Eden and Josh

It's nice to be back in Peru. As chaotic as it is, it is still more chilled than Bolivia.

From La Paz, Bolivia, Josh and I headed to Puno, Peru. Puno is right on the shore of Lake Titicaca. One of the main attractions there, besides the lake itself, are the floating Uros Islands of the Uro people. This indigenous group many years ago were in constant threat of Incan attacks, not to mention the Spanish later on. They had always used tortora reeds for making boats but they decided, to be safe, they would make huge floating reed islands, far from the shores of Lake Titicaca, and live on them. They have lived that way since then even though there are no "pure" Uros left. Every year they pile new reeds on top of their islands as the ones on the bottom rot away.

The Islands were so interesting to visit. Walking on them was soft and springy. The children there will probably never experience a scraped knee! Many Islands contained just one extended family and they rely heavily on tourist dollars now for survival. Many inhabitants sell handicrafts and rides in their reed boats and the children sing songs for tips and candy.

After Puno, we headed to Arequipa for a second time. It is a nice city where you can buy a huge plate of Chinese food for just over a dollar! That wasn't our main reason for returning, however. We wanted to hike in the Colca Canyon -2nd deepest canyon in the world and more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States! Our trek was only three days in total. The first day we hiked deep into the canyon and slept in a small village. The villagers grow lots of fruit that cannot be grown outside of the canyon because of the altitude and colder climate. The second day we hiked to the bottom of the canyon to a glorious oasis! We swam and relaxed in the sun -but only until about 3:30pm-afterwhich the sun disappeared behind the canyon walls! That night, we left the oasis at about 3am to start the long hike UP and OUT of the canyon! We got to the top in time to watch the sunrise. After that, we took a bus to a part of the canyon (Cruz del Condor) where we watched the huge condors playing in the up-drafts from the canyon. It was amazing how close the condors came to us while soaring by.

From Arequipa, we headed to Ica and then the near-by oasis of Huacachina. It is a relatively small oasis completely surrounded by HUGE sand dunes. We spent a couple of lazy days there hanging out by the pool and walking on the dunes. It was such a nice change from the cold weather we were used to. After a couple of days, we headed back to Ica and took a boat tour around the Ballesta Islands. There we saw tons of birds, including Humboldt penguins and pellicans, and lots of sea lions relaxing in the sun. It was a great tour of what is also referred to as the "poor man's Galapagos".

Needing to keep on keeping on, we headed for Lima. Winter in Lima means coastal fog! Even though it is only about 9 degrees from the equator, it was a cool 15-18 degrees during the day and foggy foggy foggy! It was strange to be in a desert that was so muggy! We enjoyed our time there and basically just pigged out the whole time. Because we hadn't had North American food for a while and figuring we wont be in a big, international city like that for another long while, we justified our binge. We ate at Pizza Hut, had massive sandwiches at TGI Friday's, ribs at Tony Roma's and Cinnabons for lunch! We left with our arteries a little more clogged and a few pounds heavier but happily satiated by American food

Ohhh boy...we are getting behind in the blog again!

While our lungs were still trying to recover from the mines in Potosi, we boarded a bus to Sucre. Sucre is a very nice city with lots of colonial architecture. Many of the buildings are made of a sparkly white stone that is almost blinding during the day. We had a nice time exploring the city and we also went to a near-by town, Terabuco, for their famous Sunday market. Josh and I ended up buying a beautifully woven "manta" which is a large blanket/shawl that the women of Bolivia and Peru wear for warmth.

After Sucre, we headed for Cochabamba...mostly because we liked the name! The buses from Sucre to Cochabamba only run at night for some reason so we had no choice but take another exhausting night bus. This one was special though. One of our fellow passengers was a monkey! The monkey didn't get his own seat though. Neither did the 4 kids behind us trying to sit on their parent's laps but mostly who kicked our seats and pulled our hair. On the way out of town, there were these big groups of men trying to get on the bus. We had no extra seats but the bus driver did allow two police officers on who were transporting a convict out of town and he also opened the luggage compartments so that a man and his son could ride under the bus! The bus had no bathroom, but it did stop once in a small town. This town didn't have a public bathroom so I had to squat and pee on the road like the other women were doing. The huge Bolivian skirts are perfect make-do shelters for street peeing. Too bad I wasn't wearing one. The girl with the monkey bought it some dinner from the small restaurant. It ate its dinner from the plate and drank from the cup, then the restaurant lady just wiped the plate lightly and served up the next customer! Haha. During the trip, I became extremely nauseated. I couldn't get out of my window seat fast enough since Josh was asleep in the aisle seat and I was boxed in by the reclined seat in front of me, so I had no choice but to wrench open the window as far as it would go and let it fly. Of course, the open window was not directly beside me so I was also leaning way over the sleeping lady in front of me. She didn't seem to notice though...maybe she just thougt it was a bad dream. The bus pulled in to Cochabamba at 4:30 am! The station was in a very sketchy neighbourhood so rather than wander around in the dark, looking for a place to stay, we decided to stay in the crowded bus station until sun-up.

Cochabamba is not especially attractive but we spent a few nice days wandering the streets and basking in the warm weather. We also got to check out a few hostals and hotels because the first one we stayed at had bed bugs. Oh bed bugs, we meet again.

We headed back to La Paz en-route to Peru and stayed another couple of nights. We ended up buying more presents/souvenirs and mailed another large package home. Let's hope it makes it home!

