Iguazú Falls and Uruguay

I went to Iguazú Falls. They were as enormous, amazing, spectacular and everything as they were supposed to be. Even despite the big amount of tourists I enjoyed visiting the place. The photos will give you an idea, but to really understand how stunning the waterfalls are, you have to see them yourself.From Puerto Iguazu I travelled about 20 hours in a bus to Buenos Aires and then crossed the bay to Uruguay. On the ferry a Finnish guy, Tuukka, came to talk to me. He had noticed my Halti backpack and figured that I'm a Finn. The same thing has happened to me once before, in a local bus to a small village in Fiji in 2003. On this trip to South America I didn't see many Finns. After meeting the tango enthusiasts in Buenos Aires, there was a Finnish couple on the same daytrip in Mendoza. In Chile two Finnish guys had stayed at the same hostel just two days before me. In San Pedro de Atacama I saw the Finnish flag in a bar and was told that the owner, Reijo, is a Finn. In Bolivia there was my friend Kati, and - in the Bolivian jungle I spoke Finnish with a traveller called Zamir, or Sami. He was from Stockholm, Sweden. His mother was a Finn and his father an Israeli.

Tuukka told me he had been robbed just before embarking the ferry. On the street, in the daylight, around 8.30 in the morning! Classical case: Some dirty liquid had been spilled on him, two women had appeared asking "Oh, you got it, too? Do you have some water we could use for cleaning our clothes?" Tuukka put down his backpack and started to take out his water bottle. Then there was a man nearby making some weird noise. Tuukka looked up. He knew there was something strange, but it all happened so quick. Before he realised, the women had grabbed his backpack and jumped into a nearby car, which drove away.

Uruguay, the land of mate and gauchos, seemed very European - and for that, after visiting the more exotic countries Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador - somewhat uninteresting to me. It was my last destination and my mind was already home, but I was still able to notice the beauty of the streets lined with trees and the colonial buildings in Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento.

A park in Montevideo:A couple waiting for the sunset and drinking mate by the sea in Montevideo:
Restaurants at Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo:
Big trees lining a street in Colonia del Sacramento:
On the morning of my last day in Uruguay an American man from my hostel asked me if he could join me for a walk in the Old Town of Colonia. Old man (recently retired), American, abdominous, wearing a baseball shirt. I wasn't thrilled with his suggestion. But I wasn't horrified either. I guess I was indifferent. "Sure, whatever, why not", I thought. And he turned out to be excellent company for my last day of travelling. After walking around taking photos we had the most delicious lunch and long conversations at a nice restaurant. We talked about his plans to buy a house somewhere in South America, about travelling, relationships, work, cows and bulls... anything. I would just sit and listen admiring, soaking his wisdom of life in. He said something very beautiful about his girlfriend and their relationship, comparing it to finding an excellent wine, after which he doesn't want to drink other wines anymore. I wish I had written down what he said about travelling, commenting about me taking the risk of leaving everything for a while and going backpacking. It was something like "sometimes people get too involved in their routines and don't see the crystals in their lives. Breaking the routines and experiencing something new broadens your mind, gives you perspective on things".

Paraguay

Everybody has told me there's nothing to see in Paraguay. "Why do you go there - there's nothing for tourists." But I wanted to see it with my own eyes, to form my own opinion. I didn't have much time, but I wanted to go there, even just for two days, to have some kind of an idea of the country. Learning about a country is so much more interesting by going there than just reading in a book.

There's "nothing" in Paraguay - and exactly for that I think I love the country. It's a humble little country without spectacular, highly advertised jewels of nature or culture, there's no biggest this and that: the biggest waterfall, glacier or mountain - they don't have any mountains or glaciers - or the biggest theme park. There are no "you must do this, you must see that"-things. Nobody wants my money (well, the souvenir sellers do), nobody wants me to eat at their restaurant or take their tour. Tourism is not a big industry in Paraguay and the facilities are not very developed. People drink their mate and tereré, mind their own business and let me mind mine. But they are not indifferent, they are ready to have a conversation with the foreigner: a postal worker makes a friendly comment about my cold, a taxi driver talks to me all the way to the bus station. There's only one person who has told me Paraguay is the best country in South America. He was a Polish hitch-hiker who had enjoyed the originality of the country and the hospitality of its people. In the words of my guidebook "what really sets this country apart is the warmth and tranquility of its people".

