Copacabana and Isla del Sol

---

Hi friends and family,

Arrived in Uyuni, Bolivia on Thursday night. Not too much to see there, but a great transfer point for the Salt Flats. I got to see the Hostel made completely of salt, and was driven out to the Isla de Pescadoes in the middle of the Salt Flats. A truly uniquie landscape. I got to celebrate St. Patrick´s Day with some Irish friends and we told all the Irish jokes we could think of.

We (all the guys from my salt flat tour) got an overnight bus into La Paz. There was no sleeping as the roads were rocky. The view on entering La Paz is amazing. You follow the highway in a downward spiraling bowl around the city. La Paz itself was noisy, busy and is considered the most dangerous city in the world. We had onew day there with some sightseeing, sushi and karioke.

Unfortunately, the next day I had my small bag stolen by 5 guys. Didn´t really lose too much. Nothing that wasn´t replaceable. Still have my camera, passport, money, visa etc. The next stop was some ruins at Tiwaniku. These ruins predate all the Inca ruins. The capital city which we toured was mostly unreconstructed but had a lot of cool statues and such. My photos are all being copied to DVD at the moment but I may be able to download some photos later.

After Tiwaniku, we got a short bus to Copacabana. We visited the Isla del Sol yesterday and had a 12 km hike across the island to see various Inca ruins including a labyrinth and Inca Palace. I am still travelling with two of the guys from the salt flats tour, Andre and Alex (they were in the photos last time). We are all heading to Puno, Peru, later today to see the floating islands, then on to Cusco and Machu Picchu tonight.

Hope everyone is well. I´m back on Sunday.
Take care, Richard

PS: Thanks for all the messages/comments. Its great to hear about home.

PPS: Carl - Can you get me another MP3 player. Cheers

---

Comments

[father]

good to heaar from you last night you sound happy and having a good time you will be retraceing the part steven and i did cusco is a great city and was the center of trade and very rich at one time you can see it in the buildings dont buy too many post cards from the children they keep asking you and keep dropping their price as you say no the market is quite good for shopping don,t bring too much junk back with you like me you are a pack rat take some food with you when you go on your trip to the ruins as their is not much on the trail and you can get hungry hope it does not rain try and get a piticure better than mine looking through the window at the waterfall at the first ruins you come to whtch out in lima thaats where i change the money for the forgery also very dengerous after 7pm down near the large plaza lots of crime see if you stay in the same hostal as we did with the plants growing the 3 floors tfrom the roof to the ground right in the city lookforward to hearing from you on sunday stay safe love dad

[Cara]

I thought you didn't like sald..oh yeh, it's pepper that's the "spice of the devil".

[anonymous]

hi hi richthanks for the update hope you ahve mailed Caro so she also gets your updates!! All sounds really fab.. you are ahead of us and we wont catch up to you to meet up again but just enjoy... we are still in Bolivia.. In Potosi.. the mining town and off to Sucre in the Am..... We wil keep you updated,.. also thanks for your mails hugs Jen and Caro X