Tag Archives: altitude sickness

Uyuni to Tupiza; what spectacular & dramatic landscape…

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What a surprise this turned out to be…
Given the $ still working in our favour, we decided to go with the ¨top-end¨ tour, as opposed to the backpacker option. Thought we´d treat ourselves!

We got from Potosí to Uyuni, which all went well. A real backpackers hub is Uyuni, but it is from there that you need to start any of the Salar de Uyuni – the Salt Plains tour. Our guide Archie, and our driver Rubin from Tupiza Tours met us at our hotel bright and early the next morning. We loaded our stuffs into the 4WD and off we went…

Day 1
Salar de Uyuni is rather amazing. Click on the link to find out all about it. But from our perspective though, it is the best place to take the most creative photos, which of course, we took full advantage of (samples to come).

Lunching at the Isla del Pescado was gorgeous too, but a little ridiculous in so far as we shared this remote part of the world with approx 40 of our closest 4WD vehicles x 5 persons each! The island is made up of cacti and coral, but honestly, there were so many people on and around this tiny island, it was busier than Bourke St! There was even a queue to use the salt-constructed picnic tables!!

And then, when we had enough of standing in the sun, additionally strong with the reflection from the salt, we headed to our hotel. Now I have to admit, we weren´t expecting too much by way of ¨luxury¨, but I have to say, we were most pleasantly surprised.

Hotel de Piedra stands on top of a little village in the ¨middle of nowhere¨, and provided a most unexpected respite from the harshness of the salt plains. Really very impressive. The water was solar-powered and therefore had to be used as soon as we arrived, and power went off at 10pm, but that was all part of its charm.

What´s also impressive is the way this hotel, and the following two Tayka Hoteles we were to stay at, have been set up with the community. Each of the hotels have been built with the full support of the locals, and with the view to have the locals fully owning and running their own hotel within a 10-year period. They too were running out of ways to create their own revenues, and the plans have been hatched and executed accordingly. Another good reason for us to spend our money here…

Day 2
Once leaving the Salar de Uyuni, we were pretty much on our own, except for the occasional 4WD drive-bys. Today, we spent lots of time looking at Lagunas and flamingos! How many photos can one person take, really! We did have lunch with local wildlife though, greeted by Viscacha´s and little teeny-weeny mice that looked like Miss Tittlemouse from Beatrix Potter. They were certainly happy to scoff any lunch we didn´t!

Hotel Desierto was the hotel of choice for sleepover. This time we couldn´t even see the village that was looking after this one, so as we went up the drive, after finding a solitary sign in the middle of the desert, we were presented with this large hotel all by itself, unbelievable. It literally stands alone at the base of a mountain, at the edge of the National Park. Quite the mirage!

Day 3
Today was more lagunas, and flamingos, and llamas. Lots more llamas.
Lunch was with the llamas, lieterally. We found the most amazing spot in the middle of desert surrounds, green, lush, with llamas feeding and drinking from a flowing stream. Again, lots of photos taken, what more can we say!

Prior to that though, we spent time at Stone Tree, and then at the geysers. Even had a little soak in the hot springs. Sol de Mañana, despite being very smelly,  certainly revealed how the earth handles some of its own waste! The hot spring however was clean and balmy 36 oC; rather warm given how cool it was considering it was a desert morning. Well worth visiting though…

Our last hotel on our ¨luxury¨ tour was the Hotel de los Volcanes. Again, this one was as impressive as the other two. Such a delight!

Day4
More of the same really. Then as we were heading towards Tupiza to conclude our round-the-desert tour, we were introduced to Quebrada de Palala, with spectacular red rock formations that resemble needles reaching 4200m high. El Sillar, or more commonly known as ¨moon valley¨, where, as a product of erosion, show the most amazing formations Mother Nature can produce. A scene to be seen, and truly appreciated. Wonderful.

Altitude sickness played a part again in this leg of the trip, but this time I was ready. We started at 3300m and reached as high as 4950m! Fortunatley this time it was in the 4WD and not on foot. Thank goodness for Diamox!

Back to reality came with a thud. The Hotel Mitru in Tupiza was a bit of a let-down after the desert trio, but nevertheless functional. This is where we rested our weary heads, ready for the next part of our adventure, crossing the Bolivian/Argentian border…

Inka Trail; 42km of walking splendour, and sore, sore bodies!

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WE DID IT!
42km of hiking like I´d never done before, and nor had Daughter.

We meet our guide Roger, and off we went. After a briefing the night before, we headed off for our initial site seeing tour around the Cusco area, finally ending up at “base camp” for EcoInka (our tour team).

First night we stayed at KM82, 2800m, in our tents which were lovingly prepared by our soon-to-be new best friends – the porters. They displayed their best efforts to impress us, and indeed they did, especially Cook. What he could whip out of a camp kitchen was quite incredible really.

We knew we were looking at roughly 10km a day to cover the Inka Trail, with scenary to die for. So with all 9 porters employed to carry our stuff and set up camp etc, and 2 cooks to feed us along the way, we were set. After being wined and dined, both dinner and breakfast, a-trekking we did go!