People drink mate everywhere and anytime: at home and at work, in the streets and in the parks. I saw a guard in front of a bakery shop with a thermos flask and the special cup and straw for mate. At the Ciudad del Este bus station in the morning all the taxi drivers waiting for customers were drinking mate. I also tried the mate and traditional cheese bread chipa in Asunción while waiting for my bus. Now the people drank mostly mate, to keep them warm in the chilly winter weather (around 10 ºC, warmer during the day). In the summer, when temperatures rise up to 40 ºC or even more, mate is drank cold and it's called tereré. In Ciudad del Este I noticed the fans at a restaurant and in my hostel room - which also had a tropical smell, I think it's mold - but freezing in my warmest clothes it was a bit difficult to imagine the summer heat.

Chipa and mate sellers at the bus station in Asunción:

My first, and only real stop was Asunción, the capital. My Couchsurfing host Javier picked me up from the airport. He was a very nice guy, confident and easy-going, which I knew from the first phone call and could tell the first minute I saw him. After staying a lot at hostels it was nice to do couchsurfing for a change, and I really felt like home at Javier's place - even more than I normally do. In the afternoon I went to explore the center of the city alone. Other travelers had told me it's dangerous, so I was being careful, almost paranoid. I was looking at the people a bit suspiciously, and they did the same to me, I guess because they are not so used to foreigners. But there was absolutely no danger, I was safe all the time, even when walking home alone in the dark. I took the warnings of my host seriously and didn't go to La Chacarita, a shantytown where a lot of poor people live right next to the center. (But I did have a peek from a safe distance.) I spent my afternoon by having a nap by the river Paraguay (the cold I had made me feel tired and I hadn't slept much in the aeroplanes at night) and photographing the beautiful colonial buildings, some of them nicely restored and some in a bad shape. The following day I continued from Asunción to Ciudad del Este, where I stayed the night at a cheap hotel before heading on to Argentina for visiting the Iquazu Falls.

Old and new in Asunción:

On the way from Ciudad del Este in Eastern Paraguay to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, the South American reality hit me. First I talked with an Argentinian man who was searching for his 5-year-old daughter who had disappeared on their holiday trip six days ago. Kidnapped? For adoption? For child prostitution? For illicit organ trade? Is there a European couple who's happy to save the world by adopting an "orphan" and to finally have a child, a beautiful Argentinian girl? The man showed photos in his camera and yes, she was a very beautiful girl. So maybe some perverts..? I was thinking to myself, but didn't say it aloud. Suddenly my loss of camera (which I even got back) and 60 USD felt like such a minor thing. "They can take my car, my money, my land and I will survive, but my daughter..." says the man and continues: "I will never stop searching for her." I felt powerless. What had happened was absolutely horrible, and I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do.

The other thing bringing me back to the reality after all the amazing sight-seeing I've done in South America was a 40-year-old woman in the bus telling that she couldn't read. I don't think that in Finland there's a single adult (except some refugees from Africa) who doesn't know how to read.


p.s. I was curious and did some googling about the missing girl, Eva Luna Montivero, 5 years, and seems that it might be "just" a family tragedy, divorced parents... Mum wanting to have the girl to herself... Sad and horrible anyways, especially thinking about the innocent little child.

Ecuador in a week

After spending a month in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia each and three weeks in Peru, I was left with only a week for Ecuador. I entered the country with a list of places to visit recommended by a Swiss girl who had been living there for a year. During my short stay I went to all of them - and two more! How did I manage to do that? And was it worth it? I think it was. Let me tell you how it happened:

