It was around 2.00am this morning when I was sitting on the floor of the shower, knowingly, and uncaringly risking getting Tinea on my backside, feeling like death that I first wondered why on earth hadnt I suggested to Leah that we spend 7 weeks in the Maldives or Tahiti sipping cocktails around a swimming pool..
After skipping meals for the last 48 hours Leah and I decided to start eating last night ... thinking we were sensible we ate only rice and herbal tea... Leah said she felt sick going to bed, but I felt really good.. until around 1.30am..
I realised around 3.00am that there was no chance I was willingly going to get on a bus with no toilet at 9.00am for a travel day and two day excursion to the Colca Canyon to see Condors.... ..So i took every possible drug I could find in our room and waited for either daylight or death.. haha.
Thankfully, Leah managed to speak with our guide and arranged for me to stay at this hotel with a stockpile of water, drugs and toilet paper for the next two days and Ill rejoin the group when they return....
The hotel is lovely and they ring up and check on me and offer to bring me stuff up so I know Ill be fine.. From all accounts this only lasts for about 2 days and then everyone seems to be back on track... Luckily we still have a free day in Arequipa when the group returns so I{ll still be able to have a look around when im better.
As for Condors, I will be like you and eagerly await Leahs return to see pictures.... until then I may just look them up on Google
chat to you soon...
(ps.. as Leah is the official photo poster on this blog, we may need to wait for her to return to post photos of the Inca trail.. but she has left with me the USB of piccies we have chosen... I just have to figure out how to decompress the size... if i master that ill post them earlier.)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Landslides and Mass Vomitting...
Hey Guys
Am writing this from our hostel in Cusco.... As you may have read, our day yesterday started at 3.50am when we started the last part of our hike on the Inca Trail. I'm sure you can imagine that by the time we had lunch at 2pm, and were told to board a train back to Cusco at 5pm we were already exhausted... The train trip to Cusco was meant to take 4hrs, so our plan was to arrive around 9pm, grab some food and head out to meet our Inca guides at 10.30 for Salsa.. but as we have quickly learnt, not much goes according to plan in South America.
After playing cards on the train for about an hour, eating snacks, chatting and comparing photos the train threw on its emergency brakes, we heard a bit of a thud and saw a few drinks flying across the carriage... despite the intial concern it soon appeared that nothing drastic seemed to have happened and we kept on going, albeit a little on edge.
Not too much further down the line, we stopped again.. This time we were informed that there was a landslide ahead and we would need to wait 30min for the rocks to be cleared and the line to be restored. After an hour of waiting, we asked again what was happening and were told that the rocks were still falling on the line and could we please stand to the right side of the carriage as we were going to try and go through it.
To make it all a little more chaotic, our train had a glass roof, and we were currently stopped on the edge of a cliff. It was dark so we couldnt see the drop, but all noticed the train tilting as everyone moved to the right side. Our guide tried to convince the staff it was completely unsafe and we should just go backwards to the last town and we could catch local buses back. Unfortunately, our pleas were ignored and we proceeded through the landslide - the amount of rocks that had fallen were massive... It was the kind of experience you just know would never happen back home, but thankfully we made it through...
Arriving at our hotel close to Midnnight we scoffed a pizza and went to bed..... until during the night both Leah and I started taking turns in the toilet. This morning I went to cancel our Quad Biking that we planned for today, and Leah still hasnt' made it out of bed (its 3pm). I am barely holding off throwing up, but my stomach is certainly in crisis which sucks since i have only had the last 4 days where i havent' felt sick.., and poor Leah is very sick today... I stumbled down town earlier and tried in my best spanglish to get some drugs for her so hopefully she will start feeling better soon. Turns out7 of us out of our group are sick today so I suspect its not just coincidence.. Today's sickness now pretty much means every single person on this trip, all 16 of us has had stomach problems in the last 3 weeks... Is definitely not a continent for the faint hearted.
