Peru to La Paz, Bolivia

I am having the hardest time trying to upload photos. Hopefully one of these days I can get some up!

While I was figuring out where I should go next in Cusco, I recieved an email from Rob and Katie Hart, a brother and sister who I worked with at Lake OHara. They are visiting their dad who lives in Lamay, a small town in the Sacred Valley, Peru. The email invited me to stay at their place if I was passing through the area. Ends up, I was only an hour away! The next afternoon I jumped on a bus to Lamay and spent a night and day with them. Their dad works in Peru installing water filters to homes, schools, and clinics within small Peruvian communities. He moved here with his wife and two kids. The wife volunteers at the local clinic and the kids, 11 and 13, go school in a larger town, 15 minutes away. It was so nice to see some familiar faces and stay in a comfortable house...a nice break from hostels and tents. The next day, Katie, Rob and I hiked up to some Inka ruins which were not quite as spectacular as Machu Picchu, but almost as cool because we were the only people up there!

That evening I bused back to Cusco, met up with Larissa, the Canadian girl I was traveling with, and headed to the bus station to take an overnight bus to Copacobana, Bolivia. The boarder crossing was very easy and relaxed...walk in, stamp, walk out, jump back on the bus. We arrived in Copacobana around noon, found a hotel to stay in (we met up with two Aussie guys and were able to get a 4 bed room). Copacobana is a small town on Lake Titicaca, the largest, highest lake in the world. The town is quite toursity but a nice, relaxing place to stay.

That afternoon we decided to go fishing in the lake. The four of us, as well as three English we met in our hotel, hired a boat to take us. To our surprise, we ended up at a fish farm! The boat pulled up to a floating wicker island that had nets of fish off of it for people to ¨catch¨. The people gave us rods - sticks with string tied to the end with a hook and bait - and instructed us to fish into the nets. Within no time we had caught 4 fish. We later found out we had to pay and extra 10 bolivianos (about $1.50) per fish caught, plus another 10bs, each, to cook the fish. As dissapointing the fishing trip was, it was a hilarious experience!

The next day, Larissa and I parted ways with the Aussie guys, and decided to boat out to Isla del Sol for the night. This island is even more relaxed than Copacobana. We spent the day hiking around the island, reading, and catching up writing in our journals. Early the following morning, we took the ferry back to Copacobana, then hoped on the bus to La Paz.

La Paz is the capital city of Bolivia. It fills an entire valley surrounded by rugged, barren mountains. At an elevation of almost 4000m, it is the highest city in the world. I had the intention of staying here for a week to take some spanish classes, but within a day, I knew I didn´t want to stay in the big city for an extended period of time. Yesturday, I went to something called ¨Cholitas Wrestling¨. I was told it is some kind of traditional women´s wrestling. Ended up being the Bolivian version of the WWF, and not only was it just men fighting men, but the men also fought women, dressed in ¨traditional¨clothes. The men were all wearing hilarious spandex and tacky costumes with awfull masks. I am definitely not into the wrestling scene, especially WWF-style, but it was pretty entertaining. The best part was watching how worked up crowd got and how seriously they took the event. As fake as the entire thing was, I cannot say I enjoyed watching the women get ¨beat up¨by the men.

Today is my lasy day in La Paz. I am going to take an overnight bus to Sucre and hopefully start volunteering right away. I would also love to take some Spanish classes while I am there as well. I am looking forward to having some more ¨purpose¨to the trip.