Missive #4, Sat, Feb 17 to Wed, Feb 28th

Missive #4, Sat, Feb 17th to Wed, Feb 28th

Day 21, Sat, Feb 17th

Hotel José Antonio, Cusco, 0 km

Today we took a tour of Cusco which is a town of 435,000. It is quite touristy as a result of it being the centre of the Inca Empire (actually the Quechua Empire, the 'Inca' name refers to their King only) before the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro unceremoniously sacked the place in the early 1530's. He stole all the gold and precious metals returning them to Spain. He tore down most of the impressive temples. Many of the natives died of smallpox and other infectious diseases.

The stones were ingeniously held together as above to protect against earthquakes

Many, many tourists come here to visit but I am one tourist that was not overly impressed. You can Wikipedia the info at your leisure. The Incas ruled from the 12th to the early 16th century. There were no written records available in their culture hence there is a ton of conjecture about what did or did not happen. I found myself a bit bored with the whole thing likely due to the lack of historical preservation of their olden days. The Spanish dominance in language, religion and architecture is overwhelming and you can see the same squares, churchs etc. anywhere in Europe. As an example, at a large church spoken about below there are 422 large and very large oil paintings by the Andian artist Marcos Zapata who painted all the faces and supervised others to complete the artwork. Every one of them (well almost, the most famous one being the 'last supper' which depicts the guinea pig in the meal in the middle of the painting which is their national dish) is an exact copy of the same paintings in Spain during that time; the Spanish wanted to export their culture lock stock and barrel and completely evangelize the natives. They did a good job. One of the challenges in South America is the difficulty in communicating with the locals due to the language barrier. On the Silk Road and in Africa there was a surprising amount of English spoken but not here. Therefore, I am a bit in the dark and have to rely on visual observation.

Let me say that one of the things I most enjoy about trips like this is the experience of visiting someone else's world for a short time. Watching and observing people's way of life, their dress, their physical appearance, how they respect their homes, farmlands and live stock and trying to imagine how their families work, play and grow their next generation is all part of the special puzzle for me.

At our lunch break everyone was toured out but not me! We all ordered lunch in the nice town square and Ruth and I promptly trotted off to see the very large cathedral (apparently the 3rd largest in the world in site size- 3 churches together built over 100 years 1559-1660) while we waited for our lunch to arrive 30 or so minutes later; it was well worth it especially as I had her to myself for awhile and then over lunch.

Here is what I learned:

-early 40's, eldest of 4 sisters, parents still around, married to a tour guide husband, one daughter, well educated and intelligent woman

-she is sad about her country in many ways, politically, economically, educationally; everything is ruled from Lima

-unless you are employed by a big public/private enterprise you are on your own with medical care which is the situation with most citizens

-she is quite concerned about drug and alcohol abuse although we wouldn't see this ourselves passing through

-she laments that Peru could be so much more, it is stuck in neutral maybe going backwards in her viewpoint

-her biggest beef is poor education, ignorance and government inattention to addressing this, literacy a real issue

-aside, I have seen very, very few schools or kids going/coming to school typically in uniform like was so prevalent in all of the African countries visited last year; there 'must' be some schools just not noticeable

-while education to grade 11 is paid for, many families typically cannot afford the required books, pencils, uniforms etc and it is not mandatory to attend hence lots don't go

-the garbage problem says Ruth is a direct result of this; Cusco is a dirty, shabby place and the people just don't know any better; it is a very unfortunate cultural problem that needs to start with school age kids to fix

-aside, we came back later in the evening from a bus tour outside the city and witnessed several harrowing incidences of dogs gorging themselves on dumped rubbish on the side of the street; at one place there must have been 3 dozen dogs going at it and there was plastic scattered everywhere; no wonder they all look so healthy

-in a tourist based city in the middle of a so-called area of abundance I would rather not have to tell you this but have to because it is emblematic of the whole country.

I asked Ruth if there was any bitterness remaining from the older generations about the Spanish dominance. She says it needs to be said that the Spanish were miserable self interested pricks (my word) that ravaged her culture in every which way however, what has happened is in the past and they must forge ahead. While the English and the French were far from perfect I find myself wondering if the tables were turned in North/South America what might have been the result here?

I am sure that our visit to Machu Picchu tomorrow will be much more interesting.

