Huayna Potosi climb (6088m)

Ok I have been talking a lot about different things from the Uyuni trip to the people I have met but there is still something I would like to explain in details: the Huyana Potosi climb.

As one of the highlights of my trip I really need to share with you in details how amazing it was. I have talked a little bit before in another post in the following terms:

"Reaching the top of that mountain Huayna Potosi in Bolivia is one example. Reaching finally the top at 6088m after several hours of intense efforts in the dark, in the cold, and slowly moving up one (small) step after another I can tell you that for an instant you don't think about anyone else than you. You fight against yourself, you're talking to yourself, you're saying one more step, one more step... And when you do reach stop, when you finally stand on the top and you see the sun coming out you feel happy, truly happy. The pain is gone, you don't feel cold anymore, you don't think of anything anymore. You look around you, you look at the sun rays piercing through the clouds, slowly shining on the snow, and warming up your skin. You look at the city lights far far away..."

However I haven't talked much about how I got to do it. In fact it is pretty simple. A bunch of travel agencies organize 2 to 3 days climb. The 3 days one gives more time for acclimatation as the first day takes place at around 4500m for some ice wall climbing on the glacier. I estimated that I had enough acclimation after all the days spent at high altitude in Peru and Bolivia so I took the 2 days one. It is cheaper and I wanted to save a day to do something else.

So I went to that travel agency called travel tracks.

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It is really easy to find as it is that one street with all the travel agencies next to the San Francisco church. After some bargaining (you bargain for everything in Bolivia: food, meal in restaurant, shoes, traveling packages, etc. Simply love the spirit :D) I got the 2 days trip with food, transportation, one night in the refuge, guide, and mountain climbing gear for 650 Bolivianos, meaning around 65euros!!!!

Moutain climbing gears includes: the very well named spike shoes!!, the heavy boots that come with them, a piolet/axe, gloves, trousers, hoodie, jacket, overshoes, headlight and that's it i think. And you'll have to carry all that on your back.

Important point when you actually know that I thought that they will also provide me with a backpack for it when they didn't... So i ended up carrying all that sh... in a small school backpack that was already loaded with my sleeping bag (for the night up there) and water. Good thing is that there is always a solution so we just attached the boots to the side of my backpack. Not very convenient when walking uphill with the boots balancing but at least my bag was by far the lightest one hehe.

So how about the climb?

In short it gives:

-leave La Paz at 8am, take a taxi ride with the guide for 2hours across the countryside up to the foot of the Huayna Potosi (this is the first pic and also the banner pic of this blog)

-start climbing rocky paths from 4200m to 5200m. Climb takes 3 to 4 hours and is rather easy. I caught up with the group that was doing the 3 days climb at that point.

-get to the refuge by 2-3pm. Get lunch. Chill. Get dinner at 5pm!!! Go sleep at 6pm!!!

-the next day: wake up at 00am, breakfast, get ready, put all the gear on, and start climbing in the dark (hence the headlight..) and the cold (-15 to -10°C, hence the mountain gear...).

-After 6hours of climb through crevasse, steep and very steep hills, you reach the top to watch the sunrise which is around 7am

-Since we got there is less than 5hours... we waited on the top a bit but the cold made up go down before seeing the sun fully coming out. In the end we watched the sunrise on the way down which was also very nice.

-going down takes 1 to 2 hours. Really easy after all the efforts, and your body feels so light. Lunch at the refuge and then another 1 to 2hours to get down to the foot of the mountain. Taxi ride back and you're back in La Paz at around 1-2pm.

what did you prefer?"

How can I say something that I preferred over all the things I have done/seen during my trip in South America? I think it is the same as asking me who is my best friend? People are all different and you like them for what they are so it is terribly difficult to compare them and give out a name.

The funny thing is that it is actually what your mind is doing right away, trying to find an answer, when you’re being asked this question. You think of one person straight away, and then “ah no, maybe him/her also”. And the more you think the more impossible it gets to choose.

Answering to the question what did you prefer during your trip is the same dilemma. I could answer that I really really loved the 3 days trip from Uyuni in Bolivia down to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. 3 days on a jeep crossing incredible landscapes (Uyuni salt flat, Isla de los Pescadores, Laguna colorada, Laguna verde, etc.) with really cool people, and georgeous weather. But when I think of Uyuni as a possible candidate for the “preferred thing done in South America” I also think about that day spent in Manizales, or in San Agustin, or in Quito, or in Chiclayo, or in Caraz, or those 4 days trekking to Macchu Picchu, or those 2 days climbing Huayna Potosi, or the crazy two days in San Pedro de Atacama, or again that one day in Valparaiso walking around the city, talking to locals, eating icecream in late December and only 1 day before getting back home.

