Day 49: Almost 50 Days in Likes vs. Dislikes

Likes:

1. Popcorn that looks like packaging peanuts. Sometimes, most of the time, you eat 10 to find one good one. Its worth it.
2. Everything you need is at 20ft. intervals on the street ie. chocolate, yogurt, nailclippers, drugs etc.
   
3. The fresh juice and empanadas also on every corner. Although we can´t actually drink the juice.
   
4. Llamas.
5. People LOVE to dance here. All the time.
6. 80´s Kareoke Bars that have middle aged men singing their hearts out to Shakira and light up floors like the Michael Jackson music video.
7. Helado, helado, heladitos!!!! Icecream/frozen yogurt machines EVERYWHERE!
8. $2 Lunches or Almuerzos
9. Free T-Shirts.
10. Mojitos, although they could be considered diabetes inducing.
    
11. Peruvian flute bands, especially when they hop around with 4 ft. flutes.
12. Every store is a dollar store but has nice things.
13. The food. There is a lot of it. They like to eat.
14. Internet cafes are easy to find.
    

Dislikes:

1. Lack of toilet seats and toilet paper.
2. Sometimes you have to pay to use the bathroom.
3. Bathrooms in general.
4. Close calls at ´pedestrian crossing.´ We´re tired of almost being hit every time we cross the street.
5. People who laugh at you when they think you can´t speak Spanish, but you can.
6. Sharing a room with 10 people and several drunk girls and boys confuse your bed for their living space.
   
7. Re: Likes #2: You can´t find anything you need when you neeeeed it specifically.
8. Being overcharged because you have blue eyes, except we´re almost used to it.
   
9. Instant coffee when you know they export the good stuff.
10. Waiting a ridiculously long time for your drink/food; over 45 minutes. (This doesn´t happen all the time, only when Dana is really hungry.)
11. Having to calculate kilometers to miles to feet.
12. Most internet cafes, although everywhere, rarely have equipment that works.
13. No spell check on the computers, hence the mispellings in our blogs
14. Can´t breathe and dry skin
    

Composed by both Allison and Dana.

Day 44-49 La Paz and Death Road

La Paz, capital of Bolivia, the highest capital city in the world. Elevation, about 12,000 ft. It reminds Dana and I of New York. Everyone is in a hustle and bustle. There are kids handing out flyers, beggars asking for money, sky scrapers, and cars honking their horns at you as they come within 2 inches of hitting your legs, literally. Ok, so maybe that last one only happens in South American cities, but you get the idea. There is also security, police, or military personel on every corner which makes you feel very safe...or maybe not.

The other day, when we went to go buy our Death Road trip we passed lots of soldiers with shields and big guns. On down the street at another intersection there was a demonstration going on in the street. We kept walking to the Vertigo office. As we walked, we heard several loud claps in the distance. I think they were just firing into the air to scare off a crowd or something or possibly backfire from the cars. Later after booking our trip with Vertigo for the mountain bike trip down Death Road a man walked into the office. He looked homeless with no shoes and dirt in his arm hair. Later I noticed he had old, black tatoos all over his arms. He asked where we were from and said he was from New York and that he had been in the San Pedro prison in Bolivia for 11 years. You should know, they offer tours through the San Pedro prison because its very unique. You can probably look up some stats about it online but all I know is that lots of tourists take the tour and that you can even stay the night or several nights there. (It brings in money for the prison since its not run off tax dollars.) Its also the only prison that houses a cocaine factory inside. Anyway this man was promoting the tour and then asked if we would like to hear a joke in exchange for a bowl of soup. We didn´t say anything and he told the joke anyway, I wasn´t really listening because I thought he could be full of crap anyway. Tom, the guy that went with us to the Vertigo office gave hime the change in his pocket and we went on our happy way. This is just one of the days we had in Bolivia...

