After concluding our study in Potosi, Sara and I had the last week free to do some traveling and sightseeing. On Saturday July 4th, Sara and I had planned to take a day trip somewhere, since everyone else would be busy attending the wedding of one of the engineers from EIA. So we took a day trip to Tiwanaku, an ancient city of Aymaran origin that preceded the Inca empire. There, without paying for a guide, we had a fun time practicing our Spanish by trying to read and interpret the historical pamphlet.
Puerta del Sol (door to the sun)
On Sunday, we traveled with Rosi and her church to Lake Titicaca. It was a beautiful day, and we had a barbeque lunch, complete with a potato feast (with more than 12 kinds of potatoes!) outside. We then persuaded a local farmer to take the group out on a boat ride. Little did we know we would soon spend more time on a boat than we ever wanted to...
Since we had the whole week off and wanted to take a trip somewhere for a few days, we decided that we would leave on Monday for Peru to see Machu Picchu. At the bus station, we bought a ticket that left for Peru at 1:30 PM. The plan was for us to take a bus to Copacabana in Bolivia, go through immigration and customs there, continue for a couple hours on a bus to Puno, Peru, and then from Puno to take an overnight bus to Cusco, Peru and from there go to see Machu Picchu. The woman selling us the tickets told us that on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there would be no buses going from Bolivia to Peru, but today we should be fine and reach Cusco with no problems.
It turns out that the reason no buses could travel from Bolivia to Peru during those three days, was because of a 3-day blockade on transportation in Peru due to some ongoing political protests. Of course as tourists, we were not told about this until 10 PM, when the bus reached Puno, Peru, and the bus driver said we had to stop there for the night, because no one is allowed to drive anywhere starting at midnight. Many people started getting upset, because we would now be stuck in Puno for three days, without any way of continuing on to Cusco or turning back around to get back to Bolivia. The bus driver then told us that one option we had was to stay in a hostel in Puno that night, and take a boat leaving the next morning from Puno to go back to Copacabana in Bolivia. What we were first told would be a 4 hour boat ride, turned into a 12 hour adventure on Lake Titicaca...
In the morning, on our way to the boat, we were told that if anyone asked, we were to say that we were traveling to a place that sounded like Mantenilla, not Copacabana, since we were legally not allowed to be traveling anywhere, and especially not out of Peru. We felt very much like illegal refugees. We first stopped to see the beautiful Uros Islands. These islands are manmade floating islands of totora (straw, balsa material). Totora is a very important material on these islands, and is used for many purposes, such as building the distinctive boats, as well as brewing traditional medicines.
After spending about 8 hours on the boat, the sun began to set, and the captain realized that we would not make it to shore before nightfall. Since the Bolivian customs closed at 8:00 PM, it dawned on us that we would be spending one more night in Peru. Abandoning our plan to land the boat near the Bolivian border, the captain started calling people on shore to find a place to dock the boat. In order to signal in the dark, they started shining flashlights to people on shore, and every once in a while someone from shore would signal back to us with a flashlight. Each time this happened, the captain would cut the engine and attempt to row the boat to shore with a large paddle (this took about 20 minutes each time). Unfortunately, the first three times we had the wrong place, and after 20 minutes of rowing, we had move further down the shore and start all over again. On the fourth attempt, at around 10 PM, we finally managed to find a good place to land. There was no real dock, instead there was a pathway of rocks that led to shore. A Peruvian family had signaled to us from shore, and to help us land, they paddled out with a small rowboat and transported 4 people at a time from the boat to the small rock pathway in the water. We somehow managed to unload people and luggage from the boat in this manner onto the middle of pitch black (except for a small campfire) Peruvian farmland. We then took a mototaxi (similar to an autorickshaw) 2 people at a time to a rundown hostel 10 minutes away. In the morning, when customs re-opened, we took a taxi 15 minutes to the border, and were never so relieved to be returning to Bolivia.
On the boat, we met some nice people, a mother and daughter from Paraguay. We spent a lot of time chatting with them on the boat ride, and after finally reaching Copacabana, we spent the day there with them.
In Copacabana, there is a very beautiful church, and the tradition is that when one buys a new car, they must bring it there to have it blessed by a priest. People travel from all over Bolivia to bring their cars there, and then decorate them beautifully with flowers before showering it with rice, alcohol and burning firecrackers in celebration.
From Copacabana, Sara and I took another boat ride (much shorter this time) to see Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). This was a beautiful island with many resorts and breathtaking views of Lake Titicaca. We spent the day here before heading back to La Paz in the evening.
The day before our last day in Bolivia, we visited Valle de Luna (Moon Valley) in La Paz. This area is located in the southern part of the city (Zona Sur), and has many natural rock formations that look much like the Badlands in the western United States. It cost 15 Bolivianos for entrance (only 3 Bolivianos for Bolivian Nationals), and was a great experience! The terrain is very unique, and we felt very adventurous hiking along the rocky trails.
