Salar de Uyuni

The AC in Bolivia

After some great days around (Puno, Copacabana), above (Islas Flottantes, Isla del Sol) and in (Dimitri went for a cold swim again) the Lake Titicaca, we ended up in Bolivia's capital, La Paz. We both felt like hitting the unpaved non-touristy road and decided to go and hit a ball on the highest golf court in the world.

We bought two baskets to re-work our swing, and went for a dozen of high-holes.

The views on those courts were amazing, as well as a (very) few of our second-in-our-lifetime swings. Our caddies provided us with some sneaky tricks, which actually allowed us to finish the most difficult and most infamous hole, where the green was litterally separated from the hole by a canyon, with a splendid 'on the par'. True story.



After completing the golf game, we found a DVD with the footage of two odd dutch-speaking guys (see below), apparently biking down the most dangerous road in the world, another strenuous activity which can be done around La Paz. The after-bike is crazy, with some swimming pool activities and after-bike drinking in the bus. Or so we have heard because we would of course like to stress that we would never participate in this kind of dangerous activities!!



Since one of the biggest carnavals in South-America is about to happen in Oruro, we decided to skip the rainy jungle with its pleasant mosquitos and head directly to the loco carnaval. More about that one later.

Hasta luego,
Graham & Dimitri

Indiana Jones meets Machu Picchu

As our parents asked us to not do anything stupid and to preserve everything we had accomplished in our lives, we generally try to avoid extremely dangerous activities. This stopped us from jumping of a 15 meter cliff in Galapagos, just like we decided not to bike down the most dangerous road in the world. That's right parents, we have taken your words into serious consideration. Admittedly that didn't prevent us from visiting Colombia, diving with sharks, and riding on horses, and so on.

But we really thought about it. As all the financial experts know, an extra risk often brings an extra reward. The most unforgettable moments are sometimes the unexpected, unprepared and adrenaline-pumped moments we never dreamed would happen. Being attacked by a huge sea lion. Getting robbed by armed gangsters. Traveling in a 600 horsepower boat. Horse-riding at full speed through the wild mountains. Crazy treks next to cliffs. Those are the best moments.

But it is nothing compared to what happened to us when we were heading to the Machu Pichu. What perspired there forced us to expand the upper limit of our perceived "danger scale" from 10 to 20 and will no doubt require countless hours of therapy in order to regain our sanity. Forget about sharks and armed robbers, read on for some of the most shocking revelations of our trip.

Seasoned travelers that we are, we decided to avoid the crowded tourist trails and trains leading to Machu Picchu. Our source in the tourist information office assured us it was a smooth and easygoing trip: 6 hours of bus to reach Hydro Electrica and a 2-hour walking trip from there. The first 4 hours of bus were without incidents.  Until suddenly our collectivo was forced to stop as a major mudslide was blocking the road. We made a quick calculation: the road was relatively highly-frequented and we were the second van to be blocked by the mudslide. We estimated we had missed it by no more than 15 minutes. Big tractors came to clear up the road and several hours later our driver attempted a crazy acceleration through the mud that was still flowing down and we were finally on our way again. Little did we know that we had seen nothing yet...

This time we were the fourth van in the row. Not sure what was going on, we descended to take a look around the corner. To our horror we were greeted by a major rock avalanche. Flows of rocks came tumbling down and covered the road. Locals were taking pictures as if they had never seen anything like it. We suddenly found ourselves in somewhat of a crisis situation: no vehicles could pass, the way back was still blocked by a mudslide and we were running out of time if we wanted to be able to visit Machu Picchu the next day at our assigned hour, early in the morning. Our bus driver explained it quite simply to us: our only option was to run through the rock avalanche and carry on by foot.

We would like to point out to our parents that we would never consider such a reckless stunt unless we felt like we had no other option. That being said, it took us a while to summon the guts to run. Also, since the lonely planet doesn't seem to offer any advice in this type of situation we put together a small how-to in case any of our readers ever find themselves in the same situation, God forbid.

If you did it right, it should look something like this:

Avalanche runner in action.

Thinking that we had passed the worst was our next mistake. For the sake of brevity let us summarize: 1. we passed two more rock avalanches, 2. the taxi we found afterwards couldn't pass the bridge in the valley because the water level had risen above it, 3. we found a pedestrian bridge further up, 4. however we were still forced to wade through a part of the river because it had more than breached its benches, 5. we had to walk for two hours in the dark over train tracks as it was considered safer than the mountain pass. The locals who told us that no more trains were driving at that hour were proved wrong but thankfully we heard it approach behind us on time. If some of you are having trouble visualizing this crazy day, we made a small reconstruction in the video below of some of the more impressive events.

All the emotion would almost make us forget to mention the amazing Machu Picchu site we visited early the next morning. Amazing views, Inca ruins in impeccable condition, impressive pre-Colonial engineering and some nice hiking up Huaynapicchu and the adjoining mountain. We won't bore you any longer, enjoy the pictures!

At such great heights

Having extensively enjoyed exotic beaches and temperatures in the past months, it was about time for a new challenge: the Peruvian mountains and highlands. The low temperatures at night and the early mornings imposed a significant wardrobe change but luckily the sun often followed us to our desolate locations.

In Huaraz, situated at about 3km altitude and surrounded by the Cordillera Blanca y Negra, we made a one-day mountainbike trip to acclimatize to the lack of oxygen. Deciding we were ready, the next day we left on a four day trek leading us to stunning views up to 4800m and amazing high-altitude lakes. One of the mountains we passed, Artesonraju, is rumored to be the inspiration for the Paramount pictures movie starting sequence. Oddly, the following stunning photographs still fall short of describing the whole experience...

In an attempt to spread the fame of Belgian travelers worldwide and in order to push the limits of what might be accepted as sane behavior, Dimitri decided to change into his bathing suit and jumped into an ice-cold lake at 4450 meters. It cannot be proven whether it was a coincidence or whether it were the screams of this self-inflicted torture that caused the sudden stream of avalanches on a nearby mountain-top, however we are certain that the story of the agonizing 60 seconds and the crazy Belgian who endured them will be told among travelers for generations to come.

Insane Belgian

South of Lima, close to Arequipa, awaited our next challenge, the deepest canyon in the world: the Colca Canyon. On our first day, we were somewhat worried about the views: we descended the canyon being completely surrounded by white clouds limiting our view...

Artist rendition of the view during the descent

Our worries soon were replaced by wondrous joy when we entered a local village, Cosninhua which happened to host their annual traditional feast. As we entered the village, as if on queue, the local band initiated the melody which would last throughout the afternoon and night. A non-stop train of dancers, males and females in traditional dresses, enticed us to join them on their quest of honoring Maria and asking her to bless the village.

This amazing experience came with a vengeance though: hangover or not, the next day we had to climb from the depths of the canyons to the very top. As we kept looking up to the top, it never seemed to come any closer. The effort was absolutely worth it though as we consider the trek, more in particular the traditional feast to be a highlight of our trip, never to be forgotten.

Graham