Many many places I could talk about. And like I said, the more I think about it, the more I am thinking “that day was great too”. I like all those intense memories for very different reasons.

Manizales (Colombia) I loved it because of how everything fitted together. Got there at 5am in the morning, decided to kill time in a restaurant for breakfast, met that one guy from there that offered me to show me around the coffee plantations for the day and arrange the climb of the Nevado del Ruiz (the reason for me being in Manizales) the next day. He also found me a really cool hostel, did that 5hours walk in the coffee farms with me, offered me free tickets to a bullfight on that same day. And finally brought me to a local restaurant for some local food and local beer. Sometimes you don’t why but you’re simply lucky. Or is it because Colombians are so helpful and nice?

San Agustin (Colombia also J) is a great memory simply because of the time I spent there with an entire family. Went for a horseback tour with the son, got a ride on a motorbike with the dad, chatted with the other son, and family was offered dinner with the entire family. Simply LOVED it.

Quito for that fucking crazy football match. Woke up for a tour on my own of the city. Ended up watching a football match between Quito and River Plate with Aussies met during the day that told me about the match. Just imagine the feeling of being in stadium for the semi-final of the south America cup and watching the local club winning the match 7-0. Seven-ZERO!!

Chiclayo I loved it for that museum in Lambayeque. The museum of the Royal Tumbs of the King of Sipan. “The most important archaeological discovery of the last 25 years” as they proudly present it. Just imagine being that German guy digging the ground, digging something that just look like a squary pyramid so washed away by the rain that you can’t differentiate it from a hill. Simply imagine the feeling of finding momies covered in gold and emeralds and sea shells from head to toes. Gold necklaces, earrings, wristband, waistband, twist band, etc. And you dig deeper and you find more momies with even more gold. From the warlord, to the priest, to the King of Sipan an incredible amount of gold and jewellery just there in the ground. Just google King of Sipan. You will see. That museum was by far the most amazing museums I have seen in the last, I don’t know, 10 years, if not more. And the fact that I had never heard of it beforehand made it even more a big surprise. Things you have seen or heard before always tend to disappoint you a little as you don’t have that “first-time seeing something like this” effect. That day was definitely the thing I have loved the most from an archeological point of view and by far better that all the people say about Macchu Picchu, yet one the world’s new seven wonders…

I could keeping talking about this or this but to be honest one thing I have been wanted to talk about more in details in that Uyuni trip I told you about. Maybe the thing about saying the first impression is always the one that matters the most isn’t that wrong after all. I had heard about Uyuni and its salt flat before. I had actually planned it my trip as a must-do as I had written so many blogs about it and seen SO many amazing pictures. And I kept hearing people during my trip that had done it and were telling me all the good they think about it.

So I knew a lot about it beforehand so I wasn’t expecting else than a “first-time seeing this effect” and yet it constantly happened to me during those 3 days. I was simply blown away, mesmerized by everything I was seeing. From the up-to-the-horizon salt flat, to the century-old cactus on isla de los Pescadores, or the petrified coral reef, or the Stone tree, or the many lagunas it was and endless list of landscapes literally letting you voiceless. Because a good picture worth more than a thousand words here are the most exhaustive ones.

"Where did I sleep?"

Where did I sleep?" Hmmm that's actually a good and funny question. The reason why is that when people expect you to answer in hostels/hotels you are thinking about the nights, the numerous nights, you spent trying to sleep on a bus, in a tent, and (sometimes :p) in hostels.

