Final Days in Peru

So, when last I wrote we were in our last night in La Paz. What a great night it turned out to be. I might have mentioned that we had been zebra hunting since we arrive in the capital - but to know avail. However, as luck would have it we were wandering toward El Prado and there it was! One lone zebra marching toward us, likely on his way to police traffic. Quickly we snapped a picture. As soon as he was gone, there was another. And then another! By God, an entire herd of zebras galloping towards us. Okay, so there were only four and they weren´t so much galloping as they were walking. But, pictures we did get and our time in Bolivia could now end.

We flew to Cusco and arrived early morning. Finally, I was in Cusco (which everyone says is their favourite Peruvian city but because of my altitude sickness in the beginning, had still no experienced it) and the sun was shining! We wandered the streets in the sunshine! Glad to be out of diesel filled La Paz and the Bolivian winter. We even sat on the Plaza de Aramas with a drink and took it all in. The next day we met up the bike company Gravity Peru to do the ¨BikeAsalt¨tour. There was Aimey and I, an American named Meghan, a Canadian named Gerald and an Israeli, who´s name I still don´t know but had a tendency to refer to any ruin as "Inca shit", of which he was obviously tired of seeing. Once we all got over the shock of us bluntness, he was actually quite funny. So we climbed into a van, bikes strapped to the roof and headed off. I had it in my mind that "I did The World´s Most Dangerous Road, how could this be any more difficult?" But it was!! I opted to ride for the second third of the trip because in the first third, could not manage up the hill without a literal push from our guide. I think it was a combination of altitude and not having really been on a bike this year. The scenery, however, was stunning (aha...breath taking!!). We passed through villages and farmers fields. The last third was all downhill but on terrain that I was neither used to or comfortable with. I did challenge myself and looking over the cliff, whilst managing to stay on my bike, is something I´m very proud of. I only had to get off my bike really toward the end but I decided that since I PAID for this venture, I would rather not pay extra for a hospital bill. Lunch was great and hammock laying was even better. Our ride back saw us stopped by the police because they "weren´t okay with the bikes on the roof" and after a midly long wait our guide gave the police 10 soles for permission to pass. In his words "just a way to make some money" because they had never been stopped before.

Next morning we board a day bus for Arequipa. Nightbusses are okay with Cruz del Sol (apparently) but safety aside, we weren´t really interested in losing a full night´s sleep. Many backpackers do this to save money. We chose to spend the day travelling and get to a comfy bed. Our journey was LONG. 14 hours long, to be percise. But we had meals, some heat during they day, Nancy Drew movie in English and blankets when it got cold. We check into the hotel at Arequipa thankful for a place to rest our heads. Next day we wandered Arequipa and found info about the Colca Canyon. We tried to find bull fighting but ended up at a children´s festival sort of like the Stampede. Whoops. Our hotel was AMAZING. Great breakfasts, a courtyard with grass and hammocks and a pool! Maybe we splurged toward the end of our trip but that´s okay. We didn´t really have time to enjoy it because the next morning we were up at 4am to catch the 6am bus for the canyon.

We arrived at noon at Cabanaconde ready for the ¨litte" hike down the canyon (which is apparently the first or second deepest in the world...both are here in Peru). The hike was to take 2 to 3 hours. We had one day pack and my big pack with sleeping bags and clothes. I figured that because I´m SO SLOW going downhill, we´d probably reach The Oasis around 3 o´clock. Well, I was wrong. My knees are so bad that I dread descents and this was 1000 metres. So, after getting lost in the town (should be hard to do....you really can´t "miss" the canyon on the one side...) we eventually made it down by 5 o´clock. Just in time for the sun to go behind the mountain and it to be too cold to swim the pool. It´s a wonder we made it down at all. Aimey carried my big pack most of the way and tripped and literally rolled down the hill (cuts and bruises to show for it). We even stopped a local who was on his way up about getting us some mules for the next day. (Seriously, you try it and tell me you don´t want a mule!) The Oasis (as it´s called) is four lodges with pools and huts to stay in. This was the first mud hut I´ve actually stayed in. We dangled our weary and dusty feet in the pool before supper and were joined by three French guys who had passed us on the way down. After looking upward and admiring the celestial beings that we NEVER see in the city, it was early to bed (and I mean I think I was asleep by 8:30) only to go back up the next day!

