Lake Titicaca!! Puno, Copacbana, and La Paz, Bolivia
Goodbye Peru! We will miss you, and I will most certainly miss my preciosa camera I left in your care.
And away we go... We decided to take a guided tour bus called the Inka Express ($55 US, and that´s mucho dinero for us measly backpackers!!) from Cusco to Puno on Lake Titicaca. Yay for us, another 10 hour bus ride, only this time there was an amusing little twist.We pre-booked this tour bus several days ahead and willingly agreed be up at 5:00am on December 26. At the time this seemed like a a very plausible situation. However, we didn't foresee the shenanigans we were about to delve into on Christmas night.  Let's just say there was a copious amount of celebrating going on with Team Locas Bananas on that lovely Christmas night. Want to hear a joke???? Two girls, I'll call them Aesha and Samantha, wake up at 5:00am. They are hungover, disoriented and reeking of red wine and Lomo Saltado (meat dish in Peru). They take turns abusing the bathroom then somehow manage to get on a 100% family packed tour bus. There are two French children already shrieking and kicking the backs of their seats at full force, the tour guide sounds as if she is in a world's loudest guide competition...and they haven't even pulled out of the terminal yet!!!...The punchline....the children bellowed and kicked for 10 hours straight. When Aesha finally got up enough nerve to politely ask the impudent child to stop kicking her chair we were accosted by her father. He came up to Aesha, hysterical brat in tow, and howled with his repugnant French accent "You are a grumpy, mean, lady!!!! Look, you made my little daughter cry!! You are mean and you should be ashamed of yourself!" It took everything I had not to punch that man in the mouth. 

Traditional Bowler Hats that Bolivian women wear

         The day was long and laborious, but the tour was fascinating and we made several stops along the way to Puno. It was the day after Christmas but the celebrations were still in full force. 

Gorillas!!! Run!!!

 We were lucky enough to get to see a proper Bolivian festival in Sucani. It was a barrage of colors, costumes, unique dances and foods. It was quite the site to see. The people moved in unison to beating drums and rhythmic percussion.

Bolivian Christmas Celebration

 It was dazzling and put huge smiles on our faces...even though we are mean, grumpy ladies! 
    Our next stop was Raqchi "Temple of Wiracocha". This temple was built by the Inca to honor a superior God that was invisible to the Inca people. It's quite impressive!

Raqchi "Temple of Wiracocha"

Best damn fried chicken in the universe!!

    We arrived in Puno late that evening and had an impossible time finding a cab. It was pouring rain (of course), we were starving, and the relentless car horns were only adding to our already pulsating heads. Somehow we managed to arrive at our "Hotel". Puno is a port town and offers nothing really to tourists except for a Disneylandish experience of so-called "Floating Reed Islands and Reed People" on Lake Titicaca. We opted out of that tourist trap and instead walked the lackluster city. I even stopped at a street food stand and ate fried chicken. Dangerous on my stomach, perhaps..delicious in my mouth...absolutely!! We even experienced a carnival of sorts. We actually laughed out loud at the site of this. I'm not sure I even have the words to describe the hilarity of what we experienced at this carnival, maybe the picture can explain it better.

Anyone want to go for a ride??

Oh how I wish he would let me drive this thing!!!

                 We wanted to experience Lake Titicaca from the Bolivian side because quite frankly the lake looks disgusting in Puno. It's full of trash and smells like the elephant exhibit at the zoo. No worries for us though, we heard many amazing things about Copacabana, Bolivia...and we all know the song right??? At the Copa...Copacabana...It just sounds fun!!!
     Crossing the Puruvian/Bolivian border was a disaster but as always...we pulled through. We are Savvy Nomads, verdad??? As Americans, we were given an extremely difficult time obtaining visas, while travelers of other nationalities breezed on through immigration. Americans are the only ones who have to pay $135 US dollars for a Visa, obtain a Yellow Fever vaccine (we lied about that one...oops), and give copies of our credit cards, places we were to stay in Bolivia and blah blah blah... For those of you that know some Bolivian history, you understand why we encountered these obstacles. For those of you who don't, no need to worry, I'll provide a brief explanation later about the history and the anti-American sentiment we were slapped across the face with daily while in Bolivia, but for now....Vamos a la playa!!!!

Frutas delicioso!!

    Copacabana was a perfect reprieve for us. It's a cozy little beach town with a hippy vibe. Laid back, sunny, great food and cheap wine. What more can a girl ask for?? (Actually, my boyfriend would be nice, but that's way too much to ask for. Love and miss you Kenny!!)

