The curse of the shoulder...

This week started really well and ended not too well... A friend invited me to go to river witha rafting trip he had going out. I went to the river Jatun Yacu for the day, a really fun class 3 big water section. I then agreed to stay here in Tena (Ecuador) to help out with the company for the rest of the week. I was selling trips in the office and safety kayaking on the rafting trips. Tena is a really cool place to work because it 's a very laid back place. The jungle is not too far and it's a very warm area. There are lots of really good quality rivers nearby and they don't tend to have problems with the water levels.

So I worked for a few days and was really content in what I was doing, the team was great to work with and I felt like I fit right in. Then we headed to the Jondachi River, a class 4 section that I was due to work on this weekend. After a really great morning of slaloming our was down the first half of the river alongside the raft we had a big lunch to get ready for the slightly bigger volume second half of the river. I'm warming up on the first few rapids and we get to a flat section with a big flat rock in the middle. I go to do a rock spin and 'POP' out comes y right shoulder again (just for the record, the rock spin went perfectly, style points for that...). Damn, not again... I grab my shoulder and shove it back into its socket, this is the fourth dislocation I've done now so I've had a bit of practice at putting them back in place. We had about another hour and a half or two hours to get to the take out so I chose the easiest lines and walked around one rapid that probably would have taken my shoulder out again.

The day started with high hopes

So Ecuador doesn't seem to be my luckiest country. Now to finish my trip and get training to get massive shoulders so it doesn't happen again. Something tells me that I´m going to have to spend a while off rivers before I venture back into whitewater. The main thing is that I'm still smiling, Ecuador is an awesome country. Lessons of the day:

1) Do a first aid course if you're kayaking in remote areas, the knowledge you gain will be invaluable
2) Surround yourself by a strong team, you have to support each other
3) Keep those elbows down...

The next time I post I might well be back home, I've got 10 days left of my year abroad. Tonight I head for Colombia to try my luck on the other side of the border!

Peru to Ecuador

After Cusco, I didn't really spend much time at all in the rest of Peru. I passed through a town called Ica, from which I got a short taxi ride to Huacachina. The taxis are called mototaxis and are exactly what I know as tuk-tuks from Sri Lanka, small rickshaw like things that beep their horns way too much. Huacachina is apparently South America's only desert oasis. Yup, I didn't realise that S.America had an oasis either. But it's really quite a sight. 

 That day I got a dune buggy tour which drove us around the dunes to see the sunset. We also took sandboards with us to slide down some of the bigger dunes. I think that sandboards are pretty much just snowboards that you have to wax before you use them. Having said that, I've never been snowboarding... So I could be wrong in thinking that snowboarders don't wax their boards, though it seems a bit pointless.

 From Huacachina I went to the capital Lima. Lima was not my favourite place, it's big and loud. I was only there for a night, so took a walking tour around the city. We went in a lot of churches... The guide said that Lima has 44 churches. The interesting thing is that they are all connected by an undergrund network of catacombs, where worshippers used to pay to have their bones buried. However, and this is the weirdest part, the tunnels were actually created to flee from pirates. No joke. The churches were centres of massive wealth in the form of gold and jewels, so when the old pirates used to land in Lima, the priests would flee in the tunnels with all the valuable goods. Remarkable.

From Lima I had a series of pretty rubbish bus journeys, the travelling totalled up to nearly 40 hours with all the stops. I finally arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador. I have no pictures of Cuenca, because I was only there a few hours and a few hours was enough for me. It's not the most inspirational city. I carried on to the small adventure town of Baños which is where I was until yesterday. Baños is a really cool place, set in the Ecuadorian jungle. I got speaking to a rafting company who invited me to go and paddle with them yesterday! After a really great morning on the water, the boss asked me if I wanted to work as a safety kayaking in the afternoon (an offer which I obviously accepted). It was great to get back into the swing of working on the river, especially since Ecuador is the country in which I hurt myself.

Doing some more paddling in Ecuador and loving every second

Today I am back in Tena, Ecuador. I say 'back' because I was here 5 months ago with the boys from back home, that time in a sling... Tomorrow and hopefully the day after I've been invited to do some more paddling, this trip is fast becoming a South American kayaking adventure. I'm not complaining.