Breakfast at 6:30 and we were on our way up an hour later. This time, I took the big pack. It fit me better and I felt like going up would be easier. It was. My bones didn´t ache but I sure got a work out on my lungs. It took us the same to get up and I think we were both happy to not have taken a mule. We caught the 2pm bus to Chivay but couldn´t buy seats in advance because we weren´t going all the way to Arequipa so prayed we get seats. We were in luck! 2 hours to Chivay was a breeze. We got off, found a place to stay and then jumped in a mototaxi (man I love those things) to take us to the hot springs. I WAS IN HEAVEN. I love hot springs more than anything. We soaked in the warmth until we though every ache and pain was gone and headed back to town.

Today, we arrived back in Arequipa to our hotel. After a quick lunch, we changed into our swimsuits and sat by the pool reading. I finished my book (which, by the way is very good. It´s called the Guersey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) and now here I am. I know it must seem to you all that I´ve spent my entire trip at an internet cafe but in truth, this is a journal of my experience more than anything. Like writing it down but more efficient. So, we head to Calgary in a few days and likely this will be my last post from South America. Maybe I´ll get some pictures up. That´s when the next adventure begins....

One week from tomorrow, I´ll be on the plane to Kigali. Wow...it´s already here!

And I thought Iceland was isolated!

We are in our last night in Bolivia. While I'm certainly not going to miss Bolivia's aversion to toilet seats, there are so many things I have seen and done that I will miss. Firstly, Saltenas! Yum, yum! They are these football shaped pastry things that are sort of sweet, sort of salty and all yummy! They drip everywhere when you eat them but when Aimey and I arrived back into La Paz this morning at 6am and needed a mid morning burst of energy, we did what the locals do - had a coke and 2 saltenas. Yum!

"Why did you arrive in La Paz at 6am?" you may now be thinking. There is a simple answer to that....in addition to toilet seats, Bolivians apparently do not believe that busses should run during the day. Rather, all busses should run in the middle of the night and have passengers arrive at their destinations groggy and wanting saltenas.

We did much relaxing and internet/blog catching up when last we were in La Paz. We're here again and I get to write about an amazing time we had in the south. We booked a "must do" when in Bolivia, and that is, visit the Salt Flats near Uyuni. The only way to get there is a night bus and so on Saturday we boarded the "luxury" tourist bus and hunkered down for what we thought would be a reasonably comfortable event (we were assured of a meal, heat, blankets and pillows - how could that POSSIBLY be uncomfortable?). Three hours out of La Paz we hit they town of Oruro and apparently the end of paved roads, as we know it. Imagine the next seven hours bumping, bouncing, and jostling along in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. Sort of like driving on rumble strips for an entire night's sleep. Awesome. It was so bumpy that the water bottle I had "securing stored in the overhead compartment" woke me up from a "sleep" by falling and hitting the guy next to me and them my foot. Whoops. Then my scarf fell. Then I "woke up" to find my glasses on the floor and Aimey's Ipod under my seat. How on earth these things managed to jump out of the pockets infront of us, I'll never know. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep but arrived safely (I'm learning that this is actually far more important than comfort) in Uyuni at about 7:15 am - a measly 11 hours after our journey began.

Uyuni was cold. VERY COLD. So when we fount our tour operator, we prompty began adding layer, after layer, after layer. Until we were moderately cold. We went for a quick breakfast and at 10:40am met the rest of our group, our driver and departed for the tour. Our driver was an old, short, grumpy Bolivian named Roberto / Alberto / Rodrigo (we called him by all three names and still aren't sure of the correct one, but I'll call him Roberto because I'm pretty sure that was it). He loaded the group - Three Columbians, two Canadians, a Spaniard, and a partriage in a pear tree - into the Toyto Landcruiser and we were off!! First stop, train graveyard. Not that exciting. A bunch of old trains. You get the picture. It seemed we were out snapping pictures for no more thant 10 minutes when Roberto was saying "Vamose" (Let's go! sorry for spelling). This became his catch phrase for our tour. We got into our truck and he actually said to the Spaniard (named Jordie) "We don't have time for you to be snapping pictures all day!" Now, Mr. Roberto, isn't that EXACTLY what we have time for? Isn't that exactly what we paid for? (At this point, I was annoyed but the story changes A LOT as the days when on.)