Ok to be honest I spent most of my nights in hostels but whenever I am asked this question I can't prevent myself from thinking about this night spent in a tent, all alone, at 4000m high in the Cordillera Blanca next to Huaraz. I had rented that tent for 2 days in a shop in Caraz. It cost 4euros a day or something like that for a tent with stove to cook pasta and some food. I took the tent in my backpack, a sleeping back, and hop on a minivan with other people that were crossing the andes. They dropped me at a corner of the road and from there on it was something like 15km of walking to reach laguna 69 which is about 5000m hight. A perfect blue lagoon filled with water coming down the surrounding glaciers. Took me a few hours to reach the place but it was definitely worth the efforts. Not only the walk was amazing with waterfalls, wild nature and lamas but above all being surrounding my mountains all covered in snow and most of them above 6000m is really an amazing sight. I decided to pitch the tent there, close to the laguna so that the next day I could wake up really early and watch the sunrise over the huascaran (2nd highest mountain in all south america with about 6700m elevation). At about 3pm it started to rain, heavy rain that you think is gonna stop within a few hours. It didn't. It didn't stop until 7am the next day... Being there is the tent, alone, in the cold I could have gone crazy. Actually I didn't. I didn't even feel scare a single moment of being up there all by myself. I actually was happy to be doing it. And I had a warm sleeping bag. So I slept. Woke up, still raining? ok slept again. Still raining? Hmm, ok I will sleep again. Next day I woke up at 5. Looked at the sunrise or rather at the day coming out as with the clouds I couldn't see any sun. Yet it was still amazing being there surrounding by those Giants. Really really cool memory. After that I went down. Another 25km from laguna 69 to lagunas llanganucos and further. And then I hitchhiked and ended up in a massive toyota 4x4 that was driven by a religious women. Was really funny talking to her. Yeah it was definitely an awesome two days trip and funny night when I think about it.

Another really cool experience was to sleep in the town of Santa Maria and Santa Teresa on the way to Macchu Picchu while doing the Jungle trail. It was so far from all the touristy hostels I had seen in Cuzco and in Peru so far. Really really small towns, with just two hostels. One for our group. 4 of us and the guide. And another for this other group of tourists doing the jungle trail with us. Really chilled places, our was actually better as we even had a mini-football. You talk to the people you're doing the trip with. You have lots of time to talk with them or with your guide. After some time we even decided to go around in "town" and we found some 8 years old kids to play football with. They were so afraid at us at first, but after trying to convince them to get a ball somewhere and play with us they finally joined the party. Playing football in a tropical environment, very humid and at moderate altitude (2000+ m) is really something. And those kids, boys and girls, were so small you almost believe they went between your legs when they actually passed by you dribbling with the ball. Definitely had a hell of a time on that jungle trip. Met great people, awesome guide, very good trip following the river up to Macchu Picchu for 3 days and far from all the tourists traps.

Another great memory about places where I slept? Hmmm actually there is so many. I could talk about sleeping at my friend's place in Bogota, Colombia. who invited me to her parents house and showed me the city with her friends the next day. I could talk about how I found a place in Manizales, Colombia. Actually I really recommend this place if you go there someday as it is really clean, safe, and loaded with cool people:

Mountain House Manizales, Calle 66 # 23 B 137, calle larga de Palermo o calle de los Faroles Barrio Guayacanes,, ☎ (Cel: 300-439-7387(info@mountainhousemanizales.com),

I could also talk about the other hostels I really enjoyed in other places: from the Secret Garden in Quito, Ecuador (roof bar, fireplace, one of the best view of the old quito town, and really a lot of backpackers to share experience/travel with) to the Adventure Brew and Brew Too Hostel in La Paz, Bolivia (roof terasse, BBQ, a free beer every night, great location and there too a nice view of La Paz at night) or to the salt hostel during the Uyuni trip (salt bricks, cactus table, cactus doors and benches, in the middle of absolutely nowhere with just nature and desert around, and a beautiful place to watch the sunset from the roof of a jeep :D) there is too many places that I loved staying at.

There are also places that I really didn’t like. Either because it was cold, or dirty, or empty, or in a dodgy neighbourhood, or all this at the same time. If there is one place that I am thinking of is the hostel in Chimbote, Peru that I spent a few hours in prior to take the bus to Caraz. I really wanted to go to Caraz via el canon del Pato so I had to stop in Chimbote in order to take a very early bus the next day. Since Chimbote is The place in Peru where they make tuna cans or process whatever other fish species it REALLY stinks fish. More that you can imagine. The place was really shit. I arrived there at 11pm without any other place to go to, and woke up the next day at 4am to catch my bus. Really the kind of night that you wish to forget.