Back to Tena. Same place, different circumstances

Peru!

My bus journey from La Paz (Bolivia) to Cusco (Peru) was quite possibly the coldest bus journey I have ever been on in my life. 12 hours of shivering in my seat, I made a note to self that I would definitely wear more than shorts and flip-flops for my next bus journey. It’s ok though because Cusco turned out to be one of my favourite cities so far. I spent the first day wandering around the town, it feels like a really safe place. There are plenty of reminders all around the city that it used to be the Inca Empire’s capital, loads of ruins can be found in and around the city. Though I do always seem to find myself in some weird situations… The day I arrived there was a teacher’s strike, so riot police were all over the city. There was no violence at all though and the teachers marched through the city very peacefully. That would definitely not have been the case in Chile!

I found the localo market too, where I had lunch. A really tasty bowl of Peruvian ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice, rice and sweet potato, for hardly any money at all. It’s quite nice to find a place to eat where there aren’t many other tourists, it makes you feel as though you actually are abroad rather than in a holiday camp.

Hunting out some good food

You'll have to take my word for the next point, since I have zero photo evidence. I went whitewater kayaking again!!! Almost exactly 5 months after my accident in Ecuador, I convinced a Peruvian rafting company to lend me some kit and let me follow them down the river. We did a little exchange in the sense that I helped them out with their safety procedures and English safety briefs, so they lent me the kit and gave me transport and lunch for free. It was great to be back out on a river (albeit a pretty easy grade 3), I felt strong and smooth. I'm really looking forwards to getting paddling back at the level I was at before Ecuador!

The following two days I spent on a trip to Machu Picchu, a must do for any traveller in Cusco. The first day was a long 6hr drive up a winding road, followed by a two hour walk up the railway to the town of Aguas Calientes, a kind of Machu Picchu base camp. I'd opted for the bus transfer to be able to do it in two days since I was fairly short of time, though there are 4-5 day trekking options too.

2hrs of flat along this railway to Aguas Calientes

The day I climbed up to the peak was an early start. You have to walk about 20mins to a bridge which opens at 5am, so you start queueing at around 4:30am. I then walked for about 30mins up loads of stairs as the sun came up, it's through a kind of jungle so the sweat clings on to you, which was kind of annoying. Then I waited for my guide up the top and he took us in the explore the ruins. The first thing that hit me was the sheer scale of the place. You have to remember that Machu Picchu was built something like 600 years ago, so the technology they needed to move those massive rocks must have been incredible. In fact, the Peruvian authorities are no longer planning to renovate any part of the ruins because they simply don't have the technology to be able to do it. The Incas carved the most perfect shapes out of rock and slotted these rocks, weighing several tons, together with zero gaps or imperfections. No mortar, no concrete. Mind-blowing.

The Condor Temple, some intricate brickwork

It was quite foggy at the top which I really enjoyed. It meant that you couldn't see a lot of the other tourists and gave the whole mountain an eerie feel. We did have a clearing in the fog to get some spectacular views of the ruins from above though:

The amount of work that went into this must have been insane

I also trekked to the Inca Bridge, which is a pretty narrow path carved into the side of the cliff that the Incas used to use to transport things.On the way down the fog closed in again, which made for some pretty dramatic llama shots. They posed pretty well I think.

Sketchy path to the Inca Bridge

Work it llamas. Work it.

Yesterday, I went up to Rainbow Mountain. This is a place I'd seen in a photo whilst in Chile and was determined to see it in real life. A 3am start was not on the top of my priority lists, but it was worth the effort. We hiked 5km, and 700m up to 5039m altitude to get the classic views. Hiking at this altitude is definitely a bit harder work than usual, everybody was puffing and panting on the way up. The curse of the fog hit again though, the summit was pretty cloudy. Though the fog did clear again for 5 minutes, so a couple of us that were at the top by that point got some amazing views. 

Yes it really does look like this. #nofilter

So that was Cusco. Stay tuned for the rest of my Peruvian adventure!

