Another Superlative - The Hardest Week of My Life

Peru. Cusco. Machu Picchu. 8th Wonder of the World.

Not so fast.

People do the Inca Trail. People do the Inca Trail alternatives like Salcantay and Valle Lares. No one does the trek from Cachora through Choquequirau over the course of 7 days to end at Machu Picchu.

Well, thank God for mules. They certainly saved my ass. Sombra and Wayra (Shadow and Wind (this one in Quechua)) provided entertainment and lugged our stuff until midway through day 6.

Our (I discovered this trek thanks to New Yorker Jason inviting me instead of being on one of the super-touristy hikes) first major stop was the ruins of Choquequirau. This huge sprawling area (only 30% of which is uncovered) was home to thousands of Incas after the Spanish became quite strong. Choquequirau was only started in the 1830s! The Incan Empire was in no way ancient history, but rather reached its peak right as the Spanish arrived to the Americas.

We were 2 of maybe 20 tourists there, versus the several thousand we later saw at Machu Picchu.

The days were hard and long, honestly making the most physically strenuous week of my life. We were normally between 3,000 and 4,000 meters, but our highest pass was at about 4,700...or over 15,000 feet! Breathing was often difficult. But so was walking...and sitting...and everything else.

AN INSURER´S NIGHTMARE

The end of Day 6 was slightly less than could be hoped for. State Farm would have had cardiac arrest had they seen what we were doing. How about finishing a trip by hobbling along mismatched railroad ties...in the dark. We used head lamps...which were quickly losing power thanks to the always-trustworthy South American batteries! to feebly traverse the last 3 hours.

In the morning, from atop Machu Picchu, we saw that we simply made massive loop around the citadel of the lost Incan city!

It was a hike I will hopefully never forget!

4th of July and the Birth of Something...And BoobiePoopie for Jacob!

I realized it was July 4th about halfway through the day. I was walking around Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca (my friend Jacob first introduced me to its little-known reference of Lake BoobiePoopie!). Oh, and Titicaca holds the amazing superlative of the World´s Highest (Navigable) Lake. I´m not too sure about that one!



Views from Isla del Sol. Isla de la Luna is below in the distance. It was where Incan virgens were safely kept for ritual purposes!



Isla del Sol is the sacred birthplace of the two primary Incan gods...whose names I am forgetting. It has several small villages and accompanying ruins from its glorious past. Although touristy, it was luckily not overboard and unbearable like some locations...allowing for several very tranquil nights on the island.

The World´s Most Dangerous Road...and other superlatives

I enjoyed the incredibly touristy biking of the WORLD´S MOST DANGEROUS ROAD outisde of La Paz, Bolivia with my Canadians Chloe and Iblis.



They aren´t joking. The 400+ meter drops directly off the side of the road (minus a protective railing...of course) are quite fear-inspiring.

Luckily we made the multiple hour downhill coast without a scratch -- dust enough to put a sandstorm to shame - but no one fell. I later found a British girl with another group who had taken two nose-dives during the course of the day.

And it´s been a good year...only 38 people had died this year at the point when we rolled down. (That´s 38 motorists - only 7 or 8 bikers have ever paid the final price! Comforting)

A longer list of the other superlatives I´ve encountered will come when I find the list!

Too Far Gone

I fly home to the US tomorrow, July 21.

I am way too far behind to update things properly. My apologies to anyone who might actually want updates on my whereabouts! Thus is life.

Cocamama en la Pachamama...or...La Hoja de Coca NO es Droga

Although my becoming slightly addicted to the lovely dullishness produced by sticking several hundred coca leaves in the side of my mouth is funny...the mine I toured in which I used the leaves was far from a laughing matter.

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Potosí, situated at a mere 4,100 meters (and claiming to be the highest proper city in the world), has been mined for over 500 years. It has a rich, bloody, triumphant and sorrowful history. Unfortunately, the circumstances for the miners has changed very little. Honestly.

Touring the La Mina Rosario (one of several hundred small mines on the mountain) was a humbling experience for lack of better words. We crawled up and down small chutes to get to blasting areas and watched in awe as miners manually pushed and pulled multi-ton carts of rock along rickety tracks.



Some men pushing a cart.

Carlos is 15 and has already worked in the mine for 2 years. He said he no longer plans on returning to school. Because the mine is a co-operative, there are very few restrictions about child labor.



In one month miners earn roughly $800 Bolivianos, or US$100. I earned that amount of money daily while roofing when I was 16 - and I wasn´t working in conditions where my life expectancy was roughly 15-20 years after entering the working area.

Potosí was once larger than New York or Paris in terms of commerce. It was the richest city in the world thanks to its huge silver reserves. It and the surrounding indigenous peoples were exploited by the Spanish.

And the sacred coca leaf (which cocaine is produced from - %50 of worldwide consumption is in the US!), is a main reason that people can work in such an excrutiating atmosphere. The leaf dulls the impacts of altitude, hunger, and long hours, but does not give a high like cocaine. Trust me...I only say this because I know!

Now the Potosí mountain is mined for several other minerals because the silver reserves are quite low.



Large pieces are brought to sorting plants that break them down and eventually extract the elements.



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We still had fun. Me with Adam and Alex.

If I had known how insanely huge the explosion from that tiny bag would be...there´s no way in hell it would have been in my mouth. Our guide put it about 60 yards away and we could easily feel the shock wave from it. Oh...and that entire dynamite system was bought for a mere US$2!

Welcome to the Jungle...the Gringo Jungle

Pure fear --- that is what I am feeling after seeing the same tourists at every Gringo Trail stop throughout Bolivia. It´s insane. Honestly. We travel in packs. Herded along by the slick quasi-bi-lingual tour guides and travel agents along the way!

The traveling has become insanely touristy since entering this land-locked nation (thanks to Chile taking away the sea exit via the Atacama Desert quite a few decades ago!)

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The Uyuni Circuit

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I finally have travel partners thanks to me joining the tons of other travelers making their ways up through Bolivia.

I joined an Australian/New Zealand couple, a gangly British chap, and 2 French Canadian girls in a very crowded jeep to make our way around southwestern Bolivia over 4 days.



Alex, Iblis, Chloé and I.



This country offers the most striking geography I have ever seen.

We started with El Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest salt flat, and made our way up toward lakes around Volcano Lincancabur high in the Andes where NASA tests to compare this terrain with that on Mars...and the potential for finding life on Mars because there is life up here in these high Andean lakes.



El Desierto de Dalí



Spewing geysers were alongside El Desierto de Salvador Dalí. I asked what the desert was called before Dalí came to paint the frighteningly bleak landscapes...it didn´t have a name before Dalí came and made it famous!

We spent hours each day in the jeep and followed it up by shivering around small stoves (if we were lucky in that particular alojamiento). The temperatures at night reached -20 Celsius.

That´s like -10 or -15 Fahrenheit.

And while everyone at home was busy enjoying the longest day of the year...June 24...we came back to Uyuni to partake of the San Juan festival. Which unfortunately celebrates the longest and coldest night of the year in the southern hemisphere!



Very little salt is produced industrially because it is so cheap that little money can be made. It takes the man about 20 minutes to shovel together a mound of salt...which is then left to dry. In the middle of the field salt is 30 meters deep!



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And mummies are preserved quite well at such high altitudes. These are a thousand years old - and very well protected as can be noted! There is a baby in the lap of the one on the left in the lower photo.





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Some other photos. You might see a pattern...