That night, our friends had a Despedida (farewell) party for us in Sue's new apartment. Afnan and Reszy cooked a delicious dinner of sushi and teriyaki chicken. I attempted to make brownies for dessert, but they ended up more like brownie cookies. I blame it on either the Bolivian brownie mix or the altitude.
We miss you guys!
Puerta del Sol (door to the sun)
On Sunday, we traveled with Rosi and her church to Lake Titicaca. It was a beautiful day, and we had a barbeque lunch, complete with a potato feast (with more than 12 kinds of potatoes!) outside. We then persuaded a local farmer to take the group out on a boat ride. Little did we know we would soon spend more time on a boat than we ever wanted to...
Since we had the whole week off and wanted to take a trip somewhere for a few days, we decided that we would leave on Monday for Peru to see Machu Picchu. At the bus station, we bought a ticket that left for Peru at 1:30 PM. The plan was for us to take a bus to Copacabana in Bolivia, go through immigration and customs there, continue for a couple hours on a bus to Puno, Peru, and then from Puno to take an overnight bus to Cusco, Peru and from there go to see Machu Picchu. The woman selling us the tickets told us that on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there would be no buses going from Bolivia to Peru, but today we should be fine and reach Cusco with no problems.
It turns out that the reason no buses could travel from Bolivia to Peru during those three days, was because of a 3-day blockade on transportation in Peru due to some ongoing political protests. Of course as tourists, we were not told about this until 10 PM, when the bus reached Puno, Peru, and the bus driver said we had to stop there for the night, because no one is allowed to drive anywhere starting at midnight. Many people started getting upset, because we would now be stuck in Puno for three days, without any way of continuing on to Cusco or turning back around to get back to Bolivia. The bus driver then told us that one option we had was to stay in a hostel in Puno that night, and take a boat leaving the next morning from Puno to go back to Copacabana in Bolivia. What we were first told would be a 4 hour boat ride, turned into a 12 hour adventure on Lake Titicaca...
In the morning, on our way to the boat, we were told that if anyone asked, we were to say that we were traveling to a place that sounded like Mantenilla, not Copacabana, since we were legally not allowed to be traveling anywhere, and especially not out of Peru. We felt very much like illegal refugees. We first stopped to see the beautiful Uros Islands. These islands are manmade floating islands of totora (straw, balsa material). Totora is a very important material on these islands, and is used for many purposes, such as building the distinctive boats, as well as brewing traditional medicines.
After spending about 8 hours on the boat, the sun began to set, and the captain realized that we would not make it to shore before nightfall. Since the Bolivian customs closed at 8:00 PM, it dawned on us that we would be spending one more night in Peru. Abandoning our plan to land the boat near the Bolivian border, the captain started calling people on shore to find a place to dock the boat. In order to signal in the dark, they started shining flashlights to people on shore, and every once in a while someone from shore would signal back to us with a flashlight. Each time this happened, the captain would cut the engine and attempt to row the boat to shore with a large paddle (this took about 20 minutes each time). Unfortunately, the first three times we had the wrong place, and after 20 minutes of rowing, we had move further down the shore and start all over again. On the fourth attempt, at around 10 PM, we finally managed to find a good place to land. There was no real dock, instead there was a pathway of rocks that led to shore. A Peruvian family had signaled to us from shore, and to help us land, they paddled out with a small rowboat and transported 4 people at a time from the boat to the small rock pathway in the water. We somehow managed to unload people and luggage from the boat in this manner onto the middle of pitch black (except for a small campfire) Peruvian farmland. We then took a mototaxi (similar to an autorickshaw) 2 people at a time to a rundown hostel 10 minutes away. In the morning, when customs re-opened, we took a taxi 15 minutes to the border, and were never so relieved to be returning to Bolivia.
On the boat, we met some nice people, a mother and daughter from Paraguay. We spent a lot of time chatting with them on the boat ride, and after finally reaching Copacabana, we spent the day there with them.
In Copacabana, there is a very beautiful church, and the tradition is that when one buys a new car, they must bring it there to have it blessed by a priest. People travel from all over Bolivia to bring their cars there, and then decorate them beautifully with flowers before showering it with rice, alcohol and burning firecrackers in celebration.
From Copacabana, Sara and I took another boat ride (much shorter this time) to see Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). This was a beautiful island with many resorts and breathtaking views of Lake Titicaca. We spent the day here before heading back to La Paz in the evening.
The day before our last day in Bolivia, we visited Valle de Luna (Moon Valley) in La Paz. This area is located in the southern part of the city (Zona Sur), and has many natural rock formations that look much like the Badlands in the western United States. It cost 15 Bolivianos for entrance (only 3 Bolivianos for Bolivian Nationals), and was a great experience! The terrain is very unique, and we felt very adventurous hiking along the rocky trails.
That night, our friends had a Despedida (farewell) party for us in Sue's new apartment. Afnan and Reszy cooked a delicious dinner of sushi and teriyaki chicken. I attempted to make brownies for dessert, but they ended up more like brownie cookies. I blame it on either the Bolivian brownie mix or the altitude.
We miss you guys!