The Death Road bike ride was amazing! A van picked us up outside our hostel at 8 o´clock in the morning and we rode up to the top of the mountain where we began. We started at like 4,800 meters. They gave us an indtroduction and we put on our saftey gear, helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, and gloves and we off. The first part was an open flat road that we basically just coasted down...very fast! We took a couple of breaks to check the equipment and to take pictures. After about an hour we made it to the official Death Road. The road was still down hill but very bumby and narrow. It was so bumby that it jarred your whole body and made your hands hurt. We took several breaks and they gave us snacks along the way. Our guides were really cool and would come up quick beside you to take a snap shot or a video. We had a lot of laughs with these guys. There were waterfalls that we had to go under and corners to cut very closely and carefully. There were crosses all up and down the road for the people who had died doing ride. The view was amazing though. When you weren´t focused on keeping your bike straight you could look out and see the mountains forever. It was so clear and beautiful. We continued to descend from the top to the bottom and the terrain changed as well. It got hotter and hotter as we neared the bottom the forest around us turned to rainforest. The road opened up a little toward the end so it wasn´t so narrow and got a little flatter as well. Out whole group made it to the bottom of course and celebrated with an overpriced beer. (Still cheap though because you´re still in Bolivia.) After the celebratory beer we got back in the van, which had followed us down the whole way, and went to the hostel where we enjoyed a nice dip in the pool and some lunch. It was a long ride back up the mountain to La Paz that night but it was nice and slow. On the car ride back our guide told us the stats of the road and it turns out that about 27 people, tourist and guides, have died in the last 15 years and that about 200 people a year had died in cars and buses along that road. About 3 years ago they built a new road that is paved and is at least 2 lanes wide so the road we actually biked on isn´t used by many people much any more which is safer for everyone. Sadly, the most recent person to die riding down death road was our guide best friend who was also a guide. He died about 8 months ago doing the ride with a group, just like we had done today. Our guide didn´t cry but you could tell it was still very emotional. We walked away with a little more respect for the ride itself ater that story.

Overall, we had a great time. La Paz was definitely an experience that we´ll never forget.

Day 43: Puno to Bolivia

Every once in a while we forget we are in South America and then we have a day like today where there is no possible way to forget that fact. At 7am we woke up with Allison feeling quite ill and prepared for a day of traveling to Bolivia. The plan was to go to Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, then stay one night on the Isla del Sol before traveling to La Paz. However, the day did not go as planned.

We crossed the border to Bolivia with no problems, thank God. They didn´t have customs at the border, which we found slightly odd. We just carried our backpacks by foot across to the other side. When we arrived in Copacabana, we bought ferry tickets for the island. We had what we thought was about 4 hours to kill so we went to a cafe and had tea and soup. Then we decided it would be a good idea to pay for our bags to be locked up at a hostel, so we wouldn´t have to carry them up a ton of steps on the island. We headed to the port at 1:30 to catch the ferry, but it left an hour earlier. The man told us that it was 2:30, because Bolivia is one hour ahead of Peru. Someone failed to tell us this at the border, so we missed our chance to go to the Sun Island. Thats when we decided to get our bags and the money for them back. The lady at the hostel told us that there will be a strike the following day blocking all modes of transit. That is when we decided to hop on a bus to La Paz. The bus cost $2 USD for the three hour trip. The driver stopped for 30 minutes to change tires while we were all on the bus. It appeared that they were actually making the tires, but we tried not to think about it too much.

All in all we made it to La Paz at 7 in the evening and ate dinner at the hostel.

...this is how you know you are in South America!

Day 42: Lake Titicaca, Tequile Island and the floating islands

Our beds finally warmed up by the morning when we woke up to a bright and blue morning sky. Matilda prepared for us a breakfast of pancakes and hard boiled eggs. Every meal, the family had tea set out with fresh mint from thier garden. The mint did wonders with my sinus infection and cough. After breakfast we said goodbye to the family and headed onto the boat for Tequile Island.


Tequile Island maintains most of their culture from hundreds of years ago. When the Spanish came, they made the Incan people on the island wear particular clothes. The men wore black pants, a white shirt, black and white vest, and a white sash around their waist. The women wore skirts and blouses. Today you can see them wearing the same thing but with a bit more color. They also wear hats and head scarves that indicate their marital status. Men with red and white hats are single and men with red and blue hats are married. There is also a hat for men who are engaged to be married, but I dont remember what it looks like. Women who are single have colorful tassle things on the end of their scarves and if they are married, they are plain. I guess this is their form of wedding bands and cuts the small talk if you are looking for women in a bar.

On the Island we walked to main square then to the other side of the island where we ate lunch. The views of course are absolutely amazing. We ate trout for lunch then began the walk down 500 and something stairs to the port on the other side. We boarded the boat again to head back to Puno, stopping on the floating islands of Uros.


The floating reed islands are something out of this world. These people were the first inhabitants of Lake Titicaca sometime around the year 800. They were nomadic people who decided to build islands of the reeds on the lake. They stacked reeds about 1 meter thick then anchored them to the bottom of the lake. They built homes, boats, and everything they needed out of reeds. The people who live there today are the direct descendants of the first settlers and now use tourism as a source of extra income to send their children to school. They are completely self sufficient, trading with other families on the 50 floating islands. Each island holds about 7 families and if there is a conflict, the people just cut off the portion of the island their hut is on and float away.

A girl named Gina of about 16 years, showed us her home. Each hut has a bed in it that they share with one other person and hooks on the walls to hang their clothes. Gina was super sweet and told us she is studying to be a chef. The clothes are very bright and super thick. The clothes look funny on me because I just put them on top of everything I was already wearing. Gina showed us the fish farm and potato fields they had. Then we had a brief lecture on building the islands before we headed back to Puno. It is incredible seeing how these people have maintained a culture and way of living for so many years.