Next stop, Uyuni Salt Flat. This is an INCREDIBLE words-can-not-describe type of place. Thousands of square kilometres of white salt. It was left after a massive lake, which covered most of southern Bolivia, dired up. As we sped through, it felt like we were on a massive frozen lake and I was ready for our truck to start spinning out. As you can tell from the pictures, it's pretty amazing. Nothing but salt for miles. I had an urge to lick the ground, but resisted! Our lunch stop was a place called "Fish Island". It's an island in the middle of the salt flat that has enormous cacti (plural for cactus, right?). They group up to 20 feet tall! Roberto graciously gave us 2 hours on our own so we played with the camera to get some good shots. Next, we sped to our night time destination. We were to stay in a town called San Juan. When we arrived we were delighted to find that we got to stay in a hotel made entirely from salt! This, we found out later, is normally reserved for the "expensive" tours (our's was the budget one) but Roberto's hurrying us along, paid off! We were going to spend a chilly night surrounded by salt! Before the sun went down and the tempurature dipped below zero (it was to be minus five that night) we headed out to a burial ground with skeletons and tombes. Yikes. Dinner was a Bolivian poutine of sorts and we had some wine and played Uno. Aimey and I practiced our Spanish by playing Uno only in Spanish. We are now experts at our numbers and colours! Early to bed under down sleeping bags (I was thankful for mine) and two wool blankets. No heating in the salt hotel meant that we had to take care. It didn't matter. I slept like a baby!!

Up in the morning and we're on our way again! Roberto saying "Vamose! Vamose" and we're trying to hurry! We really are. We're on the road by 8am and heading for hours across barren, rocky, deserts. Nothing for miles except the odd other Landrover crusing along. Roberto looking at the other drivers as a sort of challenge. I thought, for a moment, we were in the Dakar rally. He seemed keen on beating other drivers and I begain to realize that each driver was out for himself. We saw volcanic rocks, lagoons full of flamingos, and more llamas that I ever thought existed. We arrived at our second night's accomodation early (Roberto, again, making sure we weren't taking our time). This hotel was nothing compared the first night. It was dodgy and old and all six of us had to share a room. Before the sun went down, Aimey befriended a little girl named Lydia who was afraid, it seemed, of everyone else. Aimey was out sitting on a rock when Lydia, who is probably about 6, came out to change her drying laudry to move it into the sun. (Pause for a moment to reflect on a 6 year old doing their own laundry....) Aimey began to help her and within minutes, Lydia shyly sat down next to her. They played Paddy Cake, Aimey showed her some post cards and then, always the teacher, taught her to count to ten. (Remember, we are now experts because of our Uno game).

In our new abode, there was, again, no heat and we were soon to realize that staying warm was not an option. I played a crazy card game with some South Americans, met a Canadian from Toronto who has to cook her own food because she has a Koser diet, stayed by the little furnace that one of the owners started for us, and have never been to cold in all my life! Because Aimey had given her Nalgene bottle to our Inca Trail guide as a thank you, we had to share mine filled with hot water. We passed to each other until the shock of a frozen sleeping back was gone. I slept somewhat okay - I was warm enough in the end - but the 5am wake up call by Roberto came to early. "Vamose! Vamose!"

This day, however, I was going to warm up. We were going to visit a thermal pool. So, at 5am, with the tempurature hovering around 15 below zero outside, I put on my swimsuit under all my clothes under my sleeping bag. This was the only way to not freeze. We head out, under amazing starry skies, and begin another bumpy ride in southern Bolivia. First, as the sun was rising, to see 20 or so geyers and steam springs. Then a 30 minute ride to the hot pools. Roberto said "No one gets breakfast, unless you go in!" (I think this was when I started warming - no pun intended - to the old fart). We arrived and most people stood around staring at the water in their toques and mitts saying "I'm not going in there!!" but a few brave souls - including your's truly - stripped down to our swimsuits and got in. I admit, I needed some coaxing, but it was worth it! Finally, I could feel my toes! In the pool, then for breakfast and then to our last stop. The "green" lagoon - which wasn't green at all. After the lagoon, the Spaniard left us to go to Chile and Roberto, it seemed, changed personality. He was smiling, put on music, and gave us all lollipops (remind us that if we broke our teeth, it wasn't his fault.) I wonder if he just didn't like our Spaniard - who was always late and for whom we were always waiting. Regardless, we settled in for an 8 hour journey on dirt, gravel, bumpy roads back to Uyuni.