Monday 26.7.2010

After travelling the whole night in a bus to Aguas Verdes I cross the border to Huaquillas. Everything is a bit chaotic, it's a new country, and I don't know what's happening and who to trust. Money. I need Ecuadorian money. I am told that the official currency of Ecuador is US dollar (which I could have read in my guidebook in advance). How can an independent country use the currency of another country?! As my trip is soon coming to an end, I decide that later in Ecuador I'll use the 50-dollar bill I've kept hidden under the inner sole of my hiking boot for emergencies. Before my busride to Vilcabamba I try to draw more money from an ATM, but it refuses my credit card. I don't panic, but do get a bit worried. I realise how important it is to always carry a bit of cash. In the evening - after a beautiful 6-hour busride on the green mountains - I try to draw money in Vilcabamba. The ATM says there is a problem with my card. I go to an internet cafe to check my acoount in my internet bank. There is still money and I haven't exceeded the credit limit. Finally, after trying the same ATM five times in a row, I am able to do the withdraval. My hostel, a French-owned place called Le Rendez-Vous, is a very pleasant place. European quality at Ecuadorian prize. After sleeping two nights in buses it feels so good to take a shower and have a good night's sleep in the doublebed of my clean and cosy little room.

Photo: At the border

Tuesday 27.7.2010
"There are many great day-walks throughout the area" claims my guidebook, and after updating my blog at an internet cafe, I head for the Rumi Wilco nature reserve. There are nice views from the slope trail, but after recently hiking among the majestic mountains of Cordillera Blanca in Peru this place fails to impress me. I enjoy the tranquility of the village of Vilcabamba and the beauty of the mountaineous coutryside around it, but I still can't understand why the authors of my guidebook have chosen it to the "Don't miss"-list of Ecuador.
In the evening I have a massage and finally get the chance to watch the movie Motorcycle diaries. By paying 4 USD I get a TV and DVD-player in my room. I have enormous expectations for the movie, and it just can't meet them all.


Wednesday 28.7.2010
I get up at 5 am to catch a bus to Loja at 6 am. In the bus I wolf down the packed breakfast prepared for me the night before by the friendly hostel owner. Mmm... homemade integral bread after eating so much tasteless and unhealthy white bread in all these countries. From Loja I continue to the beautiful colonial, UNESCO World Heritage listed city of Cuenca, which I explore for a few hours in the afternoon.


Thursday 29.7.2010
Early in the morning (7-am bus) I head for a town called Baños. The curvy road high in the mountains is stunning, but unfortunately makes the girl sitting behind me vomit time and time again. For a short while a native Quichua woman with a brown-teethed toddler licking a lollipop sits next to me. I'm anxious to give her a lecture on health and hygiene, but manage to remain silent and just smile to the little boy. A little before changing buses in Ambato a man called Jaime sits next to me and we immerse in interesting conversations. He's returning home from a lecturing trip to some universities. He gives me advise how to improve the quality of my life by practising a concentration/meditation technique, then recommends me to rent a bicycle in Baños for exploring the road towards Puyo with several waterfalls as well as encourages me to travel all the way to the coast the next day, which I hadn't planned to do. So, after arriving to Baños and getting a hostel room, following the advise of Jaime, I start my bikeride. Every now and then I stop to photograph the waterfalls and the mountains covered with tropical vegetation. I only have a couple of hours before the sunset, and unfortunately it gets dark when I reach the most spectacular waterfall, El Pailón del Diablo (the Devil's Cauldron). I return by bus and hurry to the thermal baths of Baños de la Virgen before it closes. The place is crowded and there's a lot of noise, which disturbs my relaxation in the hot pools. I muse about my visit to the natural, sand-bottomed and quiet thermal baths of Termas Los Pozones near Pucón in Chile.