Day 22, Sun, Feb 18th

Hotel José Antonio, Cusco, 0 km

Today's outing though long, is what I came to South America to see. We started out for Machu Picchu by bus then train then bus at 5:30 am and did not get back until after 9 pm. Altogether we had a little less than 3 hours on site. It is something that will be with me forever, right up there with the pyramids.

On the way

Our very excellent guide Javier helped us live the era we visited. Here is what I learned:

-during the slow season (now) 2000+ people visit per day; busy season can run 5,000 and I cannot imagine that many people on site; while continentals get a much lower rate we paid $450; that means $1 mm to $2.5 mm in revenue per day so it is a hugely important and symbolic Peruvian treasure

-Machu Picchu is scenically located high in the Andes (8,000 feet) in a very rich volcanic  region with over 200" of rain annually (Cusco gets 30” similar to Victoria) literally means 'old mountains' and is a more modern name for the place

-MP became re-discovered when a forest fire exposed some of the terrain as it had become fully over grown much like Ankor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia- local farmers discovered and partially restored it; then in 1911 an American called Hiram Bingham who had heard of this famous 'Lost City of the Incas' came and photographed the area and it became an instantaneous world sensation

-the key, at least for me, is that the Spanish never did find the place so it has stayed relatively intact; when the wars came and everyone had to go and fight, it was abandoned and all the gold and silver was relocated to lower ground

-MP was built in the early 1400's by the Inca king Pachacuti to be a sanctuary or holy place, a religious temple

-it was a 2 week overland excursion from their HQ in Cusco and is still said to be 60% intact

-the Incas worshipped the sun and the nearby white volcanic granite in abundance which absorbed sunlight was thought to be just the right material to use

-one key in the original planning process was the availability of water; the Incas found a natural nearby spring that still generates 100 litres per minute; aqueducts and the rain forest secured their agricultural needs

-it was built to house 1,000 people who rotated in and out; the key date for the Inca King to make a pilgramage there was June 21st, their shortest day of the year

-MP was built to be a unifier of empire, politics and religion of their 4 main areas of control which had their own sub-kings; it is said that what caused the abandonment (1570's) was civil wars between the Incas although they had no written history to absolutely prove this

-they erected 3 watch towers with the western side protected by a sheer 5,000 foot drop; MP has never been attacked

-they were most concerned about infiltration from the Amazonia's who had developed poisonous arrows ie. the Incas were conquerors of the Andes but not the Amazon

- the Incas had 3 maxims, don't lie, don't steal and don't be lazy- there were no jails only death to those not conforming

-the work to complete the temple by many skilled experts and artisans was completed as a form of tax on Labour where people came in for 2 month periods to contribute, ie. not slave labour

-the Incas were believers of the afterlife; the dead were mummified into the fetal position because that is how they entered the world with brains and organs removed beforehand so that was how they exited

-6,000 artifacts reside at Yale in an attempt to decipher many of the remaining mysteries 

-in 2010 MP was closed for 8 months due to a huge rock slide; one cannot imagine the sheer size and steepness of the location without a visit; why more closures don't happen is a mystery to me.

All in all it was an amazing day for all of us to keep as a treasured memory. Thanks especially to Javier for his animated and passionate delivery of information most of which is not detailed here.

Day 23, Mon, Feb 19th

Hotel José Antonio, Cusco, 0 km

Do nothing day, walk around town, witness a lot of commercial activity, visit the market, catch up on paperwork and Missives. At 6 pm we went downstairs and asked the hotel people to call a taxi and direct him to take us to the very best restaurant in town. Three hours later we finished a splendid meal, full trappings costing $125, the best meal by far I have had in South America. Meals here typically take way too long to arrive, serve way too much food and lack for quality. In a place like Cusco where there are a lot of international tourists coming to visit Machu Picchu there is a market for 3-4 good restaurants and we were pleased to find one!

Our hotel......Our dinner!

 Day 24, Tue, Feb 20th

Hotel José Antonio, Cusco to Hotel Casa Andina, Puno, 395 km

Wonderful 6 hour ride, well mostly! Getting out of Cusco was a monster, 7 km of bumpy, muddy, potholey, puddley mess which tested my riding skills with Waan on the back.

  

We then progressed to lovely scenic meandering countryside ddwith huge, steep hills on either side. We wandered through the valleys never elevating more than 500 metres all day (thank the Lord!) starting at 3,500 and finishing at 4,000 metres. Often we were right beside a wide, fast flowing, muddy brown river
which was fun to watch too. I was so glad to have Waan with me to see and experience what we get to see day in and day out on these Globerider trips.

