la paz, bolivia

our breakfast normally looks like something like this... market food and instant coffee. i have struggled, with finding some decent coffee. ...the tough life of travellers ;)

la paz is busy. oh so busy. you have to know, it is like you can barely cross the street busy (worse than arequipa). there is so many people! but hey, we were blessed with a beautiful day, the way on the bus was also beautiful.

we walked around. market, markets, marketsss everywhere. plaza stops to breathe. lots of street food. good street food.

...and bus rides through the market. every two minutes someone would get inside the bus trying to sell stuff like, lables with shakira's face, imported pilot pens (top-quality!), or ice cream. it was going so slow, because of the traffic and all the people, that they would just get on and off. but it felt good. to be there. in the middle of the cahos... all the people, all the smells. spices, food, dust and smoke. asking the people on the bus for direction, trying to understand eachother, because, there is this huge language barrier for us in bolivia, i dont know why, but it is there. ...and when people learn that we are all from different countries, their faces either lit up, or show confusion. "puerto rico!? ...where is that?!?" and then when i say, responses are either related to costa rica, or to reggaeton, or they say, "so pretty puerto rico!" or "that is so far!". experiences with people.

walk and talk and run and laugh and eat. that was la paz, for a day and a half.

copacabana

the whole town was dancing in the streets. it was the last day of the carnaval, and as soon as the bus got in the main plaza, we heard the live music.

 

and i can say this, copacabana knows how to party. 

 

we walked to our hostel, took a very well deserved shower (after taking a 10hr bus ride and later being in the islands for two days), and we went out for some street food. the border brought us together, germany, peru, new zeland and puerto rico had a carnaval  to experience. there was a lot of cumbia and peruvian music to be danced with a lot of people!

the next day we went to the market to get some fruit, bread and veggies for breakfast and we found everything but bread. apparently, the breadmakers (that is probably not a word...) are the ones that run the party because everyone we asked for bread said that they were probably still drunk.

we strolled down the main (touristy) street down to the lake and found out about a mirador and decided to walk up to it.

half way through, we met a friend from chile (who took the picture below)... and had one of those more than half hour long conversations about the political situation of puerto rico and how it relates to that person's country and the rest of latin america. yes, those happen a lot, and it is awesome.

 

we kept walking up to the mirador and i could not get over what a beautiful day it was. seriously. really warm, sunny and relaxing day.   ...well, the walk was not that relaxing at 3800m above sea level, but you know.

one of my friends is a mountain guide in peru, so going down, we decided to take the non–paved way with no trail (of course) ...slowly but steady, (only me with the slowly) we got back down to the lake.

 

someone told my friend about a trail to see el sapo (the frog), whatever that was, we decided to go. this part had a trail, and part of the walk was under the shadow of really tall and beautiful pines, as if we were somewhere else.(sorry but no picture!). 

getting close to el sapo, it smelled like insence and burnt eucalyptus...

there is a big rock, that when loked at from the side, looks like a frog. local shamans practice a ritual where they burn inscence and other things so that the person being "blessed" have prosperity. also, the person buys a bottle of cider and throws it in the mouth of the sapo as an offering.

no... i did not pay for any of it. instead, i took my shoes off, sat down on the edge of the little pier, put my feet in the fresh but cold water and lived that moment, eyes closed and sun in face. 

starving, we walked back to the center looking for some authentic food. apparently, 4pm is too late for lunch and too late for dinner. so, the only place we found, that actually had food, was an "authentic" mexican food place called nimbo. [living in sothern california and having been to mexico, i thing i can recognize authentic mexican, but hey, they had wifi and board games, and yes, tasty food. :)

after dinner, our friend bought some beers and we sat at the edge of the lake to watch the sunset. magic i tell you.

lago titikaka

everything happens for a reason. at least that is what i tell myself everytime i loose something, like a sock or my sunglasses or a bus. you know, normal stuff like that.

yes, i missed my bus to puno from cusco because i was distracted having too much fun with new friends. but hey, everything happens for a reason. a week after i missed my bus, i am sure about it.

i made some friends in cusco that were so kind to let me tag along and travel with them to puno. we arrived at 5AM and when the sun came up, after some tea and instant coffee, we went straight to the port to find someone to take us to the islands in lake titikaka.

uros island
these are floating islands, we stopped at (most likely) the smallest one. they built the islands with some floating blocks and plants. they have been living in the lake since before the inkas and used to be really good fishermen and now they live mostly off of tourism. tourist trap? ...it kinda felt like that.

