After a recommendation from the B&B owner in Panama City (more on Panama City in a later blog), we booked onto a 2-night trip to the Kuna Yala region and the San Blas archipelago that is strung along its Caribbean coast. Access to the islands, which are owned by the indigenous Kuna people, is by 4×4 and then boat, but by late morning we’d arrived at our new island home.
We’ve never been anywhere that meets the stereotypical ideal of tropical paradise quite so well. Some islands are built up with houses competing for space and hanging out over the water, but most are still just piles of sand with coconut trees on them – perhaps with a bamboo-and-palm hut or two.
The island we stayed on was about 80m in diameter, took 5 minutes to walk around and had 6 huts on it. Our hut had a sand floor, a basic bed, a slightly damp and musty mattress, a mosquito net and 2 torches. Dinners (lobster – a delicacy in other parts of the world, but standard fare here) were eaten by the light of torches, the stars and the campfire we built!
In the mornings, we toured other islands by boat – one with starfish all around its sandy shores, one that was only about 20m across and just big enough for half a dozen coconut trees, one with a shipwreck just offshore. We snorkelled around the wreck for an hour or so, admiring the coral and fish that had gathered around it. In the afternoons and evenings we relaxed in hammocks listening to the sound of the waves and the thuds of falling ripe coconuts – one of which Alex laboriously husked & opened – or chatted and played cards with our new Israeli friends – the only other tourists on the island.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the area, but after 2 days and nights with no running water (fresh or otherwise) and no electricity (so no fans or A/C to keep us cool on the very muggy nights) we were quite glad to return to our excellent B&B (Mediterranean Dreams) in Panama City and have a much-needed shower. Who’d have thought that two days would ever be enough in paradise!
More photos here.
Well, only Miraflores really. We had a little over 24 hours in Lima and had decided to base ourselves in the Miraflores district after recommendations from friends. We saw our first proper supermarket in over a month, watched the sun set and ate pizza (which we have done more often than we thought we would on this trip). We had plans to head into the city centre to see some of the older buildings, but 14-hour days of travel before and after put us off such adventures and we just enjoyed those things within walking distance.
We were looking forward to a hassle and planning free 6 day tour of the Northern Highlands of Peru – the only tour we’ve booked on these travels. During a 10-hour drive from Tarapoto to Chacapoyas, we stopped briefly at an orchid farm (unfortunately, most of them weren’t flowering, but the hummingbirds were very impressive). We soon realised that if speaking Spanish hadn’t been that important before, it looked like it would be in the coming days. After an uneventful night in Chachapoyas, we were collected the following morning to go on a tour of Kuelap – a 1,100 year-old pre-Incan citadel on top of a 3,000m steep-sided mountain top. The three hour drive up, often with sheer drops to one side or the other, was picturesque if a little bumpy. Kuelap itself was very different from Machu Picchu – older and bigger but more overgrown and harder to appreciate its scale.
It was here that we met a German girl, Katja, who, whether through bad planning or bad luck, had missed meeting her friends for the trip. Not to be deterred, she decided to walk the “2 hours” to Kuelap on her own. After 4 or 5 hours of walking in intermittent rain, she arrived at a small village without a hostel, hotel or restaurant and realised she wasn’t going to make it that day and that she’d been misled as to how long the walk really was. She spent a very cold night in the house of a local who took pity on her and provided her with a straw bed. Leaving them the following morning, she realised that the money she carried in her purse was missing and so she set off- no food, no water, little money and no idea how she’d get back from Kuelap as it was Easter Sunday. We offered for her to join our tour and so we gained a travelling companion for a couple of days.
The ride back from Kuelap was made more interesting as not only did the car have non-functioning shock absorbers and a cracked windscreen but the wipers were partly broken – and it was raining. This meant that our driver had to physically push the wipers back down every wipe. As the ventilation was also broken and the windscreen was steaming up he was alternating between pushing the wipers back with his left hand and wiping the inside window with his right whilst still attempting to avoid the numerous pot holes and keep us from driving off the edge. Needless to say, the inevitable (but by no means worst) happened and we hit a pot hole and the front tire deflated. The driver quickly put on the spare (slick!) tyre and it was only a short while before we were off again, though none of us completely relaxed until we were back on sealed roads with no precipice to the side. The journey made arriving at Gocta, a gorgeous new lodge overlooking Gocta waterfall all the more rewarding (yes, we splurged on this). It’s not the kind of place to expect to find at the end of 5km of dirt road – a luxurious hotel whose comfortable rooms and infinity pool overlook the falls 3km away.
