pre-inca ruins,, waterfalls and a jungle border crossing

how to start with the last week? there's been a couple more hikes, 2 night buses plus 3 days of day travel (so in total about 36 hours of bus travel), a fair few hours spent bumping my way along muddy roads in rickety cars, and days at a stretch without a shower, but at the same time I was rewarded with great conversations, visits to 3 pre-inca ruins, a variety of landscapes from tall mountains to the dry dusty desert to the muddy lusciously green jungle, the worlds third tallest waterfall, colonial tinged amazonas towns and finally, a border crossing to Ecuador.

A nice change of altitude - 600m now

The 'ranchero' bus truck to take me through the jungle. Sort of theme park no?

Bye bye Peru - their side of the crossing

I am now sitting out of the mud and with the bugs under a tin roof next to a gurgling river. I'll be here 3 hours waiting for a bus. Welcome to the border crossing, Las Balsas - Zumbo from Peru - Ecuador. I left the nearest town, San Ignacio around 6am, and 1.5 hours later I arrived to have a relaxing breakfast with the immigration officer in Las Balzas. It's now 9.30am, and I'm waiting for the 'Ranchero', a sort of truck with bench seats with a canopy where the flat back is, to take me 1.5 hours to the closest Ecuadorian town. From there it will be another 6 hours to Vilcabamba where I will meet our couchsurfing host from New Orleans who is traveling there too. Amazing how you can, for the most part, relax and let so many hours pass (and update one's blog!).

Dirt roads wind their way precariously alongside rivers

sometimes getting lost in the process

My moto-taxi getting a little stuck in the mud -by the way - the kid on the left is my 12y/o driver

The drive here reminded me how much I really respect (and I guess trust) the drivers here. The roads are muddy and slippery, and even with 6 passengers fogging up visibility they manage to navigate their way around landslides, rocks, a truck or so that's on its side after falling in a ditch, little 3 wheeler tuk tuks and narrow lanes with sheer drops to the side - all while whistling along to the inevitable LOUD strains of some local music. That is impressive actually - no matter how run down the car, it will always have a pretty new and awesome sound system.

I had to stop writing as a guy came over trying to reason with me that the police wanted me to buy him a coffee:) but then the Aduana (customs) guy also came over so his little attempt at a free coffee faltered. I really haven't experienced much bribery at all during my travels - literally it's been once on the Peruvian side of the Bolivia border crossing, and now this time here in Ecuador. And both attempts were not very hard played.

But back to the last week - the highlight were visits to 3 pre-inca ruins - the first still in the high mountains near Huaraz - the Chavin ruins, then in the dry sandy desert of Trujillo to see some ruins from the Moche culture, and then nearby here in the cloud forest jungle, the ruins from the Chachapoyas culture - Kuelap.

The site of Chavin de Huantar started being habitated from 3000BC but the construction dates back to 1200BC. It's one of the oldest sites I've visited, and although it's still being uncovered, there are some beautiful elements to it too. The highlights here were the many tunnels that ran underground the site.

The mark of the main deity in the Chavin culture

The artefacts from Huacas de la Luna y Sol (the temple of the moon and sun) of the Moche culture (100-700AD) were incredibly well preserved, and plentiful. Beautiful ceramics, wall paintings, and what was interesting that the Huaca de la Luna was actually a temple that was filled in and rebuilt 5 times. (once each century roughly)

VIew from Huaca de la Luna (religious) to Huaca del Sol (administrative) over the urban (living) area

Walking up alongside Huaca de la Luna to Cerro Blanco 

Beautiful painting/mouldings on the outisde of the 5th incarnation of the temple

The Kuelap ruins are quite different - think Machu Picchu on a less impressive scale, however somehow the siting of the ruins sitting abreast the ridge in the lush green valleys, and beautiful circular ruins of houses and the basic, more crude approach to building, oh and being one of 7 tourists visiting that day, made for a very impressive and tranquil experience. Construction started 6th century AD, and it was used mainly as a pilgrimage site as well as a city. It is much less refined that Machu Pichu - for instance, women and children carried the water from some 100m below at the river, and there is less fine detailing in for instance the roof / wall joints.

