Arequipa

Arequipa felt like a world apart from La Paz: clean, calm, organised, pretty. Such a contrast to the chaos and pollution I'd become accustomed to! Peru also felt immediately more touristy than Bolivia. Not overwhelmingly so though, and even in the most touristy spots you don't get annoyingly hassled.

Peruvian food was also a welcome change. It's good and there's a lot more variety. 

Arequipa is a very pleasant city. Nicely laid out, well preserved colonial architecture and with a backdrop of 3 big volcanoes guarding the city.

I spent a few days exploring the city. The walking tour was interesting and found a few good bars for a drink. The most interesting fact I learnt was about how loyally romantic condors are: mates for life, the male will plunge to his death in a kamikaze dive if his partner dies. The female isn't quite as terminally loyal, but does have the future of the species to look after. Seems a raw deal however if you're a young stud Cóndor and you pick up an older chic...

Peruvian take on the last supper (...not the usual main)

Sorting the Alpaca from the Llama

Did a couple of trips from Arequipa, the first to climb and fly from the guardian of the city, El Misti, and then a 2 day hike into Colca canyon (separate posts for these adventures).

El Misti

Had a fun afternoon rafting trip too on the Chilli river, just outside Arequipa. Only an hour on the water but some decent rapids including a grade 4 to keep us entertained. And it was cheap: £12!

I was mainly hanging out with a young English guy Matt who I first met in the jungle and then ended up on the same bus from Copacabana.

Back in Arequipa after the Colca canyon I spent a cultural day visiting Juanita (the eerily well preserved young girl sacrificed to the Inca God's around 500 years ago, found frozen in the crater of one of the volcanoes) and the expansive self contained Monasteria de Santa Catalina in the heart of the city, only relatively recently opened up to the outside world (every girls dream house I'm sure) and (apparently) the most important and prestigios religious building in Peru.

you heard. 

Isla del Sol

I finally managed to escape La Paz and got on a bus to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. La Paz gave me a nice send off with a dodgy belly so I was tired out the next day after an uncomfortable night in a fairly grimy Hospedaje (Copacabana was busy on Saturday night - took me quite a while to find somewhere with a room available). 

I summoned the energy to have a wander around the town in the morning however. The nearby Isla del Sol is the birthplace of the Incas and Copacabana is a popular Bolivian pilgrimage and tourist destination. The hilltop overlooking the town seemed to be the pilgrimage route so I wondered up to the top following tourists and cholitas, where there's a statue, shrines and a great view over Copacabana and the lake.

I got on a boat to Isla del Sol in the afternoon and spent a night in the peaceful and pretty little village of Challapampa, in the north of the island. 

There are a lot of Inca ruins dotted around the island, one of the most important up on the northern peninsula, complete with sacrificial table. I went for an explore in the evening, enjoying the sunset from the hilltop, and then followed the same route back in the morning before carrying on southwards to walk the length of the island. It's not very big and only takes about 4 hours. The island is beautiful, with rolling hills and somewhat Mediterranean feel to it, although it's at high altitude so much cooler. The view out to the east is what makes it special though: the lake framed by majestic snowy peaks and blue skies.

 

Sacrificial table

 

sunset over Challapampa

I had time for a small diversion down to the lakeside for a quick, achingly refreshing dip, before getting a boat from the much bigger town at the southern end of the island back to the mainland. I didn't spend much more time in Copacabana; I soon bade Bolivia a fond farewell and traveled through the night into Peru and on to Arequipa.

Fly-by Pope and Tiwanaku

I was back in La Paz for a few more days after the jungle. I flew back (in a tiny 20 seater turbo prop, one seat each side) on the same day the Pope paid a flying visit to La Paz. His route when past my hostel so I went and lined up with the crowds to get a glimpse of his holiness in the evening when he was due to drive past.

I got a glimpse. Only a glimpse though as he shot past at a good speed. Blink and you would have missed him.

I also went on an interesting day trip to Tiwanaku, the spiritual home of the Bolivian people. The Tiwanaku empire was pre-Inca and successful for around 1000 years before "environmental" factors (didn't get to the bottom of that one) signaled their demise. A lot of the Tiwanaku beliefs however formed the foundations for the Inca culture. El Cóndor ruling the sky, the Puma the ground level and the serpent the underground. And of course Pachamama: mother earth. 

Tiwanaku was once a great city but there isn't a great deal to be seen of it now and only a small area has been excavated to date. The real stars though are the monoliths. Now mainly housed in the museum the size, detail and presence of these mighty statues was really impressive (no photos allowed though unfortunately). 

the sun gate

The site and the tour were fascinating, it was a long day however (3 hour drive each way) and the big tour group was mainly compiled of groups of French (Bolivia is overrun by the French at the moment it seems) speaking French. My French was long ago replaced by Spanish.

Padre Tobacco, Madre Ayahuasca...

Having heard a lot about peoples powerful experiences of Ayahuasca and the strength of belief that many people have in its ability to heal and reveal, I'd been looking forward to finding out about it myself for a long time. 

Finding myself in the Selva (the jungle), the natural and spiritual home of the Ayahuasca vine, it seemed like an obvious place to try it. My chosen Ayahuasca ceremony was at the Wizards Mountain jungle retreat, 10 minutes upriver from Rurrenabaque and on the edge of Maddidi national park. It's a beautiful place in the jungle with a small river flowing through the site, and traditional wooden huts built on stilts.