We spent the first full day at Gocta walking to the foot of the waterfall, which according to Lonely Planet is the third highest in the world at 771m but has only received around 2,000 visitors per year since its “discovery” in 2006. Katja joined us again and between the three of us, we managed to translate perhaps 60% of what our Spanish-speaking guide told us about the surrounding flora and fauna of the jungle/cloud forest. The information given at the hostel had said the walk was 6km return but this must have been “as the crow flies” because the one-way sweaty non-crow trip took us 2.5hrs. The return trip (much more uphill) took us much less time, but for unwanted reasons. Three quarters of the way back, Alex felt a sharp pain in his leg and looked down in time to see a small (80cm long) very dark green/black snake slither off into the undergrowth. On inspection, we could see two small blood spots where it had punctured the skin. After an agonising few minutes attempting to explain to the guide what had happened, he eventually seemed to understand and radioed the village. We were met further down the track by a man with a horse to take Alex more quickly to the village whilst Lizzy ran to the hostel to get insurance documents, phones and money. Lizzy met Alex at the local doctor’s “surgery” where we said lots of silent prayers and tried to convince ourselves that the snake probably wasn’t deadly and that, if it was, then we’d be able to get to help in time (which with hindsight, had it been, would’ve been nearly impossible).
This high altitude Peruvian city, steeped in history and with beautiful colonial and Inca plazas was a great place to base ourselves to explore and absorb some of the local culture. It was also good to have a few days without bus trips! On our first full day we walked to two of the Inca ruins that overlook the city, Saqsaywamen & Q’enqo with their impressive 5-600 year old blockwork. After nearly 2 weeks at altitude, we both realised that we’d started to adapt as the walk didn’t leave us completely breathless. Another day was spent on a walking tour which ended at a food festival but perhaps the best day was spent at the Chocolate Museum where we did a chocolate-making workshop- complete from learning the history of chocolate, peeling and grinding the beans to choosing flavours. It was really interesting and a bonus to go away with some of our own chocolate to eat over Easter the coming weekend.
After two and a half nights in Cuzco (we had arrived at 4.30am), we caught the early bus & train to Aguas Calientes, the base for Machu Picchu. Arriving around 11am, we tried to figure out if it was worth heading up the mountain that afternoon (for an additional US$70 each) just in case the weather was truly awful the following day when we had more time to explore. In the end, steady rain was falling when we arrived at the ticket office, so we opted to save the money and take our chances the following day. As we sat reading our books that afternoon, the sky got bluer and bluer and we got less and less sure of our decision.
Instead of doing the 4-day Inca Trail, we had opted to do the 2-hour ascent of Huayna Picchu which rises 360m above the famous site, offering a great overview of it (or so we hear). Arriving at the top after a steep climb, we were presented with a complete white-out and persistent rain. We sheltered in a relatively dry cave for about half an hour, but the views hadn’t improved and we were starting to get chilly from the water seeping in through our not-so-waterproofs, so we began the descent. We did snatch a few views on the way up and down, but they still didn’t allow full appreciation of the site.
Our three day trip started with a slightly odd stop at a train graveyard followed by a more interesting visit to a small town selling salt products, after which we headed to Salar de Uyuni itself (the biggest salt flat). Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do the usual trip out all the way across the flat due to flooding. We had a lot of fun anyway on the accessible part (see photos!), though it was disappointing not to see some of the more famous sights.
Continuing on towards our second night’s more basic hostel (no showers, no heating, limited electricity, roof held down with stones, sellotape-mended windows… but a better quantity of food than the previous night) we passed stunning scenery – orange, snow-capped peaks, lakes of red, white and blue – many with flamingoes – amongst miles of desolate rocks and sands, fields of quinoa, strange Salvador Dali-like stone formations all set against impossibly blue skies. It was beautiful in a way we’ve never seen before.
