Chile - not much happened

We went to Chile, and spent six days on the mainland. For most of that, Mummy was ill with vomitting and fever disease, or drinking large amounts. They came in that order. The drink helped the disease. Neither helped the writing of WiG posts.

Chile was alright, but people speak far too fast and with made-up words. Might give it a miss if I were you.

Greg - Santiago de Chile

And Now…

As some light relief from all those long words Mummy has been putting up, have a picture of a Siberian huskie:

Greg - Ushuaia, Argentina

Skanky Travellers

It’s time to admit defeat, Mummy! That strange circular bite you picked up in the jungle has been around for nearly three weeks now. Might it be time to accept that it is, in fact, ringworm?

At least medicine here is cheap.

Greg - Buenos Aires, Argentina

All By Ourselves

The time has come; I’m off by myself! Not everyone wants to go to Iguazu, so I’m being a big brave zebra and heading off on my lonesome.

It’s a good job I’ve got Mummy to keep me company, or I’d feel about as lonely as I look in this Salt Flats picture.

The Green Lake

We saw a lot of lakes on our trip to the Salt Flats with our utterly atrocious guide. Here is the Red Lake:

Here is the Flamingo Lake:

And here is the Green Lake:

Notice any salient feature which is missing?

Greg - Salar Uyuni, Bolivia

El Camino de la Muerte

I am writing this in a very grumpy mood, as I am angry at Mummy. Yesterday, she went on a big fun adventure and left me behind! Trapped in a locker for a whole day, just because she didn’t think Death Road is a very safe place for a little zebra!

‘Death Road’, or the Yungas Road if you want to Wikipedia it, as the kids inaccurately bastardise a noun, is a fairly long stretch of road in Bolivia that used to be the most dangerous in the world. Why? Well, have a look at this photograph I stole.*

The drop-offs are “at least 600m”, and the road is mostly single carriageway lumps of rock. According to Wikipedia, 200-300 people died a year when it was in use full time. Now the big lorries use the new bypass, but a couple of tourists still drop to their deaths yearly. Back in the good old days, it was the only road in Bolivia where you drove on the left, so left-hand-drive vehicles could get a better view of the wheel perched precariously on the cliff edge. If you want to read more, have a look at a very melodramatic BBC account here.

I think the main reason Mummy was so concerned was that instead of opting for the company recommended by the hostel, which had posh bikes with hydraulic brakes, full face crash helmets and their own mountain rescue equipment, which cost £57, she instead paid £22 to go with some other people. You got free breakfast and a T-shirt though!

She survived, needless to say, although the problematic neck means that she has spent lots of time lying on her back on the floor today. Oh, and drying her cothes, which got soaked by the waterfalls which pound down onto the stones at some points. She is trying to make up for it by taking me to the rainforest soon, so there might be a big break in writing!

Sadly, she couldn’t bring herself to tempt fate by wearing her “I survived Death Road” T-shirt from the very start of the trip, preventing the chance of a rather ironic corpse being repatriated.

Greg - La Paz, Bolivia

* _{Mummy’s photos will go up at some point, but are currently trapped for complicated reasons. This will do as a placeholder. Sorry to original owner.}

An Unusual Hat

It’s the Fiesta de la Virgin del Copacabana! For six days a year the imhabitants of Bolivia and Peru descend on the tiny fishing village of Copacabana to celebrate their Lady and have an enormous party. There are streamers and confetti and bands everywhere, figures of the Virgin processing through the streets as women in rainbow skirts dance and buses covered in rainbow crepe paper get in the way and sond their horns. The whole village is packed and alive and colourful, everything gets blessed and crowds of people swarm up the hill to set fire to countless candles and pools of paraffin and draw pictures of their houses in wax ont eh walls.

But you don’t want to see that, do you? What you want to see is a photo of Mummy being blessed by having an armadillo rubbed on her head.

Greg - Copacabana, Bolivia

_{As any good reader of the Lonely Planet will know, it is very bad indeed for tourists to have anything at all to do with the growing trade in dead armadillos, which are cut up or made into mandolins. Ever. So as a discerning reader you will be pleased to know that this particular specimen was alive and wriggling. There’s a better picture of it, doing a good bit of shoulder rubbing, in the photos section}

Cocktails

The people of Peru certainly know how to make a good cocktail!

Greg - Miraflores, Peru

Reeds!

Hello everyone!

I went to Laka Titikaka. I have seen a lot of reeds. There are, in fact, whole islands made of reeds, which float about on the surface (although they cheat a bit by anchoring them down) and the people live an almost entirely reed-based existence.

Except for all the tourists, of course.

Have some pictures of some reeds:

P.S. Puno is a shithole. Never go.

A Plea

Dear Mummy,

It’s been three days since you started walking to Machu Picchu, on the hardest route offered by the tour guides. You have climbed 1600m, gasped for breath at altitude, fallen and twisted your ankle. Your legs set solid every time you sit down and if you put your feet down too hard you can feel the blisters shifting. Last night you ’slept’ in a tent whilst it was -15 degrees Celsius outside, and your stomach has gone on strike and refuses to digest anything. You are wearing revolting clothes, covered in dust and now monkey poo from that little sod who climbed into your coat to go to sleep earlier. The dirt is ingrained into your hands, and in order to get around at 1:00 am you have to twiddle the knob on your wind-up torch constantly.

So why are you going out clubbing, instead of keeping me warm and cared for? Why? How can that ever be a good idea?

Cusco, Peru - Greg