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Published: March 27th 2008
Well.....15 days since my last update....where does one start?? And where did the time go??!
Everything has been going great since the last time I updated. I am still having a super time and am getting a little more distant with the ol´ computer. Since I am so behind I will have much much less detail in this update. I am going to miss a lot of things too since I haven´t bothered to write anything down. Sigh. But here it goes......
Martin and I ended up leaving Cusco 2 days after the last update. I woke up that next morning feeling a bit under the weather and by day 2 it was evident I had caught a nasty virus. Sigh. Since I could not do much in Cusco with my nasty cold we decided to move on to Copacabana, Bolivia for a change of scenery....cold and all. Martin somehow managed to catch the virus as well so we were both feeling pretty icky by the time we arrived. We took a night bus from Cusco to Puno (on Lake Titicaca....awe yes...I am sure some of you are laughing ....that ol´ ¨Lake Titicaca¨ word....lol....arriving in Puno at 5:30am. We managed to book a tour to the floating islands for that morning and then a bus that evening to Copacabana. The floating islands were really neat to see. I avoided all pics before going so I did not really know what to expect. Definitely worth waiting for and seeing!! An entire community out in the water. I think one of the funniest things though was noticing this remote floating village had solar panels everywhere....power for their stereos and tvs. Perhaps not AS remote as it once was. It still made for a great experience that I definitely recommend to others.
After the floating islands we hopped on our ´Bolivian´ bus to head to Copacabana. We were told at the bus station that morning that there was another one of those famous strikes occurring between the Bolivian border and Copacabana and that NO buses were able to go directly there. I spent a good hour asking many different bus agencies if this was in fact true cuz I had a hard time believing it. Finally, someone mentioned a BOLIVIAN bus that could drive that strip....apparently no Peruvian buses were allowed to cross. So we managed to get tickets for that ONE Bolivian bus and were on our way in the afternoon. The border crossing went quite smoothly and we arrived in Copacabana by 8pm.
Copacabana was quite a cute little town that is located on the other side of Lake Titicaca. It is quite a hippy place but sort of a fake one since it is mainly gringo hippies. They seem to flock to this area.....then make jewelry and such and sell it along the roads. Some of the artwork was truly beautiful but it somewhat bothered me that they were acting like starving people taking money from the tourists in one of the poorest countries (if not THE poorest) in South America. All decked out in their dreads and ¨happy pants¨. That is what they call the gringo pants down here....brightly coloured striped pants that only the gringos wear in public. It is pretty funny really. Awesome pants? Yes. But they are basically pyjama pants and should stay in the house.....this is how the locals wear them. But the gringos for some reason like to sport them around in public and well.....it is kind of funny and I refuse to do it. haha I will admit I bought some infamous happy pants....but they have only been worn in the hostels. teehee
So anyhow....back to Copacabana. This town is weird....neat hippy atmosphere but all of the freakin´ hostels have curfews! And early ones at that! We were expected to be in the hostels by 10:30pm to 11pm depending on the hostel. Made for a pretty lousy nightlife but I will admit....I was ok with that since I was soooo sick. That nasty chest cold I got kicked my butt!!! I was down for a good week cuz of it. I had difficulty breathing on a good day....then add the altitude of Lake Titicaca (4350m) and I was gasping for air 24 hrs a day. The big thing to do there is to take a boat to the Isla del Sol...a huge island a few hours away. Every day we would decide to go the next day and then that next morning I would feel like death and not get up. Finally....by about the 4th day there I felt well enough to venture out. We were a group of 3 at this point because we had ran into an American ¨James¨ that Martin had met up in Peru. It sure is funny how you start to see the same faces over and over and over. Many seem to be on the same trip so you eventually run into them again. Small world indeed!
Isla Del Sol was beautiful! 3 hour boat ride drops you off at the north end of the island. Then you check out some ruins and then walk 3 hours along the middle ridge to the south end of the island. The walk was beautiful....quite high up and able to see both sides of the island. We even managed to stop at a little shop in the middle of nowhere to have a beer and some coca leaves. Ah yes...the Coca leaves....VERY popular around here. They are really great for altitude sickness and they also suppress your appetite and give you energy. So all around....a great drug. :P You just grab a handful of dry leaves (can buy them virtually anywhere) and then bite the stem off and then pack them into your cheek. You don´t really chew them....just basically let your saliva break it down and you swallow the juices. After about 2-3 hours you just spit the leaves out. Works great.....so they say....I can´t say I really ever felt anything from them but since the locals swear by them....I am willing to give it a go. My breathing was quite a struggle along the walk....even borderline hyperventilating at times on the steep inclines. My cold added to the altitude was not a good combo....but I perservered and it was well worth it! Once we arrived to the south end of the island, we found a hostel to crash in and spent a night on the island. The next morning we went to see some more ruins and then caught a boat back to Copacabana by the afternoon. Once back in Copacabana, we bought a ticket for La Paz and were on our way that night.