The journey was made shorter by Roberto who took a short cut, through a field of nothingness (except llamas). He cut our trip down by an hour, compared to the other guides. Although he did this by racing along, passing - very dangerously - other vehicles, not stopping to help the 6 or so trucks we saw broken down (probably 1 in 2 vehicles have something go wrong), nearly hitting a llama, driving through rivers and playing chicken with another driver! He's been doing this for 25 years and it showed. Everytime there was a 4 by 4 short cut through a field he took it. But we arrived in Uyuni safely, if not a bit shaken up, grabbed a pizza dinner and caught the bus back to La Paz. Another night of rumble strip sleeping. We were smart this time and took Gravol. I really only woke up once, when our driver turned on the lights and told us there had been an accident, we needed to get out....oh...no....never mind, go back to sleep. We arrived in La Paz tired, smelly but happy that we had yet another great adventure.

Tomorrow we head back to Peru. I wonder what that will bring.....

Pictures: Southwest Bolivia and Salt Flats

Aimey on the Uyuni Salt Flat.


Anna also on the salt flat. (This is a "classic" picture that all tourists do when they get here.)

Snoopy also took a a visit to the Salt Flat!

During our great game of Uno someone spilt a glass of wine. Well what do you do in a salt hotel when someone spills red wine? Grab some of the floor (made of sand-like salt) and see if that will work!

Breakfast at the salt hotel

The dining room. Chairs, tables and floor - all salt!

Outside the salt hotel in the morning. The bike was not made of salt.

Two Canadians, three Columbians and one Snoopy. Somewhere in Southern Bolivia.

Chilean flamingo in Bolivia.

More flamingos. Too busy eating to look up.

Aimey running to get to the truck as Roberto yells "Vamose!"

A Landrover crusing through the Bolivian desert.

Us at the Tree Rock - a rock that looks like a tree.....

Aimey and Lydia playing a game.

Turn your heads sideways and you'll see us trying to stay warm by the "furnace". If you're lucky, you might see a thermometer that says -15 degrees! (Okay, there was no thermometer but that's what the locals told us.)

Bundled up trying to stay warm. (Our neighbours had a hole in their window, so I guess we were the lucky ones.)

Sunrise at the geyers.

Two brave Canadians.

The change room after the thermal pool. Notice that not only is Aimey wearing her toque and sweater, but the chickens who didn't go in are entirely bundled up in the background.

This was the view as we sat in the hot pools.

I did it! (Now where is my towel? I'm freezing out here!)

Pictures from Bolivia

Taking part in a cha´lla. This ritual blessing for the apus (moutain spirits) required us to sprinkle our bikes tires (normally done on a vehicle) before beginning our descent. It is to ensure that the achachilas (ancestor spirits who live in the mountains) look after us. Then, our guide suggested we drink it. It was about 90% proof and not that tasty!


A view of the most dangerous road in the world. You can see a pull over for vehicles but often right of way disputes were the cause of many accidents!

I couldn´t smile. I was too focused on the road and not crashing!

You can see the drop offs here. Thankfully we didn´t see them as we were biking. Only on our way home did we have time to actually see what we were getting into!

Giagantic bag of popcorn in Copacabana. We were there for the festival.

Little boy in Copacabana.

The view from Cerro Calvario above Copacabana. We hiked up here to watch the sunset over Lake Titicaca and gota great view of Copacabana beach.

At the ferry crossing on our way to La Paz.

Aimey pointing to our bus. We had to get off and take a ferry across the lake. If you look closely you can see that our bus is floating on a barge. We were just thankful that it, along with our belongings, made it across!

Planes, Trains and Zebra Crossings?

I've been travelling now for three weeks and today, as I chugged up the hill away from La Paz to the city of El Alto, was reflecting on the different ways I've travelled so far. Planes, trains, buses, motorcycle, mototaxi, collectivo, boats (both powered and not), mountain bike and by good old fashioned walking! Here are some highlights:

Mountain Bike: Aimey and I went with Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking and biked 64km down the World's Most Dangerous Road the other day. It was so named by the Inter-American Development Bank in 1995 (I think) because of the sheer number of deaths recorded on the road. It was averaging around 320 until a new road was opened. The WMDR now really only serves local villages and crazy mountain bikers, so there is some traffic. The reason it's so dangerous? In many spots it's only 3.2 metres wide - barely enough for one vehicle. On one side there are drops of up to 600metres - straight down! In rainy season many parts are washed out. Mostly, though, drivers lose control and many accidents were due to drunk driving. As we biked down, our guide stopped at a few spots for us to peer down the the cliffs to old vans and trucks that had gone off the cliff. When you had a second to take your eyes off the road, you could see crosses lining the road in spots where people had died. Since biking started on the road 12 years ago, 11 bikers have died. How did I feel going in to this, then? Well, officially, if someone is to ask me what the scariest thing I've done in my life is, I would include this! But Gravity Assisted has a great record (none of the deaths were with them) and they take safety very seriously. Plus, we had great weather (it was dry season) and I took my time. It was quite a rush! Pictures will be coming shortly....