Drugs taken to date.
2 bottles of cough medicine, one each.
1 round of cold antibiotics, for me... You can get antibiotics for anything over the counter here.
1 round of stomach antibiotics, for Leah
2 lots of cold and flu tablets, one each
Lots of Gastro stop!
Malaria tablets
Altitude sickness tablets
Lots of Buscopan
Antibacterial stomach tablets
\
And the tally keeps counting.|...
Tomorrow we dont fly out until 12.30 so hopefully we will be in a better state by then....
Take Care...
L and K.
Am writing this from our hostel in Cusco.... As you may have read, our day yesterday started at 3.50am when we started the last part of our hike on the Inca Trail. I'm sure you can imagine that by the time we had lunch at 2pm, and were told to board a train back to Cusco at 5pm we were already exhausted... The train trip to Cusco was meant to take 4hrs, so our plan was to arrive around 9pm, grab some food and head out to meet our Inca guides at 10.30 for Salsa.. but as we have quickly learnt, not much goes according to plan in South America.
After playing cards on the train for about an hour, eating snacks, chatting and comparing photos the train threw on its emergency brakes, we heard a bit of a thud and saw a few drinks flying across the carriage... despite the intial concern it soon appeared that nothing drastic seemed to have happened and we kept on going, albeit a little on edge.
Not too much further down the line, we stopped again.. This time we were informed that there was a landslide ahead and we would need to wait 30min for the rocks to be cleared and the line to be restored. After an hour of waiting, we asked again what was happening and were told that the rocks were still falling on the line and could we please stand to the right side of the carriage as we were going to try and go through it.
To make it all a little more chaotic, our train had a glass roof, and we were currently stopped on the edge of a cliff. It was dark so we couldnt see the drop, but all noticed the train tilting as everyone moved to the right side. Our guide tried to convince the staff it was completely unsafe and we should just go backwards to the last town and we could catch local buses back. Unfortunately, our pleas were ignored and we proceeded through the landslide - the amount of rocks that had fallen were massive... It was the kind of experience you just know would never happen back home, but thankfully we made it through...
Arriving at our hotel close to Midnnight we scoffed a pizza and went to bed..... until during the night both Leah and I started taking turns in the toilet. This morning I went to cancel our Quad Biking that we planned for today, and Leah still hasnt' made it out of bed (its 3pm). I am barely holding off throwing up, but my stomach is certainly in crisis which sucks since i have only had the last 4 days where i havent' felt sick.., and poor Leah is very sick today... I stumbled down town earlier and tried in my best spanglish to get some drugs for her so hopefully she will start feeling better soon. Turns out7 of us out of our group are sick today so I suspect its not just coincidence.. Today's sickness now pretty much means every single person on this trip, all 16 of us has had stomach problems in the last 3 weeks... Is definitely not a continent for the faint hearted.
Drugs taken to date.
2 bottles of cough medicine, one each.
1 round of cold antibiotics, for me... You can get antibiotics for anything over the counter here.
1 round of stomach antibiotics, for Leah
2 lots of cold and flu tablets, one each
Lots of Gastro stop!
Malaria tablets
Altitude sickness tablets
Lots of Buscopan
Antibacterial stomach tablets
\
And the tally keeps counting.|...
Tomorrow we dont fly out until 12.30 so hopefully we will be in a better state by then....
Take Care...
L and K.
Monday, September 6, 2010
The Inca Trail is freaken hard......
Did i mention, EXTREMELY hard.....
Hey Guys
Fresh off the track this morning, we´re writing this while waiting for our well deserved hot apple pie and icecream and hot chocolate.. To say we can´t move is an understatement. Leah no longer has functional calves, and only one knee thats any use. As for me, i swear my ankle is broken in 9 places, but our spirits are high and we´ve had an amazing four days.