Our bus ride to La Paz was...well....interesting. It never fails....I have yet to have a bus ride in South America that didn´t go without a glitch. It started off a good hour late...but hey, that is pretty normal. It was dark by the time we hit the road so everyone was falling asleep. About 1 hour into it, the lights came on and we were told to exit the bus. Everyone looked rather confused and it turned out to be a normal thing for the journey. At that point, everyone had to get off of the bus, and get on a boat while the bus got on a boat itself and was carried across the river. I had no idea this was going to take place so it was a surprise and an interesting one at that. The humans crossed much faster than the bus so we stood waiting on the other side for it to arrive. We noticed it coming in quite a ways down the beach so we all....everyone on the bus....walked all the way down there to catch it...nobody really knowing or understanding what was taking place. The bus arrived, surfaced on the road and then while everyone got up to the door to get on, the driver sped away! It was pretty hilarious to be honest. Everyone bursted out laughing and started walking all the way back to where the boat initially dropped us off. Once we got back to the initial area, they still wouldn´t let us on which we soon discovered was due to a flat tire. So....15 mins go by while they are changing the tire and replace the flat tire with a tire that has a huge chunk taken out of the tread. Perfect! :P Finally.....we all got back on and off we went. But hey...the fun was not over yet! We got just a little ways up the highway when we were stopped in the middle of no where.....and I mean no where!....by a man whose bus broke down. He had a few....well.....about 6 passengers....that needed to get on our already full bus. Joy of joy. A few things re-arranged and new passengers loaded up in the aisle....and we were on our way again....for about 10 mins. Then the bus gets stopped AGAIN....randomly in the middle of nowhere. This time by the military police! I thought oh crap....here we go.....you always hear these crazy stories but they never seem to happen. Well....a few got on the bus and asked those in the aisle to get off and stand outside in the darkness. They then proceeded to search the entire bus (including people) for drugs. They mainly focused on the locals....including a little old lady dressed up in traditional wear that napped through the previous incidents (including the bus getting on a boat to go across the water.....haha). They woke her up and then patted her all down while she sat there in a sleepy daze. It was quite bizarre. I am not sure if they got a tip of drugs being smuggled that night or if it was random....either way they found nothing and we were back on our way within about 20 mins. We FINALLY made it to La Paz....about 3 hrs later than we should have. Sigh.
La Paz was interesting upon first arrival. It was dark so we initially missed the beautiful topography engulfing the city. It lies in the middle of mountains and is quite spectacular when seen from the daylight. Our first impression was ´dirty´. Massive piles of garbage everywhere....stacked on the sides of the streets.....with ppl and dogs rummaging through them. I witnessed a little old lady get off of the bus in a traditional outfit with the 3ish layers of skirts....walk over to the opposite street corner and then squat down in the street by the curb, pull down her undies under her skirt, and pee....right there.....with tons of ppl walking all about. This just isn´t something you witness all that often....uhm, if ever....back in Canada. I had to laugh and thought ¨good for her¨.....if you gotta go, go! The boys do! haha We checked into a hostel that night and went out for some grub ....past midnight at this time....then off to bed. We were surprised the next morning to find all the piles of garbage on the streets totally gone! So, I guess this is how they clean up garbage there. haha Whatever works! We did see the piles again...about every 2-3 days so I guess this is their system. Sure is awful the night before pick up!