Collectivos: In La Paz, you can't help but notice the number of white van-like busses that congest the streets. All have signs in them and people standing in the doorway, shouting the destination. In fact, there are so many crowding the roads, ignoring both traffic police and lights that I think the World's Most Dangerous Intersections have got to be here! Aimey and I have a new game. It's called Traffic Dodge. I've nearly been hit at least 3 times but realize that dodging taxis and collectivos is a bit of an art form. Either way, today we wanted to leave La Paz proper (which is n a valley) and head up towards El Alto for a better view of the city. Collectivos are cheap so we studied what they were shouting, read the signs and hopped in. 15 people crammed into the collectivo (think a small Ecoline van, with lower ceilings and no seatbelts) and headed up the hill. We jumped out and a good time and took some great views. Catching one back was a bit more of a challenge. We stood on the road and as soon as we saw one that said "Prado" on it (where we needed to go) we pointed, it swerved infront of another and slammed on its breaks just after us. We hopped on and away we went!

Traffic in La Paz: so as if dodging traffic was interesting enought....La Paz has thought of a great way to get help deal with the traffic dodging problem. They have teenaged kids dress up in Zebra costumes to act as crossing guards. Why zebras? Apparently, zebras get noticed. We saw them the other night but did not stop to take pictures because we were told they were at the traffic circle every day. However, we have been on the zebra hunt now for two days and can't find them again! We're trying to get a picture but at this point are having little luck.

Today, in addition to visiting El Alto, we toured the Coca museum. The Coca leaf is sacred i Peru and Bolivia. It's been used forever by high altitude living locals as a way to deal with the altitude. Of course, it's also the source of cocaine and it's cultivation a source of international debate. The UN has actually said that the only appropriate use for the Coca leaf is in the production of soda (Coca Cola, specifically) but not for indigenous use. Tell me this isn't one sided. I know that since I've been here, I chewed the Coca leaf regularily on the Inca Trail and swear that it helped me complete the trek without getting sick. I drink Mate de Coca nearly every morning (Coca tea) and even began taking a supplement. Although, in the last few days I feel that I've aclamatized and have stopped taking it.

Tomorrow we take a tourist night bus to a town called Uyuni where we will begin a three day tour in a 4 wheel drive to see the salt flats and a few other sights in southern Bolivia. It's a long journey so everything we read suggests taking the tourist bus. It has a toilet and heating!! However, on our way back, this bus is all booked up, so we'll be on a local night bus. The downside, no heating, no meal, maybe no toilet. That, and the 4WD along the salt flats will be more of an adventure I think.

Pictures from Peru (in reverse order...start at the bottom)

Swimming in the Rio Madre de Dios in the Amazon. (Swimming means staying in the water so the bugs don´t bit you! See me try to get them off? My arms and legs STILL look like I have the chicken pox)

Canoeing with the Caimans in the Amazon Jungle. Thankfully he wasn´t hungry that day, but he was eyeing us up a little bit!

Aimey eating beetle larvae in the jungle. (Picture following shows her eyes squeezed shut and scrunched up face. Yum!)

Our basic mode of transportation (other than motorcycles) in Puerto Maldonado.

See, I told you the fog lifted!

Aimey and llamas at Macchu Picchu
Anna sees Machu Picchu for the first time!! (Yes, that´s fog...but it lifted eventually)

The start of day #2 - our hike up to Dead Woman´s Pass. We are all so happy (and dray) at this point but 7 hours later, the story was oh, so much different!

Our view, night #1 on the Inca Trail. See the Andes in the back?

Locals overlooking Cusco, Peru.

Anna and the Pacific Ocean. In Miraflores, Lima.

The flight to Cusco. This is the Andes...just before altitude sickness claimed me!