Never let anyone tell you the Inca trail isn´t hard. Its literally 4 days of walking up and down mountain ranges in the Andes at altitude. At some points its mind blowing, at others its soul destroying. Its not unusual to be told you have 4 hours of non stop stairs going up, or to be told you have 8km of walking down stairs with no flat sections.. There are no even paths, and every step is over rocks that are uneven...
At times it was really hot, and at others you need thermals and jackets on.... We were really lucky with the weather though as it didn´t rain... until this morning. We were woken up at 3.50am to start walking into Machu Picchu.... it was dark, cold, we were in pain and yes it was pouring rain..... To our great luck it cleared up mid morning and the sun came out ( I even got sunburnt) so we could get some great pictures which we will load in the next couple of days.
Gotta run cause my apple pie is here but will write tomorrow from Cusco... tonight we´re heading our with our tour guides for a bit more salsa in a club..
Chat soon.
Katie and Leah.. ( Inca Warriors!)
Hey Guys
Fresh off the track this morning, we´re writing this while waiting for our well deserved hot apple pie and icecream and hot chocolate.. To say we can´t move is an understatement. Leah no longer has functional calves, and only one knee thats any use. As for me, i swear my ankle is broken in 9 places, but our spirits are high and we´ve had an amazing four days.
Never let anyone tell you the Inca trail isn´t hard. Its literally 4 days of walking up and down mountain ranges in the Andes at altitude. At some points its mind blowing, at others its soul destroying. Its not unusual to be told you have 4 hours of non stop stairs going up, or to be told you have 8km of walking down stairs with no flat sections.. There are no even paths, and every step is over rocks that are uneven...
At times it was really hot, and at others you need thermals and jackets on.... We were really lucky with the weather though as it didn´t rain... until this morning. We were woken up at 3.50am to start walking into Machu Picchu.... it was dark, cold, we were in pain and yes it was pouring rain..... To our great luck it cleared up mid morning and the sun came out ( I even got sunburnt) so we could get some great pictures which we will load in the next couple of days.
Gotta run cause my apple pie is here but will write tomorrow from Cusco... tonight we´re heading our with our tour guides for a bit more salsa in a club..
Chat soon.
Katie and Leah.. ( Inca Warriors!)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Off to do the Inca Trail..
Hi Guys
Greetings from Cusco.... We only have about 15min before our bus leaves so this is a quick update to say we're both still alive and having fun...
Tomorrow we embark on the our 4 day Inca Trek to Macchu Picchu.... Stayed up till past midnight packing last night and we're getting excited. Our briefing last night told us to prepare for some seriously cold weather and some hard work on Day 2 as we climb to over 4500m in altitude..... Please keep your fingers crossed for us... climbing one set of stairs at this altitude leaves us all breathless so the mere thought of the trek is pretty scary!.
Health update... Leah still has a bit of a cough, a sore knee and some minor concussion from whacking her head against a cement wall.... I still havent eaten a decent meal in about 4 /5 days without regretting it, but the cold is slowing going so whilst we're not in peak condition for the trek we were certainly worse a few days ago.
The last few days have been pretty fun - two of the people on our trip shared a birthday yesterday and we had our tour guides sister's hens night on the same day... ended up having our salsa dancing teacher do a strip show for us girls with his mate whilst the boys sat outside having a beer on the footpath, and then he took us all out to his salsa club dancing for the rest of the night to see in the birthday's..... Was awesome fun.. He was throwing us around the dancing floor and i swear everytime we thought our head would smash the floor but he knew his moves and we learnt a few moves..
Anyway gotta run...
Wish us luck for the next 4 days and we'll hopefully check in after having completed the trek..
Katie and Leah..
Greetings from Cusco.... We only have about 15min before our bus leaves so this is a quick update to say we're both still alive and having fun...
Tomorrow we embark on the our 4 day Inca Trek to Macchu Picchu.... Stayed up till past midnight packing last night and we're getting excited. Our briefing last night told us to prepare for some seriously cold weather and some hard work on Day 2 as we climb to over 4500m in altitude..... Please keep your fingers crossed for us... climbing one set of stairs at this altitude leaves us all breathless so the mere thought of the trek is pretty scary!.