Friday 30.7.2010
I have another early wake-up (at 5:30 am) as I have a very long day ahead. Before catching a bus I walk with my two backpacks, the big one on my back and the small one in the front, to the nearby San Francisco bridge to snap a few photos of the deep rocky canyon with river Pastaza below. It's a pity that I don't have time to do any of the walks in the area. I take a bus to Ambato, another to Latagunga and one more to Zumbahua. There I take a taxi to Quilotoa, a volcanic crater filled by a beautiful emerald lake. For an hour I walk around taking lots of photos and admiring the scenery. Then it's time (actually I'm a couple of hours behind the schedule) to continue; I take a bus to Quevedo. I feel euphoric when the bus climbs above the clowds on a mountain road and I'm almost squeezed to the front window, as the bus is absolutely packed with people. I always prefer the panoramic seats in buses - now I have a "panoramico extremo". When we travel down from the clowds through banana groves and small villages I feel like spreading my hands like Scarlett Johansson does at the front of the ship in the movie Titanic (which I recently saw in another bus). From Quevedo I take a bus to Esmeraldas on the coast. In the bus I notice the big number of black people, who I haven't seen in other parts of the country. Later I learn they are descendants of ship-wrecked African slaves. It's a six-hour busride, and I arrive at midnight. Too late to go to the beach, so I take a taxi to a nearby hostel, where I sleep until the morning.


Saturday 31.7.2010
Somebody has recommended me the beach of Atacames, but because my guidebook says it "is a real 24-hour party town", I opt for Súa, "a quiet and friendly little beach resort, set in a beautiful bay". But as I miss the right busstop, I end up further along the coast, to the beach of the village called Tonchigüe. Finally I'm at a Pacific beach warm enough for sunbathing and swimming! I enjoy the sun for a few hours, as well as the company of some local teenagers that have stopped to chat with me and play in the sand. Until I realise that my phone and money are missing! I've never been robbed or haven't lost anything before, and have almost arrogantly wondered if people who get robbed are stupid and careless. Now it has happened to me! I'm shocked and angry at myself for being so blue-eyed, trusting the guys too much and not keeping enough eye on my belongings. The police in the village is not much of a help (it's hard for me to describe what happened, when and who did it, as I didn't notice anyone opening my backpack), but there's a friendly naval officer who will do everything he can to help the crying tourist. He had seen me with the boys, knows them and starts asking and calling around. The power of the community, people knowing each other in a small town, is amazing: after a while I get my phone back! Ask me back home, and I'll laugh at all this. What a scene! I got my lesson, but luckily it wasn't the hardest one. In the evening there's an annual celebration of the Fishers' Day in the village, but I can't stay as I have already bought a ticket to a nightbus to Quito, and anyways I've had enough of the village...


Sunday 1.8.2010
I arrive in Quito before 6 am and have another busride: two hours to Otavalo. What a beautiful area, and the indigenous people here are the most beautiful I've seen during the whole trip! South American Handbook describes their clothing as follows: "Men here wear their hair long and plaited under a broad-trimmed hat; they wear white, calf-length trousers and blue ponchos. The women's colourful costumes consist of embroidered blouses, shoulder wraps and many coloured beads." The girls wearing traditional clothes are very beautiful and the youngmen, even in jeans and hoodies, with their their braded hair are just gorgeous! So, despite the challenges (problems with ATMs, the robbery, and stomach problems I'm having) I still enjoy travelling.
After getting a hostel room and handing over my dirty clothes for laundry I do a few hours' walk over a hill to a lake called San Pablo. I return in the afternoon and admit that "running" so fast through the whole country and taking the nightbus have taken their toll. I really need a nap! And find it hard to get up after two hours to enjoy the last sunbeams.


Monday 2.8.2010
In the morning I take a bus to Quito, the capital. My plan is to walk around the Old City for a few hours, load my photos to a memory stick and go to the airport for my flight to Asunción, Paraguay. First I visit Basilica del Voto Nacional and climb to its belltower to enjoy the views. The city seems enormous to me. Although later I check in my guidebook that it "only" has about 1.4 million inhabitants. The colonial buildings of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Old City are beautiful, but I'm starting to get too tired to fully enjoy them, especially after somebody tries to steal my camera. In the airport I hear that my TACA flight is overbooked and there's no seat for me in the plane. I get flight tickets for the next day, a room and dinner at Holiday Inn and a voucher of 200 USD for TACA flights.