It took us 2 hours 39 minutes to go the first 100 miles without a stop averaging about 38 mph so the going was slow but enjoyable.

Some Observations:
 
-garbage issues much, much reduced south of Cusco although some seen; getting out of Cusco, it was deplorable to see.

-we actually saw some schools, Waan counted 3 but I am sure there were more we didn't recognize.



-I don't think there is one cat in South America, dogs make up for it.

-lots of road kill (all dogs) nada birds to eat up the spoils.

-unfinished construction projects everywhere, re-bar sticking up all over the place; we learn that this is to avoid paying property taxes.

- large, expensive gated areas empty of activity, what a waste, some of more than an acre.

-people seem to love building gas stations; they proliferate all over the place often 2-3 side by each, way way too many of the damn things, can't be economic.

-the proverbial speed bumps rightly slow you down; quite often they show up in the middle of nowhere for no good reason.

-I look at every shrine along the way and there are quite a few.

-all windows are barred.

 

 

Having left at 6:30 am and 6 hours later we are now at this lovely lakeside hotel on Lake Titicaca and set to enjoy a relaxing afternoon to rest up. Our room view is marvelous.

 

  

Day 25, Wed, Feb 21st

Hotel Casa Andina, Puno to Akapana Hotel, Tiwanaku, 200 km

Today's sidebar involved a two hour excursion out into Lake Titicaca on a 50' covered taxi boat to visit the Uru peoples. They live on man made islands, over 100 of them. When the Uru peoples migrated here eons ago they were rejected by the locals. With nowhere to go they lived in the marshes and learned how to build sophisticated floating islands out of reeds and mud that they could anchor offshore away from danger.

  

Lake Titicaca is famous for being the highest navigable lake in the world. In round numbers it is 100 miles long by 50 miles wide and averages 350' deep. It has a max depth of over 900' and borders Bolivia and Peru. About 2000 odd people live out here on 116 islands, quite remarkable. 

We were treated to an extensive explanation about their evolving way of life which has wisely been advanced by tourism. It can best be described by the pics below:

    

We see inside a home and buy some stuff!

The rest of our day involved a 200 km ride to the Bolivian border. This became more interesting for two reasons. Paul, our Texan, had neglected to get a visa in his haste to join our group as a late entry. Helge expertly stick handled a dicey but stressful situation by negotiating a border visa for Paul. It was hot and we all suffered through about 4 hours of interminable paperwork to gain access to this poor country. 

  
Vin numbers and all sorts of details required

The second issue was my 4" pvc tool box added to the back of my bike. I have received some compliments on its design and usefulness. Unfortunately it is not lockable! ( at least yet) Our bikes are in lockdown and covered every night; that doesn't stop an inside job though. At the border Vince luckily noticed one screw on end missing. Further inspection: $1000 worth of essential valuables gone.

Where theft occurred in lock up area

I am certain that the theft occurred the previous night at the Casa Andina in Puno. Waan and I arrived first and two sketchy guys welcomed us. They also had a chance to observe my bike in detail.

All is not lost. There is lots and lots of tools, patch kits (two flats so far), air pumps, inner tubes, brake pads etc to go around and I can replace when we get to Santiago in about 2 weeks for new tires and an oil change.

Day 26, Thur, Feb 22nd

Akapana Hotel, Tiwanaku to Hotel Real Plaza, La Paz, Bolivia 76 km

This mornings walking tour was a bit white knuckle to start because the rain and the cold scared us a bit so we all got suited up with full wet gear.

 

We toured some Archeological ruins right nearby our flea bag hotel. 

The Tiwanaku peoples prospered and flourished in this region from 300-1100 AD. They were not warlike people and became sophisticated settlers and agriculturally minded. Unfortunately some sort of drought or climate change forced them to disperse and then the Incas took over.

What it used to look like and what it looks like now.

What was again shocking to me was how the Spanish came and tore everything apart; a lot of the stone work was relocated elsewhere for their own building purposes so there was little really for us to see. One picture above shows what it used to look like, a grand palace area of 35000 square metres, about 80 or so acres.

We are all out of breath at this elevation! Even though we have partially acclimatized it is a struggle, even concentrating on riding our bikes, even taking an extra deep breath when lying in bed to get extra oxygen. It will get worse too as we are destined for 15,000 feet down the road.