Day 41: Lake Titicaca, Amantani Island

We woke up to a raining and cloudy Puno this morning. A pedicab picked us up in front of our hostel at 7:30 in the morning with no top on it. The driver put a plastic tarp over our legs so they wouldn´t get wet but the rest of our bodies did. He swerved in and out of traffic while multi-tasking on the phone and talking to people on the streets. Needless to say, the ride to the port was an adventure in itself. At the port we met our guide Antonio and boarded a 25 person boat to Amantani Island. For the first hour of the boat ride, it rained very heavily and we could not see more than 20 feet out of the windows. Later on it cleared up giving us a view of the massive lake. It is so large that if you look in some directions, the lake dips off the curve of the earth, making the other side of the lake not visible. However, the boat itself could have not gone any slower, but after 3 hours on the boat we reached Amantani Island.



About 8 ladies from different families greeted the 25 people on the boat, including us. The women were wearing their traditional skirts, colorful blouses, and black head scarves. The tour group leaders split everyone up into different homes, leaving Allison, Antonio, and I to la casa de Matilda. Matilda graciously invited us into her home that had an incredible view of the lake. A view like that would cost millions in the United States. The family consists of the mother Matilda, her husband, and three boys. The two teenage boys are studying in Puno, so we were unable to meet them, but I really enjoyed the company of the 5 year old son (although I couldn´t understand him). They speak the language of the native Incan people, Quechua, as well as a little bit of Spanish. The house is very basic, with a courtyard in the middle, several rooms, and a small kitchen. Our room had two beds with plenty of blankets for the freezing cold nights. In the evenings, the home is powered by solar panels.

After we arrived, Matilda made us a lunch of soup, followed by rice, potatoes, tomatos, cucumbers and fried cheese. The people of Amantani, direct descendants of the Incans, are basically vegetarian, only eating meet at weddings or when one of their livestock passes on. Then after a little nap we began a hike up to the two peeks of the island, Pachatata (father earth) and Pachamama (mother earth). The Incans were believers in the balance between male and female. On the walk up we collected a rock for each peak to place in the wall of the temple. Local people are only allowed to enter the temple at the new year with the shaman for blessings, therefore we could only peek through the wooden gate. After placing our rock in the wall, we hiked over the other mountain to watch the sunset. The colors and clouds in the sky were absolutely beautiful over the lake. It started to get pretty chilly, so we put on our hats and headed to the house before dark. As we ate dinner as massive storm rolled over the island. The lightning and thunder were unreal, lighting up the entire sky. Then the rain turned into hail, beating on the tin roof so loud that we couldn´t even speak to each other. There was a party in the square we were all invited to but due to the storm, we could not attend. Instead we tried on the local clothes and took some pictures with Matilda. She was super nice and told us all about the clothes she wears everyday. We retired to bed quite early around 9pm and attempted to warm up our beds.

Day 40: Puno, Peru

We are here in Puno for one day before we head to the islands of Lake Titicaca tomorrow. On one of the islands, we will be staying with a Quechan family. It should be really interesting. After Lake Titicaca we are going to Bolivia, so we had to organize our visas at the Bolivian consulant here. One thing for sure is, they don´t make it easy for Americans to get into Bolivia. On top of paying to enter the country they need copies of documents as well as a picture of each of us a certain size. We ran back and forth from the consulant to the bank, to the photoshop and an internet cafe. Two hours later we handed in about 10 pieces of paper for a stamp on our passports. Quite exhausting; therefore we are going to relax for the rest of the day while I recover for a bit of a head cold. My body doesn´t like bounching from extreme humidity to an extremely dry climate at 3,800 meters.

Day 39: Cusco to Puno, Peru

Today was a traveling day, however we did it in style. We woke up and said good-bye to Cusco, our home away from home here in South America. It was really sad saying bye to Garnet, because I believe the three of us would be great friends if we only lived in the same country. But we put on a smile because we are seeing a whole new place the next day.

Allison and I booked a train from Cusco to Puno, Peru before we left the States. The train was really posh, with three course meals, free drinks, and entertainment. It was a bit over the top for backpackers considering we were the youngest people on the train. The train was 10 hours, but it doesn´t seem as long when you are free to walk around a bit. The back of the train had an observatory open to the air. They had live Peruvian music a couple of times throughout the trip. I had alpaca meat as an appetizer for lunch. It was actually quite nice. Lunch was served with wine, then they had afternoon tea a couple of hours later with champagne, cookies, and a small sandwich. Allison and I are low maintenance ladies, so the train as a different element we aren´t used to.