Tuesday 3.8.2010
I'm not in Ecuador anymore, but feel inspired to tell you about this day, too. In the morning I fly to Lima with a plan to spend the day in the city waiting for my connecting flight in the evening. But after arriving I am told I need to pay an airport tax of 31 USD when entering again the airport. I reckon MALI (the art museum of Lima) or the colonial buildings in the centre are not worth paying the tax. When I hear there's no computer with internet for passenger use at the airport - and I have to spend ten hours there - I get really pissed off. I know I need this day of relaxation for reading, drafting my blog and planning my final week of travelling, but it's still annoying to be stuck at the airport without internet. For my next trip I'll definitely buy a small laptop! To calm myself down I read a chapter in the book 'Travelers' Tales. Central America'. I didn't have time to travel to Central America, so I familiarize myself with the area with this book I've found on a book exchange shelf. Reading the book always makes me admire the authors' writing skills and sharp observations. The trick works: I cheer up a bit. By noon I've gone through all the shops at the airport. There's a lot of time for souvenir shopping. Dangerous for my wallet... but luckily "I just physically can't buy anything" (to understand the quote read my first blog update from Chile). I finally call Mum - it's the first time on this trip - and I can hear she's overwhelmed with joy to hear my voice. The food at the airport is expensive, so I buy only a sandwich for lunch. And look, thanks to the day spent at Lima Airport, you can now enjoy reading this text.

Four days in a paradise

How amazing was my experience of doing the Santa Cruz trek in Cordillera Blanca! I definitely don't regret buying a guided 4-day hiking trip from Galaxia Expeditions. Actually I was planning to do it in three days, as I'm short of time, but I was enjoying it so much that I didn't want to go earlier than the rest of the group. Our group was really nice, a mixture of Europeans, an American and a Japanese photographer, a total of 6 people aged 28-44. We were attended to by a crew of three: Vicente was looking after the mules that carried our tents, food and backpacks; Umberto cooked us real restaurant food in challenging conditions and Lucas, our guide, was the coolest, sportiest and most handsome youngman with a lot of patience. "This is a dream, this is a paradise!" I heard people saying while we were walking in the valleys surrounded by majestic mountains, some of them snowcapped. The highest point was Punta Union, 4750 meters. Luckily I was already acclimatized! There were cows, horses and mules grazing free the pastures in the valleys. Several times I tried to approach the cows and beutiful little calves, but they always went away. We also saw several lagoons, one with a glacier behind it - maybe the last glacier I see on this trip. Every night there was a small river with cold water where I'd dip myself into to wash away the sweat, dirt and sunscreen - and maybe also to show that I'm a tough girl from Finland. The weather was perfect: beautiful sunshine every day. Only the nights were a bit too cold: the first two nights the temperature dropped below zero and there was some frost. Drinking bottles filled with hot water that I put in my sleeping bag helped a bit (great idea, I'll start doing that in Finland, too!), but it was still difficult to sleep.A view on the way back by minibus from the mountains to Huaraz:
Back in the busy city of Huaraz:

I recently read that a bus with 60 passengers had been robbed in Lima. I normally avoid travelling at night time, although not so much for the safety, but to see the landscapes. From Huaraz I took a night bus to Trujillo, and was definitely safe with Movil Tours. Our passports were checked before entering the bus, there was a security guy with a metal detector at the entrance, and when everyone was sitting in the bus, we were videofilmed. At a police control point the bus stopped and the ID cards of the Peruvian passengers were collected for a check-up. Later I read in Movil Tours' brochure that they also have a satellite tracking of the buses and they do alcohol tests to the drivers every day. Some other bus companies take the fingerprints of their passengers.

I travelled to Trujillo in order to visit the nearby seaside village of Huanchaco. The day was cloudy and grey, as if reflecting my sad feelings after having to leave Huaraz after such a wonderful time spent there. I spent my day in Huanchaco walking on the beach observing the big waves break, crabs hide in the sand and surf school students practise near the shore.

Mountains and ruins

One by one my travel mates catch some nasty microscopic creatures in their stomach and get sick. First Andres had so tremendous stomach ache he could hardly walk, and I left him in Cochabamba as I "had to" continue my journey. (We were anyways planning to only take a bus to La Paz together and then go our own ways.) Later I heard the reason for his suffering: intestinal inflammation caused by amoebas.


Then I met my Couchsurfing friend Kati in Cusco for going together to Machu Picchu, and luckily could stay with the same Couchsurfing host, Daniel, a circus artist, in his nice flat with great views over the city.