“Where did you sleep?” is all this, it reminds of all the crazy, good or bad, places I spent time in. Sleeping in a tent at 4000m, in a bus driving full speed in winding roads and most of the time overtaking other cars with little space prior to crash into the car/bus/truck coming in front, or simply in a hostel loaded with backpackers travelling in, out, and all around South America is really an experience on its own and that’s what I like so much about this question. Makes it difficult to answer in just a few words (like “I slept mostly in hostels, what do you expect?”) as it would be such a dull answer…

Facebook "fan page" but please call it suggestions page :)

Just a short post to say that I created a facebook "fan page" for this blog. Not that I want you to go as far as saying you are really fan of my blog but rather that I want you to tell me what you want me to write about. If you want to hear about Colombia or Bolivia more specifically, or about how must it cost to climb Huayna Potosi, or whatever else that you wanna know, please do ask me on that facebook ("fan") suggestion page. I will try to answer to it by writing new posts but first things first, let's finish with the questions that I started to deal with:

-"Did you feel in danger or unsafe in any place?" (answered :D)
-"How did you do it all by yourself?" (answered :D)
-"Did you meet people?" (answered :D)
-"Where did you sleep?"
-"What did you prefer?"
-"Did you have any problem ever?
-and the cult one: "How was it?"

Did you meet people?

Did you meet people? I have to admit that I really love this question.
Because people know you went traveling by yourself for 2 months they really wonder if you spent it ALL by yourself. Or rather they think: "he must have met people, he must have met other travelers or local people" because they simply can't imagine a single minute going there and not meeting anyone. They are simply curious about it and they are right :D
Anyway who would be crazy enough to go abroad and spend the whole time by himself not even trying to exchange/interact with other people? You would really have to be a complete weirdo or the most non-talkative person ever.

After all, to me traveling is about people. It is about all the little moments chatting/talking/laughing with people about this or that, about the next place you want to travel to, about something they enjoyed doing or they want/wish to do, about something that you enjoyed, about listening to what they think about life or politics or family or whatever else. It is about being mesmerized by the beauty, the simplicity, the kindness, the love people are showing in everyday life. I mean I can say I have met someone though I have actually just looked at what the person was doing from the other side of the street. Even if you don't talk to that person it still to me one of those instant where you "meet" someone. For instance I can say I have met a trumpeter in Chiclayo, Peru whereas I simply observed him playing the trumpet and begging for money. I just liked the moment, his music, his attitude, observing people passing by. I just liked observing some among them stopping, giving a coin or two and exchanging smiles with the trumpeter.

I really think that being living in world with no one else, being absolutely ALONE, would be the most boring thing ever. You could be mesmerized by an amazing landscapes/scenery but with no one to share it with, what's the point?

I can completely understand that sometimes you can experience something truly amazing by yourself. Reaching the top of that mountain Huayna Potosi in Bolivia is one example. Reaching finally the top at 6088m after several hours of intense efforts in the dark, in the cold, and slowly moving up one (small) step after another I can tell you that for an instant you don't think about anyone else than you. You fight against yourself, you're talking to yourself, you're saying one more step, one more step... And when you do reach stop, when you finally stand on the top and you see the sun coming out you feel happy, truly happy. The pain is gone, you don't feel cold anymore, you don't think of anything anymore. You look around you, you look at the sun rays piercing through the clouds, slowly shining on the snow, and warming up your skin. You look at the city lights far far away. It is really hard to put words on what you can possibly think of during that instant because you simply can't come up with words to describe how beautiful it is, how happy you feel, how mesmerized you are. I think that during that particular instant your brain is overflown by all your sensations and it becomes blank. Then slowly the overflow dissipates and your brain gets back in control. Finally, you start to think I need to tell someone about this. I need to tell someone how happy I feel. I need to ask someone if he/she feels the same. I need to share it with someone.

Meeting people is what gives you the possibility to share those moments and even more. It offers you the possibility to make them last forever, to make them become something unforgettable, to make them become memories.

So yes I have met plenty of people, yes I have traveled with other people for a day or more, yes I have met lots of local people, yes I have the most unbelievable persons/travelers/backpackers ever, yes I met people I think I will keep in touch with.
The thing I like so much about this question: "Did you meet people?" is that every time I am being asked I have all those people's faces that flash in my mind. After 1 sec it is not 5 faces that flash in my mind but several dozens of faces. You think of someone. It brings back a memory, an instant, something funny, amazing, sad, anything that link you to that person. One more second later you mind moved to another person, and another, and another...

Three words to say it all: I Love People

How did you do all that by yourself?

Every time I answered: "I went from Colombia down to Ecuador, and all the way through Peru and Bolivia down to Santiago in Chile. It took something like 2 months in total traveling mostly on buses" to someone asking me where I was, the next question that immediately comes is: "How did you do all that by yourself?"

