La Paz, Bolivia

We finally arrive in La Paz, after our flight was essentially delayed by 28 hours. However, our last/additional night in Cuzco was a blast. We met up with the Irish group that was on our boat in the Galapagos Islands and some other great people. We didn't feel too great when we turned up at the airport again the following day but to our surprise we did get a flight at no additional cost. We thought that we'd be making the 20 hour bus journey that night, if we were going to be lucky enough to get one.

La Paz was similar to most of the other cities we had encountered since the start of our trip. Market stalls everywhere and poverty obvious. We seemed to encounter more English speaking tourists here, mostly from Europe but also Aussies and a few North Americans. Read my next post, when I make it, for my opinion of our next destination - Buenos Aires (we arrived yesterday). There was a marked difference to the place as it had very much a European feel. The people looked more European, clearly much less 'native'. There were more people with a grasp of English too. This was a disappointment, like we were almost back home.

We didn't do much in La Paz, we spent a lot of time in two 'British' pubs on Christmas day and Boxing day. One of the main attractions to the city is the "Death Road". It's known as the most dangerous road on the planet due to the amount of deaths that have occurred. A new, safer, road has recently opened, but there are lots of travel companies that operate mountain biking trips down the original road. It's still dangerous; we heard that the day before we did the biking a Norwegian guy went over the edge on his bike and was killed. We went in a group of around 25 people (we were by far the oldest!) and two of them had accidents and one was injured. Fortunately they crashed into the walls on the 'safer' side of the road, on the other side there is mostly a sheer drop.

Typical La Paz street, could be any number of the places we've visited.

Typical La Paz dish is trout. This woman was not happy when she realised I was taking her picture, a reaction we'd seen before.

We spent too much time in this pub!

My steak in its final seconds of preparation!

On a cable car across part of the city - lots of slums.

Lots of snow on the peaks around La Paz too.

Some shops sell lama foetuses, thought to bring good luck.

We prepare for Death Road! 

Me!

Typical bend in the road.

Myself and Craig.

The road below, from the road above! There's still vehicular traffic and some small villages en route. We were back up at 4600 metres.

The busses carry stretchers, and there was an ambulance stationed somewhere on standby!

Cuzco, Machu Picchu and the expedition!!

Still blogging from a boozer in La Paz!!

We stayed in an airbnb apartment for two days when we arrived in Cuzco in order to arrange our solo expedition to Machu Picchu. We rented tents and sleeping bags. We didn't want to do "classic" Inca Trail because it's not permitted to do it without a guide and essentially following them or the person in front - no adventure in that! We took and map and a compass and followed the "Salkantay route", which took us to over 4600 metres.

The altitude was more difficult that either of us thought it would be. Ascending at that altitude was extremely tiring and we struggled to catch our breath.

After returning to Cuzco from Machu Picchu we had booked a hotel for another two nights. We had a flight booked on Christmas Eve to La Paz, but after five hours in the airport the thing was cancelled. Fortunately we managed to get cheap digs for another night in Cuzco and managed to fly here yesterday (Christmas day) to our rented airbnb apartment.

The entrance to our apartment in Cuzco

Cuzco is a typical South American city, poverty is rife

Plaza de Armas

Plaza de Armas

Cuzco

We meet up with a couple from the UK. This doesn't often happen, usually we're the only gringos in town, but we knew we'd meet other English speaking people here, as everyone is en route to Machu Picchu 

I took this 'selfie' as we were about to leave on our 4 day hike to Machu Picchu at 4am. We took a "colectivo" to Mollepata  - a two hour trip.

The nightmare begins!

Rain looms....

A dead snake

Mount Salkantay snow covered in the background (over 6000 metres)

Face-off with a bull!

Oh no!! The rain looms again

I lugged this bottle of wine with me and was almost too exhausted to drink it. Pic taken from my tent - as the rain falls..

First night on our expedition, it got a lot worse as the rain continued and we got wet. Lots of snow on Mount Salkantay!

The next day we reach our maximum altitude, then we get very wet...

We get drowned

Thankfully we manage to get beds at a campsite on our second night, and dry our gear off. I'd been wet through for hours and could have been in trouble if we'd had to camp in tents under no cover...

The other option at the camp site - pitch your tent under cover

We continue the next day, and get lost after an old local guy gives us the wrong directions!

We get to a tiny community in a place called La Playa - there was no beach!!

We have a meal and the owner's wife offers us a free space to camp. This is the 'before' picture...

...and after we pitch the tents - we were exhausted. Night three.

Craig with the owner of the "restaurant'. He spoke no English and very little Spanish, the local language is Quechua.

After a short taxi trip we set off for Aguascalientes.

We spend the night in a hotel in Aguascalientes then climb to Machu Picchu the following day.

After 1200 steps we arrive at the entrance to Machu Picchu.

Fortunately this cloud clears.

Tamest lamas on the planet!

I crapped myself as this lama seemed to almost pose for this pic!

I'd expected to see more of this type of stonework

We get back to Aguascalientes and pick up our gear...

...before walking along the train tracks back to the hidroelectrica and getting a colectivo back to Cuzco.



We have lunch and all of a sudden the 'vendors' start moving stuff, then this train goes by!

It was moving at speed!

En route back to Cuzco.

The driver buys coco leaves to chew.



When I took this picture I thought it would be our last night in Peru, but our flight the following day was cancelled and we spent Christmas Eve in Cuzco.