 

amantani island
in this island we stayed with a local family. the island has about 4,000 people and people have also been living there since before the incas. they still use the agricultural terraces system to grow corn and potatoes mostly. we just chilled, went down to the lake with the little girl that lived in the house, took a nap, ate, drank muña tea that we picked up from the yard... relax.

 

 

 

taquile island
this was a short trip around the island. the boat left us on one side and picked us up on the other side... the island is beautiful and has awesome views, but i think it would be better to stay there and relax. we walked for about three hours (...30 min stop at the main plaza) and reached the boat to go back to puno.

 

  

crossing the border into bolivia
there were 7 other people that wanted to cross the border into bolivia the same day that we got to puno. some of them had very similar travel plans, so i decided to follow them. the bus to copacabana was supposed to sail at 2:30pm and we got to the port at 2:20pm. impossible task.

someone had heard that we could take like a colectivo... or micro... or something like that, a smaller bus to copacabana. so we all walked to the non-fancy bus terminal, the one the locals take, and got a small bus that would take us to the border. win. :)

 

i got some pesos bolivianos ...paid the reciprocity fee to get into bolivia... pfft... and there we were! we tell the driver to drive us into town and one of the first things he said was: copacabana!? they have carnaval today!

 yes, we crossed the border :)

cusco

first day
i arrived cusco at 6:30am after a 10 hour bus trip. no hostel. no map. no plan. i just knew i was not going to machu pichu, been there. right before leaving my hostel in arequipa, the awesome lady at the front desk gave me an address for a hostel, and that worked.
there is a free walking tour. walking, remember i just came from colca? well, this tour was 3 1/2 hours of walking, getting an idea of how to walk the city, getting free stuff and having people try to convince you to buy stuff. i sat in plaza regocijo for about an hour, waiting for the tour, coffee in hand, watching the people. the sun started to come out and there was some blue in the sky. thankfully, raining season does not mean that it rains every day. there was blue, and i was glad.

we were taken to learn about alpahaca and llama wool.


 we went to the chocolate museum. peru is one of the biggest exporter of cacao (supposedly a quechua word). we got to try some choco and some tea made up of the nip of the cacao seed. de.li.cious. :)

at the fine arts school i learned some inca history. about how both men and women were warriors. about how Mamahuca, a woman, kicked a priest on the chest, took out his lung with her bare hands, earned respect (or fear) for the incas and conquered cusco. badass and scary.

then we ate some causa. mashed potatoes, chicken, mayo, avocado,chile and an egg half. the women in Lima used to sell it for "the cause", hence the name. la causa was helping the bolivian and peruvian soldiers during the war against chile.

after the tour i kept walking around and ended up in barrio san blás, the artisans barrio, overlooks the city of cusco, where, appart from the view, i found some interesting fence protection. ;)

second day
i woke up early(ish) to visit the cathedral becuase people have told me how amazing it was, so despite being reluctant to visit churches, after 6months in europe, i went.  here is a picture of the outside, with me covering it... they didn't let me in because i didn't want to pay 25soles. no sir.

i spent the day visiting inca ruins ouside cusco (another post) and ended up back in town. i am amazed at how many people are out on the plazas and the streets. walking, playing, eating. people are out! on a thursday!!!

i had been trying to visit the san pedro market but both times i get there too late. so, this time I tried some anticuchos. pinchos (in puertorrican). instead of a bread, they have a potato on top! 2 soles = less than $1 for some little deliciousnessss.

third day
lazy day. i-just-want-to-chill day. but i am in cusco... and i have to do something.

so i tried, i went to the market to get some fruit and breakfast. i met lucy, older peruvian lady from the valley that thaught me what a granadilla is.