And there I always think "huh, I never really felt alone and by myself, ok a few times maybe, but I have met so many people I have spent time traveling with" and "It didn't seem like very long and like I did a lot of distance, ok I spent 24hours consecutively in a bus once but that was ok, and "all that" like you say makes me feel I have done nothing"

Thinking about distances, I actually looked at a map when I came back home. It is not that I never looked at a map when I was traveling or planning my trip but it is different to look at it once you have done it and you know how slow buses were or how windy and hilly the roads are. So from the map I can say that I have covered roughly 8000 kilometers in buses, and 2000km by taking twice a plane (Quito-Cuenca in Ecuador, and Lima-Cuzco in Peru) in 2 months.

Too fast? It depends how you see it, some people (most backpackers..) will tell you that this is crazy, that you're rushing it and you don't have time to appreciate things or see everything. And I think that it is true. Most backpackers will take 6 months or even a year to do a similar trip. Many times I wished I could stay longer here or there, spend more time with nice people I have just met and not simply say that I have to take another bus further south the next day. But to me it was also a good occasion to discover countries. It a bit like taking a bite of each, and you come later to take full meal of the one(s) you liked the most. I think I will explain this more in details in another post.

To come back to the original topic of this post, I think that what amazes people when you say you have been traveling in South America for 2 months by yourself it that they think you had to do everything yourself without no one to help you: find a place to sleep every night, arrange transportation from city to city and country to country, and all that in countries that are far from being developed...

But you know what the more the countries are "developed" the more difficult it is to travel as a backpacker. You need to book in advance for trains or flights, you need to make a reservation for hotels/hostels to make sure you will have a place to sleep when you arrive, you need to show tons of papers to get a visa or rent a car, etc. AND it is expensive. In South America, in "non-developed" countries such as Bolivia like people see it, there is no need for all that.

You go to the bus terminal, ask when the next bus is leaving, "how much does it cost?" Too expensive? you just go to the next counter ask to the other bus company. You get your ticket, hop on the bus, spend a few hours looking at the landscapes, read your Lonely Planet about what there is to see in the city you're going to and look at the accommodation section, see the sun setting and the night coming darker and darker, and arrive in a new city. You ask to people around you where is a good, cheap hostel. Many of them are willing to answer or at least they don't to have this western-world look that says: "what do you want? I don't know you, i don't have time". You get to the hostel, ask if they have a room, how much it costs for a night, ask to have a look at it. It's fine, you take it, drop your bag and go wander around. In the hostel you find people to talk with or simply decide to go in town to eat something in the street. Easy, fun, AND cheap.

Ok this sounds easy but it really is :) For sure having a tourist guide such as the Lonely Planet helps. If you need one I would really recommend "South America on a shoestring". You have all south america countries in one book. Explanations are short and you find quickly what you need (what to see/to do, where to eat, where to sleep, how to move to/from there). It is very useful when you arrive at 11pm in town and you just wanna know where is a good hostel.

On the other hand it also formats your travel as you tend to do and see what the guide tells you do. Without such a guide and sufficient time I think you will have an even better and more authentic traveling experience as you rely on other travelers and locals' advices. You don't simply follow the backpackers' footprints and I think it is the only way to start to understand a bit the local culture by living with locals.

Now regarding planning such a trip in advance. What you need is: very little planning :p. The more flexible you are the more you can change your plans and follow people somewhere or go see something that wasn't written in your traveling guide.

Basically I had borders (I land in Bogota, Colombia on a specific date and I need to take my flight home in Santiago Chile two months and 8000km later) and I had things I wanted to do and see.

In the end "planning" gives:

-November, 11th, land Bogota 3:15pm, sleep at Alejandra's place

-November, 12th, visit Bogota, take bus to San Agustin

-November, 13th, visit San Agustin, take bus back to Bogota

-November 14th, take bus Manizales

-November 15th, visit Manizales

-November 16h, visit Manizales, climb Nevado del Ruiz

etc.

So I had this written on a piece paper for 2 months of traveling and that was it. I changed my plans many times, I also followed them perfectly for a few days some other times. In my case I needed to have a rough idea of how long it takes by bus to cover Bogota-Manizales for instance. On a map it is not so far (~500km) but in reality it takes 12hours so it is the kind of things you should do if you want to keep moving from place to place in a short period of time. I think that people that have 6months for such a trip don't even write down where they wanna be on what day. They just have a rough ideas of things they want to see (Salar de Uyuni, lake Titicaca, Cuzco, Macchu Pichu, etc.) and that's basically it.