Health update... Leah still has a bit of a cough, a sore knee and some minor concussion from whacking her head against a cement wall.... I still havent eaten a decent meal in about 4 /5 days without regretting it, but the cold is slowing going so whilst we're not in peak condition for the trek we were certainly worse a few days ago.
The last few days have been pretty fun - two of the people on our trip shared a birthday yesterday and we had our tour guides sister's hens night on the same day... ended up having our salsa dancing teacher do a strip show for us girls with his mate whilst the boys sat outside having a beer on the footpath, and then he took us all out to his salsa club dancing for the rest of the night to see in the birthday's..... Was awesome fun.. He was throwing us around the dancing floor and i swear everytime we thought our head would smash the floor but he knew his moves and we learnt a few moves..
Anyway gotta run...
Wish us luck for the next 4 days and we'll hopefully check in after having completed the trek..
Katie and Leah..
Monday, August 30, 2010
Home away from the Homestay
Hi Guys
We´re back in Puno having a bit of a rest day today after being adopted out to a remote island family for a night....
Yesterday morning we boarded a boat for a 3hr trip across Lake Titicaca (the lake is over 160km long! and is at around 3800m or so above sea level). The first stop was a little island for lunch and a quick tour.. I´d (Katie) tell you about it but i´ve been sick as a dog so i stayed on the boat whilst the others climbed up the hill. I have a bad head cold and my stomach has decided not to be friends with food...
After another 1hr boat trip we arrived at our Island... the view was seriously beautiful, really clear blue water and for the first time since our trip, fresh air!... We were greeted by our new "mama" who in our case happened to be an 18yr girl!... We were taken back to the family house that she shared with her parents and brother and a sister... After some time to get our stuff unpacked, we went down to the local football field (which was made of cement!) to have a game with the locals. I (Leah) was looking forward to playing, but just before we left the house to come down managed to split my head open on the cement doorway to our room...which happened to be a good foot shorter than me!
After soccer we were invited into the Kitchen for dinner.. The kitchen was a separate mud hut- we were invited to sit at the table whilst the real Mum, Dad and Grandmother sat on stools on the floor to eat.. Dinner was a basic vege soup, then rice with veges... As I (Katie) wasn´t feeling well, i didn´t eat much but the Dad went and got some mint for some tea which apparently is good for your stomach then went and warmed a rock on a fire for me to use as a hot water blanket.. not bad hey!..
After dinner our "mama" and her mum came up to our room with armfuls of traditional clothes and dressed us all up! We then went down to the hall where they had a band playing and we danced until we fell over (literally.... the altitude made it impossible to dance more than about 5 minutes without collapsing on a chair!)
This morning after some pancakes for brekkie we said goodbye to our "mama´s" and caught the boat back to Puno via Uros - the floating reed islands (check out the photos - pretty bizarre!!!)
Tomorrow we head to Cuzco (where I beleive some salsa dancing is on the cards - and no I won´t let Katie off the hook!!!)
Hope you are all well and talk to you soon....
Katie and Leah
We´re back in Puno having a bit of a rest day today after being adopted out to a remote island family for a night....
Yesterday morning we boarded a boat for a 3hr trip across Lake Titicaca (the lake is over 160km long! and is at around 3800m or so above sea level). The first stop was a little island for lunch and a quick tour.. I´d (Katie) tell you about it but i´ve been sick as a dog so i stayed on the boat whilst the others climbed up the hill. I have a bad head cold and my stomach has decided not to be friends with food...