So, if you read the title and are actually starting from the bottom, you´ll know that we have taken, together, over 1200 pictures!! Here are a few highlights but they were hard to choose.

We made it to Bolivia!!

We left the hot, humid and wonderful jungle for another night of motorcycle riding and a great meal in Puerto Maldanado. Now we were officially done with tours and I was ready to begin more independent travelling. Tours are easy and relaxing, for sure. But lacking in something....The next afternoon we caught our flight to Cusco and planned to get a night bus to Puno. Night busses are often no recommended but we weren´t sure we´d make a day one, given the time. We arrived in Cusco and as I got the bags, Aimey got us a taxi driver. We already new it should only cost 10 soles for a ride to the bus station so (and we´re getting good at this), when the driver insisted on 15, we said thank you (gracis, amigo) no! "Okay, Okay. Ten soles" and we left with him but first had to get through the trongs of other drivers promising cheaper and better lifts to the same place. We arrive at the bus station and the driver (still trying to scam money) said, "Oh, I´ll drive you to the terminal but there is a 1 soles tax, so you´ll pay me 11 soles". NO AMIGO!! We´ll walk. "No, there is a tax" he insisted. "No, amigo. There isn´t!" He was friendly enough but we just wanted to catch a bus.

We enter the station and, unlike Greyhound, there are a bazillion different operators. Each telling you that the others are terrible. Although for a while I thought all busses were only going to Arequipa because that seemed to be what everyone was yelling! It was 1:45 and we managed to get on a 2:30 day bus to Puno. It was 8 hours so we´d still arrive in the dark but it was better than nothing. We opted for a cheaper ($6 each) bus and then hurried to an internet cafe to try (unsuccessfully) to book a hotel in Puno. Either way, we get on the bus. All locals. We´re the only "gringos" (affectionate term used for white tourists in South America). We settled in for the journey. Aimey´s not feeling hot, I´m worried about altitude sickness and there´s no bathroom on board!!! Oh well....here we go!

The bus ride itself was interesting. Hawkers selling everything from all natural puffed wheat bars to Encyclopedias on CD-Rom. At some point a man who Aimey named "Stinky George" got on the bus. He didn´t have a seat and thought the best idea was to stand next to me. There were a number of questions I had for him. "Stinky George, would you mind removing your bum from my shoulder?" "Stinky George, could you please stop picking food out of your teeth?" "Stinky George, please take your greasy hands away from me?" "Stinky George, when was it you last showered?" Of course, these questions remained unanswered. He got off shortly afterward. We passed one bus accident, which looked pretty bad. I didn´t realize how bad it was until I saw the next day´s papers. 17 people were killed when the bus rolled over. Peru is notorious for bus accidents. I was just happy to not be part of it. When it got dark the kids and some adults on the bus started shouting for a movie! (This I understood when the little boy sitting across the aisle from me ran back to his seat and said "We´ll see a movie now") The word they used sounded like¨"dao" but I´m not sure what it was. They yelled, they stomped their feet and they rapped on the driver´s window. All attempts for the movie were igored. They even started shouting using different voices (as if this would convince the driver!). Eventually, he did start to play a movie. I didn´t realize that The Gods Must Be Crazy is just as funny in Spanish as it is in English!!! So, we continued to lumber down the road rather peacefully. I dozed off until I was awoken but a noticeable change in the rhythm of the bus. It felt like to jumped the paved road in favour of a dirt field! When I looked out the window, that is, indeed what happened. There had been a detour of sorts and so we were merrily bumping along someone´s field, in the middle of the night. Instead of watching where we were going, I closed the curtain again and went back to sleep. I would rather not see what was happening!!

Finally, 1 hour and half late, we arrived in Puno. We found a lovely taxi driver, Olegario, who took us to a decent hotel. Aimey wasn´t feeling well but he left us alone eventually, where (freezing, since we were now about 3500 meters about sea level and not in beautiful Pto. Maldanado) we climbed under two layers of llama woolen blankets and dozed, blissfully off to sleep.

Morning came and Aimey stayed in bed, trying to pull herself together. I got us breakfast but not before catching a glimpse of lake Titicaca. The hightest, largest, navigatable lake in the world, and the sacred lake of the Incas. We met Olegario at 9am and he got us our 2:30 tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia. So we had the day to explore! At 11:30, we boarded a boat and headed to the reed islands. The Uros people. This was a two hour trip. Perfect! We´d be back at the hotel for 1:45, ready to catch our ride to the bus terminal. Little did I know, that the Inca God´s are sun gods, not time-sensitive Gods and that arriving on time would not be in the plans.