July 16th was Josh's and my 6th wedding anniversary! We hopped a bus from Uyuni to Potosi and celebrated at a posh Bolivian restaurant. Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4060m altitude. Because of the altitude, it is very cold, there is amost no vegetation and no hope of any kind of agriculture. Why do people live here, you may ask? FOR THE SILVER!

During the colonial times, Potosi used to be the richest city in South America. The mountains were filled with pure silver. The Spanish used millions of Bolivians and black and indian slaves to mine the silver. It is estimated that over 8 milions workers died in the horrific working conditions. These silver mines bank-rolled Spain for hundreds of years.

Today, most of the pure silver is gone but there is still a lot of composite - silver, lead and zinc alloys. The mines are co-operative mines which means the miners work for themselves rather than an outside company. They haul out tons of rock themselves and sell it to refineries that separate the minerals and pay the miners based on how much of each mineral the rocks contained.

Josh and I took a tour of one of the biggest mines. The working conditions were shocking! The men and boys work in this mine where the temperatures are sweltering and there is almost no air to breathe. What air there is, is so full of dust that most of the miners die a very early death from lung problems. We wore bandanas over our mouths but even still, after less than 2 hours in the mine, we were completely hoarse.

Because these mines are co-operatives, the miners must buy all their own supplies, such as dynamite and shovels, and decide where to blast and tunnel. These tunnels are not built or approved by engineers so the younger miners depend on the experience of the oldest men to prevent cave-ins and to find the mineral veins.

The working conditions were appaling, however, most men in this city are miners because there are few other jobs and mining tends to pay a little better than other jobs. One miner told us that most of them have 6 plus kids and even working in the mine does not earn them enough to support their families, so many boys have to work as well. The miners also feel abandoned by the government who refuses to build them a smelting plant. As a result, they must sell their silver powder at a very low price to Chile where it is smelted into a useable product which Bolivia must then buy back at a very high price.

Potosi is a very nice city but unfortunately its hay-day is over and as the mountains run out of silver, I'm sure it will eventually become a ghost town.

After La Paz, Josh and I headed straight for Uyuni with a brief stop in the small city of Oruro. Uyuni itself is a cold and dusty town but it is famous for the Salar near-by. The Salar is the largest salt flat in the world at almost 11000km2.

We checked out lots of agencies offering trips and most seemed pretty similar. We chose one almost at random and set out for our 3-day jeep trip the next morning with 2 men from Germany and a French couple.

The trip was beautiful and the scenery was stunning, however, we witnessed a horrific jeep accident on the Salar that prevents me from raving about the experience. Another jeep of tourists that we were following flipped. Three of the passengers died quite soon after the accident. The other 4 were bady injured and we (other tourists stopped to help) tried to take care of them until the ambulance came. After 3 hours the ambulance/police still hadn't shown up so the injured had to be transported back to town in jeeps. One woman died later. It was a terrible tragedy and one that could have been prevented if the jeeps had only had seat belts. The lack of an emergency respose was also shocking and makes us both sick with regret for the 4 lost lives.

Hurray! We've been in Bolivia for a week now and we haven't had to bribe any government officials or law enforcers yet!

We arrived in Copacabana, a small city on the coast of Lake Titicaca on July1st. There were some American's on the bus with us and they had to pay $130 USD in order to enter the country! I wouldn't even come here If I were American! We were given only a 30 day visa, instead of the 90 day one we were supposed to be entitled to because they wanted us to pay for the extra days. Just par for the course here. Too bad Bolivia, we will be gone by 30 days and you will miss out on the tourist money.

As soon as our bus entered Copacabana, a man came aboard and made everyone pay admission to the town because it is a "sanctuary". Copacabana is a touristy town, but pleasant enough. There are tons of trout restaurants that grill them up any way you like. They farm trout in Lake Titicaca so there seems to be no shortage of the fish. One of the main things people do from Copacabana is hop a boat to Isla del Sol. It is an island about 10km or so long, with some inhabitants and some Inca ruins. We took the boat over to the South side of the island in the morning and the ride took close to two hours. As soon as we stepped off the boat there were men selling admission tickets to the island for "conservation" purposes. Of course, as soon as they sold you the ticket, they ripped it and threw the other half on the ground. Hmmmm, yes, conservation!

We explored the south end a bit and visited the ruins of the Temple of the Sun. This also required an admission ticket. Then we started to walk to the north side of the island. Following the foot path ALSO required an admission ticket. The walk to the north took about 3 hours in total and we got to see some nice views of the lake and some more ruins. Once on the north end, we looked for a place to stay. There are fewer inhabitants in the north compared to the south, but we found a clean room to rent for the night. We also had a wonderful dinner in a woman's house.

The next morning we got up early and started our walk back to the South side. We made it there with plenty of time to catch the morning boat back to Copacabana. Lake Titicaca was beautiful but we were a little let down because you hear so much about this particular lake, but in reality, most of our lakes in Canada are much more beautiful! Also, we try not to use our lakes as garbage dumps anymore, but that is still the norm for Titicaca. Too bad.

Back in Copacabana, we hopped a bus to La Paz. La Paz is built in a huge crater. The poorer you are, the higher up on the hill you live where it is colder and there is less oxygen. It was quite a stange phenomenon to witness on the bus -entering the high slums and descending into more affluent areas. La Paz is not a particularly nice city, and the car exhaust is enough to kill you, but we were told it was a good place to buy and mail souvenirs. So, we have spent much of the last few days shopping for presents for our families which we will mail off tomorrow. It has been pretty fun especially since we hadn't bought ANYTHING yet on our trip because our bags are too heavy. We've also checked out a few interesting museums while we've been here and the "Valle de la Luna" which is an area with interesting land formations near the city.