South America and South Africa

The last three days I made a tour to the Salar de Uyuni (elev. 3,660 m), which is with 12,000 km² (half the size of the land Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) the largest and highest salt-lake in the world in the South-West of Bolivia. It is surrounded by volcanoes, multi-coloured lakes, and the big nothingness. The trip started in Uyuni a little town in the middle of nowhere which was in better times in the last century a major railway junction.The first stop was at the train cemetery where old trains found their final destination in the desert.

From there we went to the Salar de Uyuni with its blinding white endless salt-crust. At the borders of the salt lake the layer of salt is about 30 cm thick whereas it is at the centre up to 45 m. The salt is formed to pyramids to dry for further processing.

The next stop was at the Isla Incahuasi, a small island covered with tall cactii, some of them up to nine meters high and considering the annual growth rate of approximately 1 cm almost 1,000 years old. The Galaxy Cavern with its bizarre stone structures was our final destination for day one.

The next morning we continued our tour through the big nothingness of the Bolivian Altiplano. It was a great experience to cross the desert for hours, so different than anything in Europe. Sometimes we could see strangely shaped rock formations caused by volcanoe eruptions along the dirt-road, some of the volcanoes still active.

Several lakes, some of those coloured in red, green or a pale blue due to algae or minerals/metals dissolved in it, provided habitats for hundreds of flamingos, a bird species one normally wouldn’t expect to see in the desert and an altitude of more than 4,000 m. (Unfortuntaly I got sick that evening, the first time since I started my trip, so that I didn’t feel well enough to take more pictures. The best views were anyway on the first two days.)

This is not the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro but the Copacabana at the shores of the Bolivian side of Lake Titikaka. It is a small town in an elevation of about 4,000 m and the atmosphere is very laid back. Lodging and food is really cheap and I enjoyed a lot staying here the last four days.

Yesterday morning I accidently spotted a women’s soccer tournament in the sports hall right opposite my hostel and when I went home in the evening around ten in the night it was still ongoing. Each team had their individual jersey which they wore over their complete traditional clothing. It appeared that they had at least four different layers of clothing and in their skirts they appeared like pawns moving over the chess board. The goalie kneeled down to catch a ball and it was caught in the seems of the skirt. Often lacking elegance it was visible when they were playing that they were doing regular training and at least prior to that tournament they had their tactics lesson as they were sticking to their positions. Also the spectators and the referees took the sports very serious.

The women had so much fun and it was very cute when they made a mistake and nevertheless smiled. I guess the life of a woman in Bolivia  is full of duties and that there is not much leisure or enjoyment.  Even more I was happy to see all the joy they had in their faces while they were playing. I think this is it about the things you are doing.

(The photos are far from being optimal or even good also owed to the difficult light. Nevertheless there is so much life in it that I publish them anyway. For those who like sunsets (and who does not?) there are more photos from Copacabana under photos “Evening at Lake Titikaka”.)

The last five days I was in Cusco, the former Incan capital and today’s backpacker’s epicentrum in South America and in Machu Picchu, the sunken Inca town in the jungle that was rediscovered by Hiran Bingham in 1911.

Cusco’s centre is defined by the Plaza de Armas. Apart from the Cathedral and another church the plaza and the roads adjacent to it are surrounded by shops that cater exclusively for the tourist’s needs: restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, tour operators, internet and money changing booths that more or less offer exactly the same for more or less the same price. The closer the buildings are to the plaza the nicer they look. Everything there is tidy and clean and the city stretches out to the hills enclosing Cusco. It is nice to sit here while writing travelblog but simultaneously it is a somewhat odd experience as it seems that the city centre is designed for the international traveller and not for the Peruvians. Even KFC and McDonalds have their branches here. Despite the amenities I am happy to leave to Lago Titikaka in Bolivia tonight as I didn’t really come here for seeing a quasi western town centre.  

Machu Picchu, built between 1450 and 1540 by the incas, is uniquely located on the top of the mountains at the border of the Amazonian jungle, about 70 miles north-west of Cusco. There are several ways to get to Machu Picchu of which the most spectular ones are the multi-day hikes, e.g. the well known Inca Trail. I decided to do a two-day bus/train-tour with a visit of the Sacred Valley, an overnight stay in Aguas Calientes, a town consisting of hotels/hostels and restaurants approximately 30 car-minutes below Machu Picchu, and thereafter a whole day at the ruins. I was curious how Machu Picchu would compare to Angkor, the temple city in Cambodia, which really impressed me when I visited it in 2002. (I consider its main temple Angkor Wat still as the most beautiful building I have ever seen.)

When I woke up there was heavy rain and Machu Picchu was in the clouds. Of course I was somewhat bemused but on the other hand the clouds emphasized the location on the hardly accessible top of the mountain and it appeared as almost built in heaven. Albeit the ruins are really good in shape considering that 70 percent were still intact after almost 500 years coverage by the jungle I was mostly excited about how they are located. (See also photos.)

The lasting three days I spent in Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. Unlike Nasca I haven’t planned the visit of these two places from the beginning but on the Galapagos Islands cruise somebody recommended to go there. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and beautifully located below some volcanoes. The most famous might be the Ampato where the famous Inca-mummy “Juanita” was found in 6,300 m altitude.

Arequipa has some old monastries of which the larger part of the Convent Santa Catalina was made accessible to the public after  the earthquake in 1970. The convent is like a little town in the city and it was restored and coloured typical for that region. While we were there, I was together with the two spanish flight attendants I met in Nasca, a film-team was shooting a scene for a film about a nun of this monastry.

After two days I left in the early morning for a two-day tour to the Colca Canyon which is deeper than the Grand Canyon but apart from that cannot compete with it. The tour started with a visit of the Cruz del Condor, the deepest part of the canyon, where each morning condors rise in the morning thermals. Thereafter we went to the rim of the canyon and started our hike to the “oasis” at the bottom of the canyon where we stayed overnight. As my feet were completely messed up by my hiking-boots I decided to make use of the offer to waive the next morning climb for a ride on a mule back to the rim. After the breakfast we continued our tour with visits to several villages with great views of the scenery, a bath in the hot springs of La Calera and finally a visit to the Aguada Blanca National Vicuna Reserve about one hour out of Arequipa. (See photos “Two-day tour to the Colca Canyon”)