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.