Cheating Death in Bolivia

I promised that I would post before I left Bolivia, seems like some of my English punctuality is returning! I am currently in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, having spent the past 6 days exploring what the country has to offer. I'll take you through it from the beginning...

I started my journey into Bolivia on a three day tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats, leaving from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The name of the tour is slightly misleading, since the first two days were not on the salt flats, it was just the third when we explored the famous flats. That's not at all a bad thing though, I had a great time on the first two days as well as I'll explain. It was an early start in Chile to get taken to the Bolivian border, this journey involved a 2200m climb within one hour in the bus, the altitude was definitely noticeable. After a short wait on the Bolivian border we were introduced to our guides for the next days and the other passengers we would be sharing the cars with. My guide was a young Bolivian guy called Alberto. Since the 3 day journey would involve a lot of off-roading, we had to use 4x4s for the tour. In my car there was a young French couple, a lone French traveler, and a German guy. The other jeep in our party carried 4 Brazilian tourists.

Day one we passed a load of interesting places. The vastness of the park is incredible. We passed by a series of lagoons, many of which were frozen over. The area was experiencing the most snow they'd had in 40 years!!! This meant that the park had been closed for a while, and we were only the second group to be allowed into the park. We had our lunch stop at some natural thermal baths, which was a welcome relief from the bitter cold. The final stop of the day was the 'Laguna colorada', which is a bright pink lake home to lots of flamingos. The lake gets its colour from the red algae that provides food for the flamingos, it was so strange. Our hostel for the night was literally in the middle of nowhere... Bit of data for you: the temperature overnight was -20C and inside our room was 0C, that is definitely the coldest room I've ever slept in. Thankfully, I was well wrapped up in my sleeping bag and mountain of blankets, so I didn't feel it too much.

Thermal baths were good to get out of the cold

Yes, it really is that colour!

This was night one's freezing hostal. 4400m altitude

Day 2. This day was more about taking in the beautiful scenery rather than stopping to see lots of sights. It's the weirdest feeling driving through what is essentially a desert, but with a knee-deep layer of snow. We were well over 4400m at this point, and people were starting to get headaches from the altitude. The Bolivian cure is to chew coca leaves (yes, the leaves used to make cocaine), it was surprisingly effective and everybody's headaches disappeared pretty quickly. We stopped to see a set of weird rock formations, including one that looked like a tree. We also stopped at a salt flat that was in formation, this means that the layer of salt was only centimetres thick and it didn't appear that white, but was definitely very flat. A railway crosses this flat and is used to transport minerals and salt from Bolivia to Chile. That night we slept in a salt hostel, everything was made out of salt, including the chairs and tables! Apparently they only last 5 years due to the natural erosion. Luckily , ours was only 1 year old.

Our 2 jeep party had to do a lot of off-roading in the snow

Though there were also desert sections

The third day of our trip was a very early start, 5am to be precise. We wanted to get to the salt flats before the sunrise. We drove to an island in the middle of the salt flats, literally an island of rock surrounded by salt as far as the eye could see. After a short climb up the cactus-filled island we sat at the top in silence to take in the magnificent sunrise. It's a pretty powerful moment when all you can see is horizon, it's freezing cold, and you can feel the energy and warmth of the sun as it makes its first appearance of the day. After breakfast in the shadow of the island, we set off to find a quiet spot in the salt flats to take the traditional photos. This salt flat is the largest in the world, 180km by 150km, with a 5-6m deep layer of salt. We found a spot where we were the only part of civilisation in view. 360 degrees of horizon. The salt forms hexagonal indents where the summer rain evaporates. Since the area is so consistently flat, it makes for some fun photos since you can play with the perspective. We then headed to Uyuni, the town on the edge of the salt flats where we saw all the abandoned mining trains in a kind of Train Cemetery. The day finished with a buffet lunch all together, before we said our goodbyes. This was for sure one of the most stunning places I've ever seen.