Finally to answer to the "by myself" I actually LOVED it. You do what you really want without interferences of other. You feel like taking the bus now to go there, just do it. No need to see if others agree, if there is another places of everyone, etc. You get to talk more to locals because you have no one to talk to. And if you feel lonely you can still make friends or find traveling buddies in hostels or just while being on a bus. I am almost about to say that I liked it better than traveling with friends but I actually liked it differently.

One regret? There is one thing you can't do when you traveling alone: share your experiences like you would do with a good friend or talk about it ages later with your friend: "Hey you remember when we met those locals that invited us to a birthday party? That was crazy."

Did you feel in danger or unsafe in any place?

Did i feel in danger or unsage in any place? Hmm, the first thing I want to answer to that is: "no, never, I never had a single problem, i didn't get stabbed or anything if you really wanna know"

This question is actually more appropriate that it seems since countries like France give a strong advice against visiting countries like Colombia or Peru, both countries where I have actually been. Ok I have never had any problems but I have also tried to avoid having problems as much as possible. Basic ideas you come with when you first travel there are: do not go to slums or dodgy areas, do not show around that you have a 1000$ DSLR or a rolex or whatever else that costs money, do not leave your bag to someone you don't know, etc.

But there is things that you might not have think of and that's where you actually realize that if you are a bit unlucky and uncautious it is possible to have problems that can turn in very bad situations sometimes.

For instance, I have met in Trujillo, Peru an american guy accompanied with a local women that came to me asking if i could understand both Spanish and English. I said yes, and she started to ask me in Spanish if I could ask the guy in english if everything was ok and if he needed anything else. Ok the guy looked a bit sketchy but most backpackers like I also do so I wasn't expecting to hear what he told me.

image: Policemen in Lima, Peru

He woke up at 5am, took a cab to go from his hostel to the center, and suddenly the cab driver started to act weird. First stopped at a gas station, then started to drive around some blocks while talking on the phone, and finally stopped the car in front of a group of guys. 4 guys pulled him out by force and started to beat him up to get his money. Apparently someone had even biten in his arm as he was trying to stay inside the car while giving kicks whith his legs. In the end he had his camera stolen, they torn appart his jacket to get his wallet with all his money, credit card, and everything else. And the poor guy had only something like $50c to go back to another place where luckily he had left his backpack with some money and his passport. When you hear that, the first thing you think of is "shit that could have happened to me too", even before thinking "poor guy".

The more you travel, the more you hear of similar stories. 2 guys in Quito, Ecuador that got "assaulted" with mustard and ketchup and while one guy was insisting to help them clean the mess, the other one stole things in their backpacks. Even better, someone in Guayaquil, Ecuador that simply got asked by a taxi driver to give away his wallet and all his money. The taxi driver was pointing a gun at him.. And still even "better", a french women working for a NGO that one night got shot down in Quito for something like 20$, that had to wait 2hours in the hospital before getting surgery since she didn't have her credit card with her, and that in the end didn't make it...

I would say that in all countries I have been to and not only Ecuador there is some places that are unsafe. Though Quito and Guayaquil became recently notoriously famous for being unsafe I wouldn't say that Bogota, Cali, or Medellin in Colombia nor Lima in Peru, nor La Paz in Bolivia are safer. In general, it is better to pay attention in capital cities where crime is more of a problem that in small cities or in the countryside where I have never felt unsafe nor heard any stories.

Therefore general safety rules are: always try to take an official taxi, do not hang out by yourself after 10-11pm and until 6-7am, always pay attention to your backpack in bus stations or in minibuses, always pay attention to your wallet and camera when you take public transportation which are always crowded and full of pickpockets.

In the end there is many places that you would miss if you're simply scared of going there because you've heard or read stories about it. Simply know that locals know the best about what to do, where to go and not to go. Most of them will actually tell you that during the day it is safe almost everywhere and especially in the center with the presence of the police. So the best advice I can give is just to go ask local people, and you might also end up having someone showing you around the city, inviting you for a drink, or simply telling you about a place that is not written in any tourist guide :)

image right: policemen in La Paz, Bolivia

image left: policeman in Cuzco, Peru