Waan and I made out last run into La Paz in heavy traffic. She was a great partner on the bike, never complained and we did 1763 km together.

Nice pic of us riding beside Lake Titicaca taken by Vince and Linda

Lastly, our resident writing expert Bob Higdon surmises that South American Indian cultures were way, way ahead of their North American counterparts because they learned how to settle and become agricultural as opposed to the guys further north being essentially hunter gatherers following the herds to live.

I have kept today's story line short because I would like to invite you to click on Bob's storyline at ironbutt.com/higdon. His stories are hilarious so just read #16 published today and get a great laugh. He is very self deprecating and pulls stuff out of the wood work that most of us would never be able to fathom. Enjoy!

Day 27, Fri, Feb 23rd

Hotel Real Plaza, La Paz 0 km

Today was a private mini bus tour of La Paz by our able guide Juan; a married man of 48,  he has two degrees, one in tourism and the second in law which he will finally qualify for this May. He is one of 9 siblings. It really helps when we have an informed and communicative guide.

La Paz is really two cities (Alarto) totalling about 1.8 mm. It is situated in an extremely picturesque valley and founded in 1548 by the Spanish.

La Paz is the highest situated capital in the world and varies between 3000 and 4000 metres. While the administrative and government centre is here the capital, Sucre, is situated farther south. Simon Bolivar's best friend was Marshall Hose Sucre. Bolivar who died of TB at the young age of 45 was hugely instrumental in the development of all the countries in South America.

Bolivia is very rich in oil and gas, lithium, uranium (the president of Iran has made 3 visits here!), iron and borax. While Juan says that the macro economy is doing well not enough is trickling down which is not surprising, I guess. China has made substantial loans and is an increasing presence here.

11 mm people live in Bolivia and there are 9 provinces and 36 indigenous nationalities with the Quethoas and the Amaras making up the vast percentage.

La Paz has an aura of busyness and prosperity and is characterized by 11 major gondola lifts that move people all over the city very efficiently. The traffic slow downs are like something I have never seen before, bumper to bumper, you can walk faster.

J

Franco and Lisa in the gondola

Linda had her phone snatched right out of her hand through a partially opened window of our mini bus. Happened in a split second and the guy was gone. It made us all that more aware of being careful  in our foreign surroundings.

Busy traffic where phone was snatched

There is no sense going in to much more historical detail because it would just bore people so I will end here and prepare for a marathon ride tomorrow of 523 km in uncertain conditions.

Waan also heads home tomorrow at the crack of dawn. She was a great addition to the group, was loved by all and will be sorely missed. I got paid the supreme but inadvertent compliment when she said that the best part of the trip was riding on the back with me!

Day 28, Sat, Feb 24th

Hotel Real Plaza, La Paz to Hotel de Sal  Sumaj, Uyuni 523 km

Even with a departure at 5:50am it still took us an hour to go 20 miles to leave town. We elevated a thousand metres to 4,000 and 5.5 degrees as we exited town so it was cold (heated vest on and plugged in).

We were expecting more adverse weather conditions but were pleasantly surprised with an easy peazy ride on great roads, quite a bit of it on divided highways with light traffic.

The countryside was mostly barren scrub, spread out small deserted looking  buildings, infertile for farming. Some of it was starkly beautiful especially with substantial hills in the distance but not worth sharing pictures. There were much fewer speed bumps and most vehicles have their headlights off making passing a bit more challenging.

I notice that a lot of our riders are careless with a turn signals. Turn signals should be initiated every time to signal intent (ie keep you sharp), for safety and for courtesy for the vehicle being passed. Helge is the only one that is consistent with this (and me).

It was a longish ride, over 500 km so I stopped in Oruru, a dirty frontier town of 250,000 in the middle of nowhere for gas and a walk about.

We are at a shabby little salt flat hotel fully booked at $180 a night and full of Koreans; the owner must be making out like a bandit. Apparently many of the Asian countries are keen visitors and there is a largish airport here to accommodate travellers. We shall see what's up with this tomorrow.

Day 29, Sun, Feb 25th

Hotel de Sal Sumaj Rijchariy, Ujuni, 0km

Along with the shabby locale we had to wait until 8 pm for an equally shabby dinner! They had beer but no wine. Since I am not driving tomorrow, I wanted some red so they sent to town for it at least an hour earlier. It arrived in time for the ice cream! Along the way we had about 6 power outages I guess because the system was over loaded with guests. What a place but you just suck it up and keep going.