Phillip

My shaman, Phillip, was a young Chilean guy (young being the same age as me). We left Rurrenabaque around 3 and after a little rest he took us on a walk into the jungle (to help us reconnect with nature I assume) which surprisingly developed into myself and Phillip going for a fun exploration and climbing up a small river until we reached a rocky impasse.

Nap time when we got back, then awoken at 8 for the ceremony. Getting up in the dark, as my senses re-gathered themselves added to my in trepidation and nervous excitement.

It was quite a large group with 11 of us in total, of all ages, with a mix of first timers and experienced hands, including another Shaman here for an 8 day retreat.

We said our thanks to Mother Ayahuasca and in turn each got invited to drink a glass of the medicine for the soul.

Sat in the dark, listening to the sounds of the jungle, overlaid by the chants and songs of the shaman the effects slowly started to take hold...

An initial rush then I settled into a deeply pleasant and relaxed state of being and with a big smile spread across my face let the sounds of the ceremony flow around me. No visions, deep thoughts or revelations, but a great sense of well being and happiness that persists now as I write this 2 days after.

The ceremony wrapped up around 2 am and while everyone else gradually drifted off, I was enlivened by finally being outside (the ceremony was beautiful but I was always itching to go outside and explore) and once alone had a lovely time prancing around the jungle when everyone else was long into bed.

Under the soft glow of the moonlight in the clouds I sat, danced, listened and pranced. 

A storm rolled in, sending flashes of lightning across the sky. 

The rain came down, and my spirit drifted back to the ground... 

And I went to bed.

(That's about as close as i can get to catching my sentiment at the time)

It continued to rain heavily all day and didn't stop until the next evening. I'd decided to stay for another few nights and do another ceremony and enjoyed a very relaxing day reading my book and reflecting on the night before.

In the morning we all shared a good breakfast of fruit and cake then went back to the temple to share our experience of the Ayahuasca.

It's fascinating how differently Ayahuasca effects people so it was interesting to hear how everyone had got on. It was a shame my spanish isn't good enough to understand most of what was said but there were extremes of emotion felt, with tears from both ends of the spectrum.

For myself, my enjoyable and tranquil journey is a sign of inner peace (so I'm told). 

The journey didn't end there however as all the rain had swollen the small river you have to cross to reach the site into a raging torrent (slight exaggeration). Everyone else was leaving so had a bit of fun helping folk wade through the rapids to get out of there.

the rain comes down

The ceremonial hut

I stayed another 2, lovely nights, at the lodge, exploring the area, reading and talking (or more listening) to Victor the groundsman. An interesting and friendly guy. We (he) talked a lot on the first night. I got the gist of what he was saying...

Everything's possible... he or may not have cancer.

A capybara comes down for a drink

Jaguar prints?

I did a second ceremony on my third night, but this turned out to be a bit of a flop. Barely felt anything until near the end of the ceremony, then, as the ceremony ended, the combination of light and smell of smoke made me throw up and the effects I was feeling soon dissipated.

Rurrenebaque and cruising in the Pampas

Malcolm left, I had fairly tricky day paragliding at the base of Huayana Potosi, and then I flew out to Rurrenebaque for some time in the jungle. 

Rurrenebaque is a friendly relaxed little town on the banks of the Beni River and in a beautiful location in a more mountainous area of the Amazon.

After a very pleasant time doing very little, I was all set to do an Ayahuasca ceremony but then discovered that the tour prices unilaterally went up by 300 Bs on the 1st July (an attempt by the government to promote more sustainable tourism as far as I could gather), so figured if I was to do a tour now was the time to do it. Given I was planning a few days in the jungle to delve into the depths of my inner soul I plumped for a Pampas tour (as opposed to a jungle tour): 3 days of cruising round in a boat spotting wildlife. A 3 hour drive down an unpaved road got us to the river Yacuma where we boarded our long, narrow river boat.

Our guide Marc had great taste for the dramatic. 

Look! An Alligator. 

They can grow up to 2 meters...

And a half. 

Marc showing off his tricks

There were 8 of us on the tour. A Bolivian family from La Paz and 2 German girls. Culturally interesting but the conversations didn't exactly flow.

It was the Bolivian family's first experience of wildlife so it was fun to see their excitement. Not so admirable was their (well the son's) propensity to try and get all the animals we got close to, to do something (maybe he was expecting tricks) by clapping his hands. Our guide lacked a little respect too, mainly for alligators, and practically ran a few down to ensure we got the best possible view.

 

Sunrise

Other than cruising around, we caught piranhas, went swimming with the pink river dolphins (sociable animals that like that to nibble on your toes - pretty unnerving in the murky water) and went for a traipse around a bog in the rain on a doomed to fail search for anacondas (snakes don't come out in the rain but we tried anyway).

What did we see?

Lots of birds: cormorants, herons, guineas foul type birds with funkier hair does, lots of others.

Squirrel monkeys
Howler monkeys (red and black)
Sloths
Alligators
Caiman crocodiles
Piranhas
Pink river dolphins
Lots and lots of mosquitoes (felt more than seen).

Paragliding Huayna Potosi

Out with the AndesXtremo boys again. Spectacular location looking up at Huayna Potosi and with lots of colour in the rocks. 

Quite strong wind when we arrived. Soared the small ridge in rough air and caught one strong, punchy thermal of about 4m/s that took me up to 5519m. Was pretty rough and quite exciting. Drifted back with it so went for the ridge behind but ended up soaring it without finding any more decent climbs before slope landing. 

Looking back at take-off

Wind died completely for a while but took off from the top a half hour later and flew for another half hour just on the ridge. Very up and down. Tricky conditions and the other two pilots didn´t get anywhere so had the best flight of the day ("smug").