Chachapoyas was also a pretty town - a lot of wooden detailing and colonial finishes, and it was also just a nice place to relax. Sort of in the jungle, but high enough not to be too sweltering.

Finally, yesterday morning I left Peru for the last time this trip began said journey to the border. I am glad I got to see more of the North, and hopefully one day I can return to see more of the stunning mountains near Huaraz, but I'm sort of ready to move onto Ecuador - and as I have 1 month left of traveling here in South America - I better get on to it!

ps. I forgot the waterfall - here it is!

out of the jungle i go

i've been a bad tourist. I've just spent 5 days in rurrenabaque, and not seen aligators, anacondas, monkeys or pink dolphins, ate coconut tasting insects and learnt what's toxic and not, or wielded a machete. and now i've left. well there's various reasons that I didn't go on a single pampa or jungle tour. I've - still not any useful hiking/walking because of my sprained foot, i seem to be running out of $US to change into Bolivianos (there's no ATM here) and well, i'm being lazy. Yes I may regret this, but i think i'm ok with it. oddly enough, I like animals and happy to hang out with them, but for me mountains and long vista landscapes are more my thing rather than getting close to the furries.

but there are a couple of memories of rurre to stay with me...

• watching every morning and evening, an old couple walking hand in hand into the centre of town. you don't see much hand holding going on here, so it was very sweet to see.
• listening ALL night (to about 5am) to some music down the road - a sort of military drumming crossed with folklore.
  
• meeting a baby big cat - called tigre, resident of a local mechanic
• having a chilled out chat with laura - a dutch girl who fell in love with a local Bolivian, and is getting married in 2 weeks. There was a lot of discussion about cultural differences and her experiences living in Rurre.
• lazing about on the hammock and watching school kids wander their way home from school
• hitting the sunday market on the way out of rurre. People here work 6 days a week, and on sunday's they really do relax, hang out with families, have big lunches and usually enjoy a beer or well 10.
  

yesterday we left rurre, and after 20kms philipe discovered that his shock absorber for his side car tyre, had snapped at the top and was clanging around on his bike frame. 30kms down the road we found an open motorbike workshop with soldering equipment. (this guy was working at 6pm on a Sunday!) He managed to forge a solution, and meanwhile I went search of somewhere to stay. it was a dustry road stop town of probably 40 families, and definitely no sort of hostal. but the couple in the local 'pension'/restaurant kindly invited us in (no less with a cold beer!) and we soon were yelling over the mexican music dvd's playing and telling our stories. we found out that they were the parents of the mechanic - he was just 20, but with a 3 month old baby with a 19 year old girl from a couple of towns up.  as the beers kept getting topped up, i sort of got the impression they (the parents) were not too keen on her, but now with a baby there was not much they could do.

A very welcoming family who let us camp in their restaurant - and welcomed us in with beer, loud mexican telemovie music and lots of good times

I've noticed that there are many unmarried parents and also single mothers here - often under 20 years old. you often meet young children being taken care of by grandparents, while the parents/mother live in a bigger city to work. birth control? well the relative cost of it here is expensive so I guess not used.

His wife Leondi and grandaughter Eva - doing some washing next to the  shower in the orange tree:)

With Antonio who kindly let us camp in his courtyard

tonight we have also been lucky enough to have been allowed to camp in the courtyard of a family's house - antonio, leondi and little eva. Antonio and leondi are the grandparents, little eva is 2 1/2 years old. Her mother left 2 years ago to work in La Paz, and so she lives here with them. It's perched up above the main road, but a simple concrete construction (we're out of the wetter areas where they tend to build in wood, and with thatched roofs) around a well tended courtyard. out back is a small orange plantation - and smack bang in the middle of one tree is the shower. it is a very tranquil place compared to the noisy busy family house last night (where there was a chorus of barking dogs and hens squaking), and again I'm very touched by the kindness of people here.