Day 1 – Hard…
Once crossing the ferociously flowing Urubamba River to get ourselves checked in, we were off. 11kms, mainly uphill. Hatunchaca @ 2900m for lunch was the stop, and weren´t we ready for it by then. The hardest bit though was the next 200m climb, all in 2km. But all was good, and we made it for afternoon tea (yes, we had that waiting for us) @ Wayllbamba 3100m. Here we camped for the night at the little village, as its the last community on the Inka Trail.

Given we had only got to 3100m, and the next day we were to be at 4200m, we knew we had a tough day in front of us…

I digress here a little to explain the Porters…country Peruvians mainly. They each carried 20kg on their backs and ran from one post to the next, packing up after us and setting up before us, uphill and downdale. As I said before, quite impressive really.

Day 2 – Amazing but TORTURE…
After a 5:30 start, we headed out as we had done the day before. Roger had already explained that this day was the hardest, but that would have to be the understatement of the century. Essentially we were going up 1100m! And the only way to that is to walk, and walk we did. So we headed up mountains, and many steps, and the body screamed. We were heading for the first pass Abra de Warmi Wahusca, or more commonly known as Dead Woman´s Pass 4200m.

Sadly for moi, altitude sickness (or the technical term is AMS – Acute Mountain Sickness) kicked in at about 3500m. Trying to climb up that mountain feeling nauseous and dizzy was no mean feat I can assure you. Daughter however did it just like a mountain goat. Hence why she and the others were waiting for me for 90 mins while I slowly, and under sufferance, labourious dragged myself up the last couple of hundred metres. There was much jubilation as I reached the top, bless them. I even did a little dance. The view was spectacular, like nothing else we had seen before. Pity we forgot to get the team photo at the sign, but hey, next time!!

Then there was the walk down. From the top, reaching camp – Paqaymayu 3500m looked doable. Little did we know what we had to drop 600m to reach it. It was ugly. The steps down played havoc on the knees that had muscle memory to go up, and on my head and stomach that was not coping so well. Daughter sailed on through, as she does.

By the time I did reach camp, behind everyone else, I was a bit of a mess really, on the inside that is. When I collapsed into my tent, all I wanted to do was crawl into my sleeping bag and curl up in a foetal position. But much to my horror, my sleeping bag was completely soaked through. That was the last straw and I burst into tears! Poor Daughter, and poor Roger. He couldn´t do enough to get that damn thing dry. It did come back in record time, smelling of the evenings dinner, which did nothing for my nausea, but at least I could hybernate. By that stage, I also got back into the altitude sickness drugs so it was all going to get better.

And it did…

Whilst I wasn´t that much fun that evening, or for the next day for that matter, once the drugs kicked in, the downhill was much easier to some extent, and life began to look rosy again. Even to the point where jokes were being cracked about the lack of showering and the stench factor, greatly amusing Roger by this stage, who had now taken on the code name of “care bear”.

Day 3 – Beauty and getting better…
This day started as the others, 5:30am. I started out quite rough, but as the day progressed and the drugs kicked in, life got a lot less harrowing! We made it the second pass – Qochapata 3950m, spending time at Sayaqmarka and enjoying this well preserved Inka town. Staying over night at the most beautiful spot, Chaquiqocha, with the most amazing views at sunrise.

Except, as I had forgot to mention, we did most of the Inka Trail in rain or cloud! So we were often soaked throughout, and then equally drying off, all on route. Fortunately, at all the really sensational bits, the sun shone brightly, but not this particular morning though. We got a glimpse of its magnificence, but it was not long lasting…bugger!

Day 4 – Slendour and happy tears
Today, after heading through the third pass near – Phuyupatamarka 3670m – we were will on our way to Macchu Picchu. Not sure how, but we managed to have lunch in a restaurant in the middle of the rainforest (which it had turned into by this stage). And it was the last time we had with our cooks etc, so it was big hand shakes all round, and a little team photo.

Macchu Picchu, what more can I say other than WOW. The walk in was spectacular. And, as if on cue, the sun came out. We had even got to the point by now of complete smugness! All these people (turisticas) walking past us were so clean and wandering around the site as if on a mission, but we had conquered the Inka Trail! We are feeling pretty damn good about that fact I can assure you.

Not quite sure what vibes we must have been putting out there, but I had a strange man cuddle me (a very brave move by this stage). It might have had something to do with all of us breaking into very loud outbursts of Halleluiah!

Word of advice for anyone tackling this feat… do a hell of a lot more preparation than I did!
For those of you who know what the ¨1000 Steps¨ in Mt Dandenong are… you need to have done them 1000 times to get even close to being ready. My rather lame efforts of doing them a few times did not even come close. We live and learn…

Once we reached the bus stop, to got to Aguas Calientes where we spent new years eve (and have that long awaited shower!), we all burst into tears and applauded ourselves on a job well done. A once in a lifetime adventure I suspect, but one we can now tick off on the ever-growing to do list!

Here´s to the happiest news year ever….