La Paz turned out to be AWESOME! I seriously loved it there. It has such a nice vibe to it. I can´t really explain it. I am not a person for cities usually but I quite liked it there. Tons of markets everywhere! The streets are filled with chaos....a somewhat somehow organized chaos. Bumper to bumper motos (like VW vans....for public transportation) full of ppl with dudes hanging out the windows yelling their destinations....cars everywhere in between.....100s of ppl everywhere in between the vehicles....markets down every street you look....NO street lights....just a lot of honking and yelling. It is quite a sight to see really. I will try to catch a video of an intersection when I am back there (heading back tonight). I love walking up and down the markets....sooo many brilliant colours of fabrics and such and soooo many awesome things to buy for so cheap!! Ah yes.....I need to buy another backpack to fit all the stuff I want to buy. lol
After a couple of days of wandering around La Paz, a few of us booked a tour to ride bikes down the famous ¨Most Dangerous Road in the World¨. It was a spectacular ride! 5 hours cruising down a road that is often just the width of one car with a massive drop to one side. Sadly, those that know or have heard of this road realize it has a dark history of many many ppl losing their lives while driving on this road. They have since made a ring road for cars for the most dangerous part so that part just has idiot gringos like us riding bikes madly down it. Part of me did not want to do this ride because I did not want to make light of a sad history by doing an ¨adrenaline¨ ride down it. I respect the locals and am sad for their losses....I do hope they understand I was not trying to make fun of their losses. The view was what I wanted to see and it was truly beautiful. Everyone made it safely and we have tshirts and a cd full of pics to remember this ride. We did almost lose one guy which was scary though.....he glanced behind him for a split second to say something and ended up heading directly for the cliff. He corrected himself quickly and JUST in time as his back tire hit the edge....that surely would have been his death so this road is not to be taken lightly!
After the Death Road bike ride we moved to a different hostel. We had booked Loki Hostel for 3 nights (Martin and myself....along with 3 other Irish ppl) for the good ol´ St. Paddy! Wow.....what a party that was!! When we checked in, the Irish owner said to Martin ¨Welcome to the largest Irish concentration in all of South America¨....and he was not kidding!! There must have been hundreds there! It seemed like an endless flow of Irish! They have their own Irish Pub in the hostel so St. Paddy´s started off in our hostel at noon. We had a good amount of beer by 2pm and it felt like I was in Ireland late in the evening. It was getting rowdier by the hour filled with ppl all decked out in green....green nail polish....shamrocks...some pretty crazy outfits....drunken´ Irish peeps with a ´few´ others (some brits...that claimed they were Irish...haha......and a dude from Ethiopia...a girl from some remote island off of Norway.....some aussies and kiwis....and 1 other Canadian...a girl from Winnipeg!). I went off with my friend Shawn (Swiss) for a walk in the afternoon just to escape the madness on this beautiful day and we ended up having quite the fun playing with pigeons. We got totally mauled!! I have pics of pigeons all over Shawn including on his head and back, arms...etc. It was great fun! And yes....me....being the non-bird person....had pigeons all over me as well. It was a blast to feed them! 100s of them! After this play time with the pigeons, we lucked upon some sort of military flag changing which was interesting...involving a small parade and such, and then we returned to the Irish festivities. The night was long....and insane.....and like no other St. Paddy´s I have ever experienced. Fun times for sure!! I lasted until 3am which I thought was pretty good....but then Martin staggered in at 11:15am!! The mad Irish man...I will never be able to keep up to him. lol
A couple of days later, after recovering from St. Paddy´s, we got 4 of us together (myself, Martin, and an Irish couple ´Lorna and Fergal´that I have become very good friends with) and booked a Jeep to Rurrenbaque. There are 3 ways to get there....by plane....which is quite unreliable during the rainy season cuz it is not a proper runway, by bus which is supposed to be awful....think of the death road that we biked but instead with a bus in above 30 degree heat with no a/c and many stops making it a loooooong ride....anywhere from 18hrs to 30hrs, or by Jeep which is usually rented with a small group and is only 14hrs and you can stop whenever you want AND you are not as wide as a bus on that narrow little road. So....with time being an issue, we went with the Jeep and we are glad we did it. It was almost the same price as flying but so be it....we got to experience the drive and it was an adventurous one at that! The cliff dropping to the one side was unreal....no room for error! We ran out of gas before we even left La Paz which had us a bit worried initially but the rest of the journey turned out well...minus one flat tire. It took us a bit longer because there had been major rains the few days before so the roads were full of potholes making it a slower drive but we still made it in good time. Rurrenabaque is a small town that is the outlet for tours to the Jungle and the Pampas. We arrived past midnight and settled in quickly and set out right away at 8am the next morning to jump on a tour. We had 3 friends already there so that made us a group of 7 and luckily we were on our way to the Pampas by 10am that morning for a 3 day/2 night tour.
I am going to end this blog here since I am running out of time....so I will write about the Pampas in the next day or 2 when I have more time.
Again, I hope everyone is doing well back home and welcoming spring! I am sitting in +35 degrees and quite frankly.....somewhat missing the cooler temps of home. That is it for now.....ciao amigos and amigas!!
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Kristie
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wow
Kathy- your pictures are amazing!!! You look so good! How are the sandals doing? I spotted you sporting them in a few- I am unsure how a llama gets on a bus though... hahaha but I'm sure you'll fill me in- I love reading your stories. Keep it coming!