We headed straight to Puno, Peru which is on Lake Titicaca near the Bolivian border. As soon as we arrived in Puno we boarded another bus headed for Copacobana, Bolivia. The bus was completely full and was getting ready to leave when we got to Puno and so Tammie sat on a stool in the aisle, Alana on a small folding chair, and I rode "shotgun" on a little fold-down seat next to the driver (while his assistant sat on the steps to the aisle in front of Alana.) It was fun and I ended up teaching the assistant a bunch of English phrases that he wanted to know and he taught me some Aymara, the language of much of Bolivia.
We finally arrived in Copacobana and stayed at the same place I stayed when I was there back in October. The next day we boarded a small boat and headed to the Island of the Sun.
It was here the ancient Incas believed the Sun and the Inca people were born. It was a beautiful island and it took us a couple of hours to walk the length of it. Especially interesting were the dung beetles. I had never seen one before. But they were gosh dung awesome!
The next day we headed off early again to La Paz, the world´s highest capital. At one point, however we had to cross part of Lake Titicaca on a small tender while our bus was ferried across on a bunch of planks thrown together. I was surprised it didn´t sink.
We arrived in La Paz a bustling and somewhat chaotic city surrounded by high cliffs and snow-capped mountains.
We soon found our hostal near the center of town and went off to explore the famous Witch´s Market where they sold all kinds of folk remedies and other mystical goods. You can see here the llama fetuses, the ocelot pelt and the armadillo.
There were more than a few interesting sites and whatnot in La Paz.
On Friday I woke up feeling rather ill but still well enough to go to the nearby ruins of Tiwanacu. We went on the locals bus or "combi" which is like a van that they squeeze as many people into as possible. It was a cramped hour and a half to the ruins but they were pretty cool to see. Tiwanacu was one of the great Pre-Inca civilizations whose capital was here on the Altiplano near to modern-day La Paz.
On the way back to La Paz I was stuck in the back of another full combi and I fell asleep. When I woke up I found my illness of the morning aggravated by some heavy duty car-sickness and a sense of clausterphobia as we were still thirty minutes away from the end of the line. I started to get really dizzy and nauseous and started going numb, but just then someone opened a window and I was able to get a hold of myself again. I made it home okay but that night I felt really sick to my stomach. Alana was also sick that night and had an interesting episode involving a plant and a Japanese guy.... but that´s for her to tell.
The room at our hostal was fairly noisy, being right next to the street and we woke up early Saturday morning to a drunken brawl outside. It was okay because we had to get up anyways to catch our 6AM bus to Arica, Chile. Bolivia is nice country and all but I think we were ready to leave.
We caught our bus and had a rather beautiful 8 hour ride across the Altiplano seeing interesting rock formations....
Wild vicuña and herds of llama....
We passed through the Western range of the Andes and crossed into Chile....
And soon we found ourselves descending into the Atacama desert, the driest place on Earth. It was weird seeing rocks and dirt but not a single living thing. Not even the tiniest plant could be seen. The exception was a fertile river valley with settlements and trees entrenched in the midst of bleak landscape...
Finally we arrived in Arica, Chile´s northernmost city. It´s a small but beautiful town that contrasts quite a bit with La Paz. It´s clean, modern and warm. There´s a McDonald´s and a Blockbuster and a beautiful walking street lined with shops. It´s also one of Chile´s main northern ports so the stores are like factory outlet stores with nice stuff for cheap.
We´re in a good motel here that has cable TV which is a nice change. (With English movie channels and CNN) It also has free internet which is nice.
On Sunday we found the local ward and went to church. The people were very friendly and welcoming and it was a great experience. The interesting thing about church in Chile is that Sacrament meeting is an hour and Sunday school and the auxilliary meetings are both 30-minutes each (with a 15-minute break in between) so in total, church is only 2 hours and fifteen minutes. It´s actually kind of nice.
After our Sunday-afternoon naps we went to eat at McDonalds (comfort food) and then walked around the town for a bit. We visited Arica´s famous church built by Gustav Eiffel.
And then we walked to the beach where we soaked our feet and watched the sunset.
It´s been a nice restful day. We will be leaving for Arequipa, Peru on Tuesday, so stay tuned...
2 Deep thoughts:
My boys had fun looking at these pictures with me. Whenever there was a pic with you in it, John would point to you and say "Nate" and laugh.
We need some new updates. What's next?
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