There are several ways to get to Machu Picchu: taking a hiking tour with a guide on some of the Inka trails, a train (which is fast but expensive) or travelling the whole day by several local buses and walking two hours at the end. Kati and I were planning to do the latter on Monday, but Sunday night Kati had fever and in the morning a diarrhea. The reason was found in lab tests: parasites! She got antibiotics and we decided to start our trip the following morning. Unfortunately the medicine didn't work so quickly and an early departure wasn't possible. But Kati was such a brave girl that at noon she was ready to leave even though she wasn't completely well. We took minibuses through Urubamba to Ollantaytambo, admiring the beautiful views of the Sacred Valley of the Inkas on the way. From Ollantaytambo we had decided to continue by train, but had to wait until the following morning. Kati stayed resting in our hostel room while I had a pleasant walk to the next village. Deep down I'm a real country girl and enjoyed seeing animals grazing and people working on the fields. It felt so good to escape the tourist crowds, too.

The next morning we arrived in Aguas Calientes, the Machu Picchu village close to the mountains with the ruins. I wanted to walk up, while Kati would take the bus. (Later I found out she had been too sick to leave the hostel room. Her turn came the next day when she was slightly better.) After 1,5 hours of climbing up the path consisting of stone steps I arrived to the entrance, all sweaty and short of breath. While travelling to the village I had been thinking that the pile of stones had better be worth all that effort and money I wasted getting there. Well... it sure was! Just the surrounding lush green mountains alone would have been worth it. And yes, the ruins were impressive. A friend of mine, who's travelled in Peru for 9 months, told me Machu Picchu is not the best place. So I wonder how amazingly impressive the best ruins in Peru are... But I don't have time to find out. Machu Picchu was easily accessible and anyway it's one of the new seven wonders of the world.


Travelling with other people can be complicated. Kati is a very nice girl, pleasant company and I sure enjoyed our chats. But sometimes I couldn't help getting frustrated with all the waiting and delays. I was energetic and wanted to do things and she, naturally, needed a lot of rest and had to go to the doctor. I felt selfish about being so restless and thinking about losing days when she definitely hadn't chosen it herself to get sick. Kati, in turn, felt bad that my schedule got messed up because of her sickness.

But there was something excellent about spending more time than intended: we were in town during 'Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen', so I could see a real South American carneval. There were groups playing music with flutes and drums and dancing in excuisite costumes.


There are thousands of visitors at Machu Picchu every day and Aguas Calientes was nothing but a tourist town. Hotels & hostels, restaurants, massage, souvenirs... "Excuse me, miss..." people were harrassing with menus and leaflets. After seeing Machu Picchu I just wanted to get out of the place. And this time I wanted to take the long way. Not only for the money, but also for the scenery. Kati was still sick so she took the train. The first two hours I walked a path following a railway line, a river on my left side and a tropical forest on my right, with mountains on both sides. I liked the surroundings so much that I almost wanted to stay there.
I decided to walk the next part, too, a road to Santa Teresa. I can't describe, and just barely remember, the feeling of freedom I had walking there alone in the middle of big mountains and by a fast-flowing river. Arriving in the village of Santa Teresa I was greeted by a rooster crossing the road. It's exotic, although there's nothing new in seeing animals on the road here. During a recent busride I first saw a dog, then a donkey crossing the road, a bull pulling its tether and lastly a few goats. The next sight that caught my interest in the village was slaughtering of a bull. I didn't see the killing, but I observed and photographed cutting the meat and rinsing the intestines.

From Santa Teresa I took a shared taxi to the next village, Santa Maria. The scenery along the way was stunning: the canyon seemed as deep as the Colca canyon, but the mountains had more vegetation. In Santa Maria I changed to a minibus going all the way to Cusco. We were supposed to arrive around 9.30 pm but there was a surprise in the mountains: snow! The line of vehicles moved slowly and stopped every now and then, causing us a delay of two hours.