This little boy was sitting with his mother who was selling watermelons by the roadside - 1 bol/kilo - so for a 5kg melon, 50c (Photo by Philipe)

we're on our way towards La Paz, where I will say good bye to Philipe. He's heading up to Ecuador to see friends, and I'm going ot Cusco to see mum and dad. It's time to get out of Bolivia as my 3 month visa expires on the 24th, and I'll be sad to leave a country so filled with extreme landscapes, tasty produce and food, and some very authentic and kind people. But Peru is next, and i'm off to trek my heart out!

Just down from the roadside camp in between 2 blockades, these little boys were playing and really acting up for the camera. (Photo by Philipe)

christianity in the bolivian jungle

it's an odd sort of thing - in the last week we've separately met two
very kind and very passionate Americans - both Christians, working and
living in Bolivia over the past 15 years or so. Stewart and his Bolivian
wife, Naide stopped and spoke to us on the road from Trinidad, and
subsequently invited us to stay with them; and Ronnie approached us when
we arrived in Rurrenabaque and helped us find a bike friendly hotel.
We've also seen quite a few Mormons and also Mennonites (close to the
Amish) walking around in their hats, overalls, women in long skirts and
matching striped shopping bags.


I've not yet worked out the appeal - or the reason why in the previous 8
months I've not met anyone like this - yet bang, since being near the
old Jesuit Missions and into the tropics of the jungle, meeting and
seeing so many. It has definitely been interesting listening to the many
stories, theories and religious ideas and experiences, but somehow
tiring as well (usually there's hours of listening involved). It's
interesting to see the different degrees of integration; for instance
Stewart doesn't speak much Spanish - despite Naide not speaking any
English, or the types of food eaten - from eating a typical amuerzo
(lunch) with Ronnie, to the hotcakes with syrup and bacon for a dinner
snack cooked by Naide.

1 200cc bike, 5 people, 50kms of muddy road. RESPECt

Road had turned to mud on the way back

Road there - driving at night not so fun

Stewart and Naide's place was a bit of a ways from the town we planned
on staying in - try 7 hours riding sand (which turned to mud on the way
back after rains) to get about 130kms. (thankfully i rode 2 up on the
sidecar) They don't see too many foreigners; apart from family who
visited we were the only English speakers that had come by in the past
year. The community near their house consisted about 20 families; no
electricity, a clean water tank was just being installed, every dirt
house was shared by the greater family, oxen pulling around carts,
cattle and pigs roaming around - and during rainy season it becomes
completely cut off and inaccessible by car. A very different way of life.

Stewart getting comfortable watching for hochi's

Listening intently - he also played the mandolin quite well

Stewart definitely had a luxurious house by comparison - his own water
tank/well/pump with a good pressure outdoor cold shower, 2 generators,
fridge and... air conditioners for 3 rooms. I can relate to this -
things we take as important - ie. clean drinking water, having a
sanitation tank for human waste etc are a bit out of the norm here.

A noisy friend 

We spent 5 days with them - Stewart was definitely a very strong
character; from Florida but with a strong southern accent, so his
stories about slow trail deer hunting, fishing using airboats, the frog
leg trade, stories of his brother, when he arrived in Bolivia, the
conversations he has with the Lord and miracles he has witnessed, were
told in an expressive slow drawl and with whole body passion. There were
some rather very strong views that came out but he was very welcoming,
and I learnt many new things about how people live out their beliefs.

Dancing in San Ignacio de Moxos

Blocking the blockade

Imagine this after 4 months of rainy season.....

After 5 days we headed back to San Ignacio de Moxos, then to San Borja,
and yesterday a long day of riding to Rurrenabaque. On the way we
stopped for 2 hours at a road blockade that was in protest of a new road
being built through some protected areas to facilitate transport between
Chile and Brazil. A bit baking in the midday sun and I'm not sure if
there are more effective ways to find a solution. From there we went
through some muddy patches and road under construction to reach Rurre -
I cannot imagine how these roads are in the rainy season - we are now at
the end of the dry season and it's already difficult now.

Rurre for a couple of days, perhaps a venture out to Rio Tuichi to
hopefully see some animals, then got to work out how exactly I'm going
to get to Cusco to see mum and dad... there's a road on the map - but
apparently it doesn't exist... hmm....