After another 1hr boat trip we arrived at our Island... the view was seriously beautiful, really clear blue water and for the first time since our trip, fresh air!... We were greeted by our new "mama" who in our case happened to be an 18yr girl!... We were taken back to the family house that she shared with her parents and brother and a sister... After some time to get our stuff unpacked, we went down to the local football field (which was made of cement!) to have a game with the locals. I (Leah) was looking forward to playing, but just before we left the house to come down managed to split my head open on the cement doorway to our room...which happened to be a good foot shorter than me!
After soccer we were invited into the Kitchen for dinner.. The kitchen was a separate mud hut- we were invited to sit at the table whilst the real Mum, Dad and Grandmother sat on stools on the floor to eat.. Dinner was a basic vege soup, then rice with veges... As I (Katie) wasn´t feeling well, i didn´t eat much but the Dad went and got some mint for some tea which apparently is good for your stomach then went and warmed a rock on a fire for me to use as a hot water blanket.. not bad hey!..
After dinner our "mama" and her mum came up to our room with armfuls of traditional clothes and dressed us all up! We then went down to the hall where they had a band playing and we danced until we fell over (literally.... the altitude made it impossible to dance more than about 5 minutes without collapsing on a chair!)
This morning after some pancakes for brekkie we said goodbye to our "mama´s" and caught the boat back to Puno via Uros - the floating reed islands (check out the photos - pretty bizarre!!!)
Tomorrow we head to Cuzco (where I beleive some salsa dancing is on the cards - and no I won´t let Katie off the hook!!!)
Hope you are all well and talk to you soon....
Katie and Leah
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Ultimate Ride...
Hi Guys!
This morning for breakfast I had a malaria tablet, an altitude sickness tablet, 2 sinus tablets and 2 gastro stop tablets... Similarly, Leah chose to vary her buffet by substituting the last two items for some cough syrup and a caramel biscuit that was scavenged off a bus about a week ago...
Needless to say we weren´t feeling the best, but that didnt stop us embarking on our final Bolivian challenge...Cycling Death Road affectionally known as the Worlds deadliest road.....
The ride started at 4700m above sea level and covered 64km of downhill descent to a final destination at around 1200m... The vast majority of the road is unsealed dirt road which is only about 3m wide and, requires you to navigate various obstacles like cows, dogs, kids, potholes , water crossings, hair pin turns and of course the sheer drops of up to 600m with no guard rails. In some sections of the ride you get up to between 40-60km per hour...
The scenery (by daylight) was absolutely stunning and it really was a mental challenge more so than a physical one... When you relaxed and enjoyed the ride you seemed to glide over the rocks and it felt great.. The second you actually thought about it and looked over the edge, you would over correct and get all jumpy and start to skid... Due to the variances in altitude, the first part of the ride was quite cold, but by the time we decended below around 2500m, it got quite warm.
The bikes were great quality and the guides very professional. To keep things safe we didn´t take any photos as we went but there was a team photographer that took shots along the way so we get the CD tonight and cant wait to see them.
Tomorrow we have a travel day as we head towards Puno and ultimately Lake Titicaca in Peru.. at which point we get billetted out to a local family for a homestay. I think for the most part the most dangerous parts of our tour is behind us and we have survived !!
Hope everyone at home is doing well!. Can´t wait to see you all and seriously can´t wait to see a real toilet.. Constantly paying for toilets that dont flush, or dont have doors and all of which means you can´t put the paper in the toilet is kinda gross...
Chances are our host family wont have electricity let alone internet access so we might be offline for a couple of days, but will definitely check in again as soon as we can.. but dont worry, it will be a tame few days if everything goes to plan...
Miss you all..
Leah and Katie.
This morning for breakfast I had a malaria tablet, an altitude sickness tablet, 2 sinus tablets and 2 gastro stop tablets... Similarly, Leah chose to vary her buffet by substituting the last two items for some cough syrup and a caramel biscuit that was scavenged off a bus about a week ago...
Needless to say we weren´t feeling the best, but that didnt stop us embarking on our final Bolivian challenge...Cycling Death Road affectionally known as the Worlds deadliest road.....