From Cusco I took a bus to Lima; 20 hours of watching beautiful mountain landscapes and sleeping. I had been warned that Lima is grey and ugly. That was true; two hours in the city this morning was enough for me. Even though I wanted to escape the bad climate and smog, on the way to my next bus I asked the taxi driver to make a short tour in the centre. I saw many beautiful old buildings - It is for a reason that Lima is a Unesco-listed city.

Tonight I arrived in Huaraz, in the Cordillera Blanca, with a plan to continue to Caraz and do some day-trips on my own. But I let a tour operator, who had come to meet prospective customers at the bus station, talk a bit too long to me and finally got convinced to take a 3-day hiking trip. I didn't really want to follow a guide, nor be in a group after being in the middle a "cat-fight" of the German and the Israeli girl in the Bolivian jungle... But I do want some excersice and nice views, so I hope I won't regret.

From Bolivia to Peru

I have an amazing ability to torture myself: I returned from Rurrenabaque by bus (ref. an earlier blog update). Back in La Paz I felt weak due to the altitude, but saved the day by going to the movies in the evening to see 'Sex and the City 2'. I couldn't have waited until I'm back in Finland, and it was good to escape the Bolivian reality for two hours. The next day I visited the Coca Museum, walked around the city and spent several hours on the computer updating my blog, downloading photos, buying a flight ticket...

My next stop was the enormous lake Titicaca, one of the highest navigable lakes in the world and the largest in South America. The town of Copacabana was too touristy to my taste, but I really enjoyed my excursion to the island of Isla del Sol: seeing the Inca ruins, dipping into the lake at an empty beach, walking through the island and enjoying my breakfast with an amazing view to the lake.

From Copacabana I travelled straight to Arequipa, Peru. I had a very nice guy sitting next to me, and we were chatting the whole way - a good practice for my Spanish. Just before arriving I got something to add to my stories about busrides: we had a flat tire.

The next morning I headed for Colca, a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. On the way I met an American guy and two girls from the Czech Republic. We teamed up and decided to get up at 5 am the following morning in order to get an early start for our hike into the canyon. As much as I hate getting up early, it was a good decision, as we could do the zig-zag path along the steep mountain side down to the river at the bottom of the canyon before the sun hit us. It was a descent of about 1000 meters. Then it was a sweaty hike up to the village of Talca, where we had lunch (alpaca, rice and tomatoes at a very basic restaurant) and a siesta. People live at weird places: the only transport to and from the village is by mules via the 4-hour mountain trail. Despite the amazing landscapes I might not be able to live there... In the afternoon we walked down to Oasis, a place offering dinner and accomodation in basic bungalows. The following morning the Czech girls walked up to Cabanaconde to return to Arequipa, whereas William, the American, had decided to continue to a waterfall about 5 hours away. I felt like having a bit more excercise - to my surprise my knees were ok after the long hike down to the canyon - so I stayed with Will. Unfortunately we got lost twice that morning. The path we had been following - a narrow path and partly a bit scary due to the altitude and the steep drop down - suddendly ended into a land of bush and cacti. We had to climb up the hill to see another path - this time obviously the correct one. But we had lost a lot of time and I was so tired that I decided to forget about the waterfall and just head back to Cabanaconde. I was planning to have lunch in the village of Paclla on the way. But there are only four old people living in the village and the señora who has a small shop and cooks for hikers wasn't home. The old man I met advised me to continue to the next village of Llahuar - which proved out to be just two houses offering accomodation. On the way there I suddenly saw a snake on the path. "Oh, fuck!" slipped out of my mouth as I stepped back. I'm really afraid of snakes, but as the snake wasn't moving, I managed to keep calm and take photos of it. But it did scare me out; I started to think how dangerous it was to walk alone in those mountains. In the next village the people told me that the snake wasn't poisonous. And later in Arequipa I was also told that a snake symbolises 'Pachamama', Mother Earth, so it was a lucky sign and I would now have the wisdom of the earth. Anyways, after getting lost and seeing the snake I just wanted to get out of the damn valley, no matter how peaceful and beutiful it was. After having a good lunch in Llahuar I felt much better. Even though the hostel owner tried to convince me to stay the night, enjoy the swimming pool and walk back to Cabanaconde early in the morning, I decided to go. But it meant that I had to walk the last two hours in the dark. Luckily I had my headlamp and the trail was wide. I've never been so happy to see animal dung - seeing mule poo on the trail always proved I was on the correct trail. I was tired after about 12 hours of walking, but just kept going. Finally, a little before 8 pm I arrived in Cabanaconde. It felt a bit like going to the Middle Ages. (Although there was electricity and street lamps.) Adobe houses, donkeys, women wearing scarves on their shoulders, a massive old church next to the central square...