Helge's booklet comment on our hotel is blatantly incorrect:

"We will be staying at a very special hotel today, built out of salt from the lake the place is out of this world!"

 Wow, how wrong can a guy be? Plumbing, showers, hot water, food/wine, wifi, storage of bikes, access, hazardous uneven surfaces, you name it. This one has to be near the bottom of the list. 

There are 3 hotels out here on the flats and to be fair he tried to book one of the other two but they were sold out as is ours.

Today we went out onto the world's largest salt flats, 10,582 square kilometres. The elevation does not change more than a metre throughout the area and astronauts and GPS people use it to re-calibrate their measurements from space.

The 'superior' crust is 0-5 cm, the brine crust is 0-10 metres (averages 4.7m) and the underground lake sediment is below that. Other:

-the Daka race comes through here as one of their stops

-Never has so much water been on the salt flats and not sure why

-elevation 11,995 feet 

-the brine area mentioned above contains 50-70% of the world's lithium.

It is really quite an amazing place as partially communicated by the pics below:

There is a Feeling of endleseness, nothing, water integrating with the sky, white colours of sky and ground merged together, quite unique. Franco, who spends a lot of time travelling throughout China thinks that the Asians like this place because it is so natural and is their chance to get away from all the congestion they have to live with day in and day out.

Didn’t think I could jump this high did you? Helge’s magic with a camera in a special place!

Franco, my roomie in the palm of my hands!

We had a terrible lunch out in the flats and Bob brought down our table in laughter with this one liner: 'I never really much cared about food until this trip!'

Franco, Ron, Bob and Paul

Day 30, Mon, Feb 26th

Hotel de Sal Sumaj Rijchariy, Ujuni to Hotel Coloso, Potosi, 231 km

We departed hole in the wall lodgings traversing 4.5 km of washboad which is ungraded, bumpy gravel road conditions. Glad to see the back end of that place and two nights at that!

It is difficult to keep thinking up adjectives to describe the scenery so I will just add a few pics below. The road was perfect and we all enjoyed the short ride into Potosi with almost no traffic. You feel like honking on every pass and blinking your lights at oncoming traffic just to say hi.

One thing you see a lot of is grazing Llamas, great, hairy things with longish necks. They have no compunction about stepping out on the road so lots of signage is around to keep you aware.

I arrived just before lunch to our much improved lodgings in Potosi which was an important gold and silver mining town of 200,000 plus high up in the Andes. We have a tour tomorrow so will elaborate a bit then.

A funny story at least for me: I lost my Swiss Army knife which is an important 'do all' accompaniment. Walking around the busy, quaint town built on a steep hill I spy this outdoor store so in I go. In the process of acquiring a new knife I notice that they have a cigar selection featuring longish Cuban Havanas for 35 Bolivar's (about $7). Why not buy one, try it out and maybe purchase a few more for the road if they are not too dried out?

Well dummy here leaves the store feeling pretty 'puffed' and proceeds to use the Swiss Army knife for the very first time to clip the end and light up! It didn't take me 5 minutes to realize my folly. Sucking on the damn cigar was hard work partly because of the cigar itself and partly because of the altitude. Pretty soon I was at a standstill, hardly able to breathe, sucking in thin fresh air like I was being suffocated! While treating myself to a little treat I quickly realized the folly of my actions 

and doused it out.

While carrying altitude pills as a precaution I have tried to stay away from them up until now. Today, before leaving Uyuni I took my first pill and will keep it up until we reach sea level in Santiago. 

Last, we met Ken Southam and his wife Sarah from Vancouver today at our hotel. Ken was a 2015 Silk Road Globerider and shipped his VW camper to Santiago for a 4 month driving trip around South America. They planned to meet us here and are driving north while we drive south.

Day 31, Tue, Feb 27th 

Hotel Coloso, Potosi, 0 km

 I have a riveting story to share in my next missive about today’s experience with Sarah where we both visited a silver and zinc mine deep, deep in to the mountain over looking Potosi. If we had known what we were getting ourselves in for we probably would not have proceeded. Would we do it again? No! Are we glad we did it? Yes! I need to get this on line asap as it is 10 days since the last one and the next one will go out in the next 10 days from Santiago as we continue to progress south.