Inca trails and Alalay

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I spent some of yesterday visiting an Orphanage called Alalay. Its quite a distance from La Paz and out in the middle of nowhere. Its closet neighbors are the dusty mountains the stand sentinel all around it. Just one long broken road connects it with La Paz.

From next monday on I will be living there and helping look after the kids from dawn to dusk. My Spanish is little improved since I arrived and I don’t think any of the kids can speak English. My accommodations are extremely simple and I have no idea of what to expect. I know a lot of the kids have no families and are in the process of being reeducated after a life on the streets. There is even one boy who is 5 who is was rescued from a life as an addicted glue sniffer. So, to say the least, it’s going to be extremely interesting.

I will still have weekends free, and will probably need them. James, Julie and I are still planning to Climb Mt Potossi at some stage, although the weather is beginning to change here and we have to get a climb in before the first snow of the season. I will have to make a small journey across the border to Peru and back to renew my visa (this is cheaper then doing it through the embassies). This will also give me a chance to see the massive and impressive site of Lake Titikaka.

For the rest of today I’m getting my stuff packed and ready for our 3 day hike with the shoe shiners starting tomorrow morning. We are following an old Inca trail that’s hundreds and hundreds of years old. These trails are often still paved from when the Inca’s used them as trade routes. For 3 days we will be in the middle of nowhere, so this will be the last blog for sometime and then once I’m at Alalay, they will be few and far between, but hopefully not.

Adios

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