I hung around with the French couple for a while, catching up on emails and messages after 3 days without outside contact. We waited for our night bus to the Bolvian capital, La Paz. We arrived about 5am and checked in to our hostels. I then met up with them again later to look around some of the sights in the city centre. We went to look around the Witch's Market, which is where they sell all kinds of weird potions, creams, and powders to cure various things. Perhaps the weirdest thing we saw was a basket full of dried llama fetuses, god knows what they're used for... We also looked around the Coca Museum, which was a really interesting look into the medicinal benefits that the Bolivian people have gained from chewing coca leaves, as well as the devastating effects that the hard drug derived from the lead has had worldwide. We learnt all about how cocaine was made, its history (including in Coca-cola), and how governments worldwide are trying to combat its use. Though it was interesting to see that the majority of modern anesthetics are derived from synthetic cocaine, apparently anything ending in -caine owes its existence to coca leaves (e.g. Lidocaine). I also booked my trip for the next day to Death Road, I was really excited.

The infamous Witch's Market

Yesterday, I set off early to meet the bus to go off and cycle down the infamous Death Road. It's a very narrow road with a horrifying drop off one side that goes along the side of a Bolivian valley. After arriving to the start point we got kitted up and had to offer a blessing with alcohol to Pachamama, an Andean godess, who would offer us protection during the ride. The ride was 67km of almost entirely downhill riding. The first part was asphalt, very grippy and it meant that the faster group I was in reached a top speed of 75kmph! The road then got a lot worse, steep and twisty, loose rock and gravel was the theme of the day. The group split into a faster and slower group and we hurtled down the hill as fast as we felt comfortable. I didn't have much mountain biking experience, but two Kiwis that did were happy to show me some techniques and I was soon chasing them down the mountain as high speed. The drop off is up to 300m in some places and the little memorials that line the road are a constant reminder of the countless deaths and injuries that the road has caused. Thankfully, I felt very safe under the guidance of Jubi our guide and apart from a few skids on the loose ground, didn't get anywhere close to crashing. One guy in our group did crash, thankfully into the wall rather than the drop... The strange thing is that the downhill riders must stick to the left, the cliff side... So it's a constant balance between staying close enough to the edge that you can see uphill traffic, and staying far enough away that you don't fall off. We ended the trip with a relaxing couple of hours in a swimming pool, massive lunch, and beers on the journey back. Funilly enough, it was only after we'd completed the road that the guide told us about the many clients that he's had to rescue from the cliffside and the horrific incidents that have happened. To be honest, all these incidents seem to have happened when people get over confident, so there is a simple solution. This was one of the most exhilarating things I've done in South America so far, I'd really recommend it! Photos to come...

I've just got back to my hostel after going to listen to a guy called Crazy Dave. Dave was raised in New York, and having fallen into cocaine addiction was convinced to go to Bolivia and smuggle drugs back in the late 90's. He was caught by the Bolivian authorities and sentenced to 16 years in San Pedro Prison. He got released over two years ago now and makes his living talking about his life inside the prison every day at 1pm. San Pedro Prison is located right in the centre of La Paz and sounds like no prison I've ever heard of before. Crazy Dave told us that inside the prison there was a whole different society. You had to buy your own house in the prison, pay your way for everything, earn respect from the drug lords, the escape attempts etc. This is also all talked about in a book by a Brit put in the same situation called 'Marching Powder'. Dave himself worked for over a year as an English tutor, doing the English homework of the convicts kids (over 150 kids lived in the prison with their convict parents), paid 1g of coke per kid. He quit teaching, saying that 6g plus of coke a day doesn't do much good for your head. He then did 3.5yrs of cocaine production, the purest coke you can get in the world is rumoured to be made inside the prison. It was a really interesting insight into another part of Bolivian society, and Crazy Dave's part rap, part rant, part theatrical style of storytelling made it very entertaining. Although it was slightly sad to see a man in his mins-50's, still addicted to coke, living on the streets and not back in his home country. He assured us he's sending his story to 'Banged up Abroad' to earn the money to fly home. Also, for those interested, he told everybody exactly where to source cocaine in La Paz, the going rate, and how to test its purity...

So where next? My next destination is Cusco, Peru. I have a night bus booked for the 12 hour journey tonight. In Cusco I plan to go up to see Machu Picchu and generally soak in as much Peruvian culture as I can. I guess it'll be a couple of weeks until I post again, but I will try to post before I leave Peru.