Copacabana!!!! It´s sunny! Yay!

We relaxed, shopped, walked the town and planned our much anticipated trip to La Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun), on Lake Titicaca. We decided on a boat trip that would drop us off on north of the island and pick us up on the south side 6 hours later, leaving it up to us to hike the 6.5 miles across the island. Wow, what a wondrously spectacular hike. Our jaws dropped around every corner. The photos never seem to do the scenery justice. This hike was superb in every way.

Isle del Sol

Tripod and self timer...genius!

It was a radiant, brilliant day...perfect hiking conditions. The hike across the island offered sweeping panoramic views of Lake Titicaca and the surrounding islands. We encountered several types of animals along the way: llamas, alpacas, pigs and their cute little piglets, wild dogs, cats, donkeys, dragons, monkeys, mermaids...hahaha still paying attention???


                            An awesome element about traveling with your best friend is the memories you make together. Sure, I can blog my face off... but the memories we make; those times when we just look at each other, our ability to speak taken away by the sheer beauty of our surroundings and the feeling that someone else on earth has just shared that moment with you is priceless. Thank you Aesha for being such an amazing travel partner!!!

So serene!!!

Lions and tigers... Oh my!!

OK, it's obvious, we freaking loved Copacabana and
Isle del Sol. We even got to ride lions and tigers...so what if they were stuffed...they were real to us and that's all that matters!!!
We each cried a single tear upon leaving our beloved beach town behind. I could have stayed there for months. But the trip must go on and we headed to La Paz, Bolivia, the biggest (and one of the poorest) cities in Bolivia. We weren't sure what to expect, but I'll be honest, nothing prepared me for what we got...
    I consider myself to be well traveled and have experienced a bounty of reactions to my US Citizenship in the 39 countries I have visited, however, I have never been met with such genuine disgust and hateful sentiment as I have received in La Paz, Bolivia.
     We arrived on New Years Eve and the city was a bustling mess of people. The traffic made rush hour in Chicago seem like the Autobahn. We are staying in a hotel...ish in the ghetto, and when we asked the cab driver to take us to the " Hotel Milton" he actually laughed and said "Hotel Milton...not the Hilton!!!" He claimed that due to the festivities he could only drop us near our hotel...near????...Oh shizer...what have we gotten ourselves into????
Our entire street was one gargantuan market chalked full of a superabundance of fruits and vegetables, flowers, alcohol, dead llama fetuses (yup, you heard me right), raw beef and chicken carcasses, spices, tools, clothing, knock off this and thats, and it smelled atrocious!!! We meandered our way through the snakelike markets until we arrived at The Milton.
 I smiled at each and every person along the way and did not receive a single smile back. What is going on here? It's an extremely uncomfortable feeling to be met back with frowns and blank stares and my uneasiness grew as the the last few I smiled at actually snarled at me. Dorthy, we are not in Kansas anymore...
     It just feels dangerous here. I've done my research on Bolivia and I'm well aware of the dangers of traveling in Third world countries. Bolivia is a socialist country and the people here are not afraid to show their fair share of anti-American sentiment. I was prepared, it just hit me harder than I expected. It's tugs on the strings of my soul that 75% of people in Bolivia live off of less than 2 US dollars a day. I completely understand their disdain and distrust of Americans due to the anti-capitalist movement in this country. They are desperately trying to move from Western style capitalism to a system of communitarianism and I completely understand why.

New Years Eve 2012

We decided that it was just too dangerous for us to go out after dark so we opted for an early dinner and were in our room well before midnight. We watched in awe as the city literally seemed to explode before our eyes....Everyone and their brother, and their brothers kids seemed to be shooting off fireworks! It was an all night affair and when we removed our earplugs in the morning and pulled open the curtains we witnessed several intoxicated people scattered about and garbage everywhere. Happy New Year!! Although we are experiencing somewhat of a difficult time here we stay for the adventure sports that Bolivia has to offer. We just completed a 40 mile downhill bike ride down the "World's Deadliest Road"....It was one of the most insane things I have ever done! You'll have to stay tuned for that one....It's a blog of its' own!!
   We are off tonight for yet another 10 hour bus ride to Uyuni, where we will take a 4 day jeep trip across the largest Salt Flats in the world, Salar de Uyuni!!!! Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!!
Love and health to all- The Savvy Nomad