The ride started at 4700m above sea level and covered 64km of downhill descent to a final destination at around 1200m... The vast majority of the road is unsealed dirt road which is only about 3m wide and, requires you to navigate various obstacles like cows, dogs, kids, potholes , water crossings, hair pin turns and of course the sheer drops of up to 600m with no guard rails. In some sections of the ride you get up to between 40-60km per hour...
The scenery (by daylight) was absolutely stunning and it really was a mental challenge more so than a physical one... When you relaxed and enjoyed the ride you seemed to glide over the rocks and it felt great.. The second you actually thought about it and looked over the edge, you would over correct and get all jumpy and start to skid... Due to the variances in altitude, the first part of the ride was quite cold, but by the time we decended below around 2500m, it got quite warm.
The bikes were great quality and the guides very professional. To keep things safe we didn´t take any photos as we went but there was a team photographer that took shots along the way so we get the CD tonight and cant wait to see them.
Tomorrow we have a travel day as we head towards Puno and ultimately Lake Titicaca in Peru.. at which point we get billetted out to a local family for a homestay. I think for the most part the most dangerous parts of our tour is behind us and we have survived !!
Hope everyone at home is doing well!. Can´t wait to see you all and seriously can´t wait to see a real toilet.. Constantly paying for toilets that dont flush, or dont have doors and all of which means you can´t put the paper in the toilet is kinda gross...
Chances are our host family wont have electricity let alone internet access so we might be offline for a couple of days, but will definitely check in again as soon as we can.. but dont worry, it will be a tame few days if everything goes to plan...
Miss you all..
Leah and Katie.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Always have a backup plan... even for the backup plan...
Hi Guys
We are writing this safe and well from La Paz (Bolivia), after a horror 15hr jeep ride (more on that later) and only 4 hours sleep, so we´re pretty exhausted... but let me try and bring you all back to speed....
It was only a few days ago we were sitting on our 18 seater Bolivian light aircraft flying La Paz to Rurrenbaque (Gateway town to the Amazon) and getting precariously close to the Andes when we thought Adventure had reached a new level.. little did we know what was in store for us..
As you may recall, we were never meant to go to the Amazon at this stage, but it became a back up plan when we had to be diverted to avoid some violent protests in several towns nearby. Unfortunately, noone told us that at this time of year nearly EVERY farmer in the Amazon burns off so the entire place is filled with smoke...(more on this later!)
Given the amount of things we´ve been up to, i´ll just bullet point our highlights....In the last 3 days we have
- Fished for Piranhas in the Amazon river (Our guide caught 7 of them and Leah caught a catfish!)
- After fishing for them, we jumped in and had a swim in Alligator and Piranha invested waters (Sorry mum i know i promised i wouldn´t but it was so HOT)
- After fishing and swimming with Piranhas we figured the next logical step would be to eat one.. so we did (tastes like fish!)
-We´ve been Anaconda hunting (somewhat scary since we had no first aid supplies and ended up walking around in shin high mud looking for a Cobra or Green Mumba)
- Our local tour company that took us out to the Amazon didn´t cater enough water so on the second day we were rationed 2 litres each to last just over 24hrs... keep in mind the temperature was so hot and humid and we were out in the sun all day.. it was torture.. At one point our back up plan was to boil the water in the tank normally used for showers.... which was fine until the water pump broke...
We made it back to Runnebaque only to discover that no flights had arrived or left for the last few days due to the smoke... Our luck continued when we realised we were stuck.. We couldn´t stay another night as the town has no ATM or money exchange and we had all only bought with us 3 days worth of cash so accomodation wasn´t an option....At one point we were told a plane was coming so we went to the airport only to be told that it had to turn around and go back due to smoke..
By this stage we are in the same clothes for 4 days with no showers, no money, covered in a mixture of sunscreen, mosiquito repellant, smoke and 6 inches of dust (all roads are unsealed in jeeps with the windows down)....