 it is like passion fruit, but sweeter. good stuff. we talked for like 20 minutes, lucy is my friend now. we talked about the pope quitting, the meteorite that didn´t kill us, peruvian celebrities gossip, her story, about her son and my own story.. i went back to talk to lucy three times . yes, she was my friend. :)  i was supposed to leave to puno on a night bus, so she gave me oranges and bannanas for the road. sweet lucy.

still hungry, i kept walking, looking for some breakfast... and either i was late or people eat chicken [especifically hen in this case] soup for breakfast. shady looking spot, but such a nice lady. whatever, i said to myself, it smells delicious and i am eating this. chicken soup, well made.

later i went to two museums, bought a book about peruvian socialism, walked in the rain, got lost around the city and found my wat back with no map, went back to talk to lucy and eat more 4soles goodness.

like i said, i was supposed to get on a bus to puno, and of course, i made some friends... and ended up missing my bus. fun stuff. ;) i ended up doing some more hiking and eating and sleeping, chill cusco. about three days later, i must say, it is what was supposed to happen. you will agree when i share what is going on.

i like this. the sharing with you. :)

inka ruins: aroung cusco and sacred valley

no tour this day. there are a million tours to visit the inka ruins around cusco and the sacred valley... and of course, i wanted to do it on my own. you know, to take my time, get lost, freak out, get some rain, calm down, walk more than the rest and have fun.

pisac:
i took a taxi, that took me to a bus that took me to the town of pisac, where i would later take another taxi to take me to the ruins. pisac is famous for its market, and guess what, same as all the markets in cusco, but over-prized. 18soles for lunch!? no thanks, where is the real market?

for 4soles (less than $2) i ate soup and frijoles (beans), rice and ribs. :)

up in the ruins, i had no map of the citadel but a police officer offered to be my guide! david, yes, read it in english, that is how he introduced himself. the citadel had many terraces for agriculture where on the bottom they would plant corn and on the top, potatoes. the temperature difference was that much.



these are inka showers or baths

the nicer buildings were for the royalty or important people and for sacred places. (look at the difference between these two.)



at this point, david had to go back. he said that the trail would take me directly into the city of pisac so i kept walking. of course there were many trails, and i started following my instinct. i walked downhill for about 20 minutes until i reached a dead end. it was raining and i was 2970m above sea level (masl), so going back up was not very appealing. but i did, i started walking. after about 15 minutes, when i was already out of breath and freaking out, the inka gods sent a young couple that was heading to pisac. (yay!) 

 so we walked for about an hour, downhill, my knee screaming for help (remember colca?) but i was so happy for not being lost!

so happy, even if it was raining, even crossing the little bridge, even going down the ladder on a terrace,dear friend, i was happy.

tambomachay:
the rain kept coming, more intensely, but hey, i need to maximize the use of my time and i am here already! tambomachay is two quechua words that mean temple of water. here, the inka had their baths stricted to noble people. i could not keep up to the pool because of the rain. :(

but i ran into some llamas, or alpahacas?

 

puka pukara:
the name of this place means red fort... but there are different theories whether it was a castle, a sacred place or a hunting lodge. 

 

i smiled a lot here. it has an awesome view of the valley, there were birds singing (they are everywhere), wild flowers... i don't know what this place was, but i smiled a lot here... it is as if i need to keep reminding myself that this is real, that i am doing this, because let me tell you, this kind of freedom and excitement, it feels unreal.

so, to add more cheesyness and a bad picture to the story, as i hopped on a bus all wet and cold and smiley, a rainbow showed up by the ruins. let's talk about happy sandrita ;)

saqsayhuamán:
the bus was taking me to cusco, until i realized that the sun was coming out and saqsayhuamán was on the way. "hey chofer! can you stop by the ruins!?" we had already past them, so i walked uphill just for about 15minutes. let me tell you, it was worth it. like many inka complex, saqsayhuamán is built with rock from 15 to 30 km away, and they are huge! they were built with only natural rope, stone hammers and bronze chisels.

  

i walked for about an hour, slowly but steady. while walking, i found a flower. what a flower, because almost every men that walked by me, asked me if someone gave it to me, or if i give flowers to myself. ...well, of course i give flowers to myself, and pretty ones. 

it was a great tour-less day. a really great one, rain and all.