We arrived at the island listened to how these floating islands are made entirely from totora reeds and anchored down so that the island doesn´t float away to Bolivia. It´s pretty impressive actually. The islands are build on 1 metre of root and then 2 meters of reeds. The reeds are added every 15 days during dry season because the ones on the bottom begin to deteriorate. The reeds are used for everything from the ground, to beds, to fuel, to salad. All of this we learned thanks to a guy we met from Brazil who also speaks Spanish and English. He translated for us. We continued for a while until we realized that our boat would not make it back for 1:30. Uh oh. What to do? We jumped on a boat that was leaving earlier. Phew. Close call! Oh wait. It is stopping at another island. Okay, seriously folks, if you´ve seen one totora reed island on Lake Titicaca, you´ve seen them all. Lét´s move it!!! Our boat finally leaves and we pull into the dock no ealier than 1:58pm. We need to be at our hotel to meet our transer at 2:10 and it was a 25 minute walk! This is when our practice for the Amazing Race came in very handy. The boat hadn´t stopped but we jumped from ship to shore and began to ran. We were going to run like we were on the Race and gunning for first place (no free trip would be awared however). We needed to avoid elimination. We ran and we ran and we began to cough and wheeze and double over with shortness of breath! What was happening? We´re in shape. We go to the gym! We swim!! Oh, yeah but not at 3800 meters above sea level. This altitude thing can really be a bitch! We´re never going to make it. We´ll be stuck in Puno forever!! No, wait! What´s that I see? A mototaxi. Praise the Inca Gods. We make a dash for it and in true Amazing Race style say "Rapido, señor, rapido!" (I have ALWAYS wanted to say that!!) We ran red lights, avoided moto vs. moto accidents and pulled up to the hotel at 2:08pm. Phew!

Board bus to Copacabana and relax!! This was more like it. ANd there was an el baño on board! Yeah!! We get to the border and go to immigration. We get our cards stamped and turn to watch our bus slowly drive away. No panic, it will meet us in Bolivia. We cash some US dollars in Peru to avoid getting fake ones in Bolivia. (not that Peru is golden, either, mind you. I´d already been given a fake 5 soles piece) We walk across the borded into Bolivia and head to immigration. He stamps Aimey´s passport and then changes his mind! What! We were worried he was going to to to us what he did to the American ahead of us. He told her she needed a visa, which is inaccurate. I started to get frustrated until a great Norweigen guy explains that we just need to visit another office on the Peru side to actually get our exit passes in our passports. We wander across, get them stamped and head back to Bolivia - take two. This time, no problem, amigas! Back on the bus and within 10 minutes we´re in Copacabana!

We wander around and find a hotel, head for dinner and then to an early sleep. We woke up this morning and had a great breakfast. Then tried the shower. Agua caliente it is NOT!! We were told hot water was available but I´d say more like luke warm, if that. There´s not shower curtain to keep the steam in either so, I´m freezing and spraying water all over the freaking bathroom until I accidently hit a plastic spout and all of sudden water is POURING everywhere, behind the toilet, onto the floor and I can´t find the stupid piece because my glasses are off. AND I¨M FREEZING!!! Meanwhile, Aimey can hear me making noises and sounds only heart attack victims probably make, because I´m so cold and she´s yelling "Is it warm? It doesn´t sound warm? Honeslty, is it warm?" I say (through the shivers) "Ye..ye...yes....it...it...it´s...okay!" I was later called a big liar when she was in the shower but I had to. For both our sakes. We hadn´t showered in a few days, and we needed it!!

We strolled the markets in the morning and got some great gifts for people back home. We made it up to the cathedral to watch cars being blessed by the priests. Its festival time here this week and so many people come to get their cars blessed. It involves holy water, plastic and real flowers, fire crackers and pouring champagne over the car! I think my brothers ´89 Volvo could use this, just to get it to next summer. Had lunch, contimplated buying a llama fetus and now here I sit. I love this blog thing. No journal for me to lug around and I´m a much faster typer than writer. Plus, this thing (despite what you read) has spell check!!

We´re heading on a hike this afternoon, Isla de Sols on the lake tomorrow and La Paz on the 4th for a few days. We´ll be there for their independence day and really looking forward to it. Hope all is well back home, or wherever you are.