OK, finally got somewhere with this. 3 months (and what it tells me is 31,758.6 miles along!) and I’ve finally found a way to display all the masses of GPS data I’ve been collecting. I’d originally been trying Google maps without any luck but I just found EveryTrail.com and this (somehow) manages to crunch the data and display it (using Google Maps of course). Still looking to see what this site can do, but to see my trip so far check out http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=87796
It claims you can add a map to a blog but no luck with that so far! WordPress (my blog software) is very good but it really hates external tinkering!
Here’s one I screen scaped..
Apparently my average speed has been 15.9mph and I’ve gone 14km up and 14km down which is good as we started in Brighton and we’re near sea level now!
Second taste of Bolivian public transport and a far cry from our previous hellish experience! We purposefully got a day bus and banged and clattered through the high Andes. In sharp contrast to our last bus ride the people were friendly and you could almost say there was a bit of a party on board, aided I dare say by the fact that we mostly all pilfered a couple of bottles of semi alcoholic beverage from an overturned lorry that selfishly held us up for a while on the way. No one seemed to be hurt so there was much rejoicing.
Later, aided still by our pilfered booty, the passengers were less deterred than you might imagine by a four hour delay sitting by the side of the road while the road was mended.
It also allowed the bus to be mended, with scelotape. Slightly more worrying that the steering was also mended with scelotape!
(Sorry flitting all over the place at the moment, this post is Bolivia now!)
We’d heard the stories about robberies on this bus. One girl we met in La Paz had to punch a hand away from her bag. It was a night bus and she had to stay up the full 10 hours it takes. As we boarded our bus (we purposefully chose a day bus arriving about 10pm) we were warned no less than three times both on and off the bus by different bus officials to watch our hand luggage
As soon as we sat down on the back seats (we guessed that only having people in front of us was better than having to deal with people behind too) we knew something was wrong. A man came and sat next to Tam and put his bag down on the floor. He struck up a fairly friendly normal conversation in Spanish and eventually asked if we’d like some beer. Beer on a 14 hour bus with no toilet didn’t sound like a good idea so he wasn’t ever going to get anywhere with that line. Tam straight away said “no we have to look after our bags” at which point, with no other words he got up and left us. I’d noticed there were four of them and I couldn’t help but see that they didn’t crack open the beers themselves. Apparently on this trip people can also resort to drugging food and drink.
He’d left his bag on the floor by our seats though, surely a way to excuse himself occasionally as he went to forage. We had our Spanish line ready the next time he came back to tell him it would be better to move his bag and even considered striking before he could and nicking some his stuff but Coca leaves weren’t really worth it
Seeming surrounded by robbers we were getting very proud of our deductive and defensive powers and in some ways treating it like a bit of a game. When darkness came we were ready, but not quite for the blatant cheek of it! The robbers had spread out a bit, one on each double seat in front of our back seat, pretending to be asleep. The others seemed to have given up. As darkness fell a hand emerged from a “sleeping” robber across the floor. As blatant as you like it searched out Tam’s rolled up sleeping bag. What they thought they were going to do with it and how they thought they would move it I have no idea. This happened a couple more times. Each time I just shone a light at them and we could hardly stifle giggles (well it was slightly more explicit than that at the time!). Fortunately that was that and they were obviously only trying it on and taking things easy to grab. Of course it could be a lot more serious. A knife would certainly relieve us of anything they wanted but I guess that’s the same anywhere. The stupid part is, all we could do was protect our stuff and laugh at them. The places we’ve been on these busses are tiny, separated by hundreds of miles of mountains and deserts with only the odd goat herder to be seen. You’re definitely on your own in some of these places.
Lake Titicaca (there seem to be so many ways to spell this, I’m sticking with this version). Straddling Peru and Bolivia, I’m sure rivalries have been serious in the past. Today though, it seems that the main preoccupation is who has the Titi (titi) and Caca (poo) part.
The lake is famous for it’s floating islands and reed boats. Originally a way to escape Spanish taxes and other colonial tinkering. Now, if it wasn’t for the tourists these islands and way of life would almost certainly not exist anymore. Some might say that the way of life has already gone and what you see is purely for the tourists. Look behind the wonderfully manicured islands and the picture postcard houses on them and you’ll probably find a motor boat rather than a reed boat. How many people actually live on these islands after the tourists go home I have no idea.
We went for a full day trip to the floating islands and Taquile island (you can do half days that only take in the floating islands). This trip from Puno is shamelessly touristy! One look at the harbor will confirm just how popular this trip is with hundreds of boats moored up ready for the morning rush. I think if you go with this in mind, you won’t be disappointed though.
Whatever the reality is, they put on a good show here. Just stepping on the islands is fun, they don’t bob up and down but they’re really springy. We got a little talk about the lake and how the islands and boats are made (out of reeds of course) and then ate some of the reeds. Very nice. Good for the thyroid apparently, so I’ll bare that in mind! We were then shown the inside of one of the houses. I really don’t know if it was used or not. The main thing I wanted to do though was wander and check out the islands. The final part was an optional ride on the reed boat.
The visit to Isla Taquile is probably worth it too just for the views [more]