So we had to move to a new back up plan...
The last resort was to pool our emergency US dollars that we were all carrying and hire jeeps to drive us back to La Paz...which we soon discovered meant driving for 15hours without stopping (with nothing but choc chip cookies and pringles for food) and having to drive Death Road in the middle of the night... To say the drive was scary is an understatement, and we no doubt tell you all the details when we are home safe and sound... but to our great relief we pulled in around 5.30am this morning... For those who dont know death road, its a dirt road that traverses the Andes and is only just over one car width wide, with no guide rails... there are sheer drop offs and sitting in the dog box of a jeep with no seat belts or tail lights is an experience neither of us will ever forget.
Hope everyone is well at home... We´ll be here in La Paz until the day after tomorrow for when we head off back according to our original itinerary...
Take Care
Katie and Leah.
We are writing this safe and well from La Paz (Bolivia), after a horror 15hr jeep ride (more on that later) and only 4 hours sleep, so we´re pretty exhausted... but let me try and bring you all back to speed....
It was only a few days ago we were sitting on our 18 seater Bolivian light aircraft flying La Paz to Rurrenbaque (Gateway town to the Amazon) and getting precariously close to the Andes when we thought Adventure had reached a new level.. little did we know what was in store for us..
As you may recall, we were never meant to go to the Amazon at this stage, but it became a back up plan when we had to be diverted to avoid some violent protests in several towns nearby. Unfortunately, noone told us that at this time of year nearly EVERY farmer in the Amazon burns off so the entire place is filled with smoke...(more on this later!)
Given the amount of things we´ve been up to, i´ll just bullet point our highlights....In the last 3 days we have
- Fished for Piranhas in the Amazon river (Our guide caught 7 of them and Leah caught a catfish!)
- After fishing for them, we jumped in and had a swim in Alligator and Piranha invested waters (Sorry mum i know i promised i wouldn´t but it was so HOT)
- After fishing and swimming with Piranhas we figured the next logical step would be to eat one.. so we did (tastes like fish!)
-We´ve been Anaconda hunting (somewhat scary since we had no first aid supplies and ended up walking around in shin high mud looking for a Cobra or Green Mumba)
- Our local tour company that took us out to the Amazon didn´t cater enough water so on the second day we were rationed 2 litres each to last just over 24hrs... keep in mind the temperature was so hot and humid and we were out in the sun all day.. it was torture.. At one point our back up plan was to boil the water in the tank normally used for showers.... which was fine until the water pump broke...
We made it back to Runnebaque only to discover that no flights had arrived or left for the last few days due to the smoke... Our luck continued when we realised we were stuck.. We couldn´t stay another night as the town has no ATM or money exchange and we had all only bought with us 3 days worth of cash so accomodation wasn´t an option....At one point we were told a plane was coming so we went to the airport only to be told that it had to turn around and go back due to smoke..
By this stage we are in the same clothes for 4 days with no showers, no money, covered in a mixture of sunscreen, mosiquito repellant, smoke and 6 inches of dust (all roads are unsealed in jeeps with the windows down)....
So we had to move to a new back up plan...
The last resort was to pool our emergency US dollars that we were all carrying and hire jeeps to drive us back to La Paz...which we soon discovered meant driving for 15hours without stopping (with nothing but choc chip cookies and pringles for food) and having to drive Death Road in the middle of the night... To say the drive was scary is an understatement, and we no doubt tell you all the details when we are home safe and sound... but to our great relief we pulled in around 5.30am this morning... For those who dont know death road, its a dirt road that traverses the Andes and is only just over one car width wide, with no guide rails... there are sheer drop offs and sitting in the dog box of a jeep with no seat belts or tail lights is an experience neither of us will ever forget.
Hope everyone is well at home... We´ll be here in La Paz until the day after tomorrow for when we head off back according to our original itinerary...
Take Care
Katie and Leah.
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