Now I'm in Cusco where I met again my friend Kati, who hosted me in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Tomorrow we'll start our trip to Machu Picchu.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Green mountains slowly change to flatter forest land as we travel in a small wooden motorboat upstream of Beni river. We're going for a 3-day excursion from Rurrenabaque to the jungle in the Madidi national park. By 'we' I refer to our group: a German girl called Laura, three people from Israel and me.

After two hours on the boat and a ten-minute walk we arrive at the camp: an area cleared of undergrowth, with some trees left to give shadow, basic wooden huts for sleeping and a bigger kitchen building. We introduce ourselves to our guide Juda, a 31-year-old biologist and a son of a Bolivian shaman.

We have lunch and then start our first walk in the surrounding jungle. There is a lot of vegetation, but it's not impenetrable. After ten minutes I wouldn't find my way back and I'm wondering if our guide knows every square meter of the forest. I guess for some Bolivian people the forests near my childhood home would look all the same, whereas there I can find my way out easily. Juda, the guide, cuts a palm leaf and skillfully plaits a carry bag for the water bottle of Asaf, an Israeli guy. He also finds a special tree, grates some of its bark with his machete and lets us taste natural antimalarial medicine, quinine. The first animals we see - and hear and smell - are wild pigs, dozens of them, running away fast when they notice us.

On the second day, after a good sleep at the jungle camp and a good breakfast prepared by the cook, we go for our second walk in the forest. Juda shows us 'arbol de leche', the "milk tree", and makes a small cut on its trunk. The white liquid that leaks from the cut is a remedy for bites of poisonous spiders and snakes. Otherwise you might die in an hour after a bite, but drinking 200 ml of this "milk" gives you 3-4 days time to get to the doctor. We ask if Juda has ever needed this medicine, and he shows small scars on his thumb: a cobra has once bitten him when he was doing research in the Peruvian jungle. Another tree that Juda shows us that day has roots containing clear jelly that can be used like aloe vera. We apply it on our numerous mosquito bites. Absolutely the coolest thing we do during that walk is swinging on a liana!

After lunch and a rest we leave for our second walk of the day, with a plan to stay in the forest until dark. The only animals we manage to spot are spiders and a nocturnal monkey up in a tree, only its eyes glowing in the beam of the flashlight.

That night, like the previous one, we go to the beach by the river. This time I have my bikini and towel with me. I trust Juda's word that it is safe to go into the water and enjoy my swim in the moonlight.

On the third day we only have time for one walk. Somewhere in the forest Juda picks up a small coconut, cuts it in half and takes out a thick, white catepillar. "You eat these?" somebody asks. "Yes." I take the live little creature in my hand and after confirming that I won't die I take a bite. Creamy, brownish liquid, like thick hot chocolate, bursts out. It has a mild taste of a nut. The next one I put in my mouth as a whole. Back at the camp an Israeli girl asks Juda: "How can you eat catepillars?" I guess it is not kosher for the Jews. Convincingly, almost annoyed the guide replies: "That food is natural. Everything that the people of the jungle eat is 100 percent natural. How can you eat at McDonald's?"

During our walks in the jungle Juda also shows us different kinds of ants: small ones that you can mix with water for an energy drink, fire ants whose bite causes you 24 hours of burning pain and ants that you can use for sewing cuts on your skin. On one of the walks Juda cuts a branch of a tree and we drink the water leaking inside of it.

And finally, on the last walk it happens: Juda notices something on the ground and runs after it - a cobra! He waves to us to get closer and we start taking photos of the yellow, 2-meter-long snake that has slithered to a tree.

(A few more photos can be found on my Facebook profile.)