Paraguay avontuur zit er dus weer op. Er is hier niet erg veel te beleven, maar we hebben ons toch goed vermaakt. Lekker gegeten, de stad verkend, naar de dierentuin geweest, geprobeerd te shoppen...

Tijdens ons verblijf hier hebben we het volgende geleerd:
- Alle Paraguayanen drinken Mate, een drankje dat ze uit een potje met een tuutje lurken. Iedereen loopt over staat met een tank water en dat potje met een of ander kruidenmengsel
- Ze hebben hier dikke etalagepoppen
- Miereneters en tapirs zijn coole beesten
- Het is een van de armste landen van Zuid Amerika, maar ze hebben hier wel overal WiFi (gratis)
- Spongebob heet hier Bob Esponja

Ai ai ai, Paraguay!

Today it was time for our big journey to the ever exciting Paraguay. I heard and read stories about people having a lot of trouble getting across the border with crappy busses that don't want to stop at the border or don't want to let you on. We took the easy way out with a taxi, and before we knew it we were on the bus to Asuncion.

When we arrived in Paraguay, the difference with Brazil became quit clear. The bordertown Ciudad del Este is dirty, noisy, chaotic, with a lot of dirty and poor people.

After a 5 hr. busride we arrived in Asuncion, and the most run down taxi you've ever seen took us to our hotel.

The city is a mix of nice colonial buildings, old torn down houses and big flats. The big advantage here: everything is so cheap! I wanted to get a haircut for a long time, and there are hairdressers on every streetcorner, so I took my change at the most fancy one I could find, The damage? Less than 4 euro's...try that in Amsterdam!

The drink all the kids here drink is something called caña (similar to rum) with cola . A bottle of the bestcañain the supermarket costs less then 1,50. A bottle of Bacardi Limon is less then 5 euro's... I think we're getting drunk tonight!

Allan decided to build a Cartman trap, and stocked up on Cheesy poofs,rumor has it that the stores are closed tomorrow, and we cant run out of cheesy poofs.

XMiriam

Iguassu Falls

We hebben ons goed vermaakt vandaag.. Allereerst het meest uitgebreide en lekkere ontbijt ever. Met vers fruit, 10 soorten yoghurt, lekkere broodjes etc. Daarna gingen we op wegnaar de Argentijnse kant van de Iguassu Falls. Enorm indrukwekkend!

XMiriam

Today we went to the Iguassu falls. One of the largest waterfalls in the world. Since we are staying in a hotel in Brasil, and about 80% of the falls are placed in Argentina, we had to cross the border to get to the national park.

It was all worth it. The sights of these waterfalls are amazing