copacabana, bolivia

The one in Bolivia - not Brazil.

Second country, first land border crossing of my trip.

It was a quick 3 hour bus ride to the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. Copacabana has a relaxed, rasta feel to it.

It's touristy, with lots of empty restaurants.

I love how many buildings and hostals have courtyards here.

I took a tour to Island Del Sol, the place where the Incans believed the sun was born.

The boat was slow and the ride was choppy and space was limited. Not the most fun 2 hours.

More high altitude walking 

Roca sagrada, which has the face of a puma.

Our guide took water from a well within a ruin on the island and told us to wash our face with it, then he poured some on the back of our necks before finally recommending we drink some of it.

After the tour, we had the option of returning on the same path back to the boats or walking the length of the island from north to south. I chose the latter & ended up questioning why I chose more high altitude walking under the hot sun. It seemed never ending since the scenery didn't change much and the trail was uninteresting. I also had to stop numerous times on the trail to pay fees for using it. It definitely felt like a cash grab.

There's always a black sheep.

puno, peru

Every time I want to type 'Puno' the autocorrect changes it to 'Punk,' so I keep telling people I'm going to visit a place called Punk.

From the bus station to my hostal by taxi, I accidentally overcharged myself. Doh! The taxi driver was from a 'secure' taxi, but he seemed kinda sketchy and he kept rushing me to get in before agreeing to a price. Being overcharged and getting to my hostal is better than the alternative.

Puno isn't very big so its easy to wander around the main streets and plazas. It's perched  on the edge of Lake Titicaca which is the world's highest navigable lake. Its incredibly massive, it' s the second biggest in South America.

They say there are two seasons in Puno: cold, and colder.

I took a day tour to uber touristy Lake Titicaca, visiting the Uros floating islands and Isla Taquile. It's odd to just walk into the houses and lives of other cultures like a living museum, but on the flip side it's interesting to see how they live.

Uros floating island

There are over 73 of the floating islands. The islands are constructed out of reeds that grow in the shallow lake. Once built, the island lasts about 25-35 years. Houses are also made of reeds, but they need to have their reeds changed after a year. The islands are 3m thick and have anchors so that they don't float to Bolivia. According to the time of year, the people move the islands to different parts of the lake.

They reeds are also used for food, fuel, medicine, and for building boats. This is me eating some of a reed!

The Uros people shifted their lives from land to lake in order to escape an enemy and preserve their way of life.

They are fishers and hunters - not so much into McDonalds.

Each island has a local leader, and children go to school on a separate island from where they live. 

We took a quick ride in one of these 'taxis.'

That's where things are changing. By letting tourism be a part of their lives, the people now sell textiles to tourists too. With income earned, the Uros buy sugar, rice, and books for their children among other items.

While the Uros speak Aymara, the inhabitants of Taquile speak Quechua.  

There are no cars or hotels here. Tourism only developed in the last 25-30 years.

On the island you can find 3000 inhabitants and 6 communities.

From 1917-1931 it was home to a military prison which once housed a former Peruvian president.

More walking up hill in at a high altitude!

We sat at a restaurant and the locals explained their clothing, cutstoms, & aspects of their culture. 

Children receive a hand or foot plough as their first gift. The joys of being a farmer! Here, the women weave, the men knit. Taquile Island is famous for its handicraft.

The people wear the same sandals for about 10 years and they don't need a new iPhone every few years.

This man is demonstrating how they use a plant to make shampoo & soap for hair or washing clothes. 

Then came the music & dance with which we all partook.

We ate lunch at the 'restaurant' after. This was the most delicious quinoa soup and it sparked my search for more of the same.

Mate de muña, which I first had on the Inca Trail.

We took a walk around the island before boating back to Puno. This included a gander at the plaza which was nearly empty, with the exception of a few people and a random scraggly chicken.

Children were selling bracelets around the island.

machu picchu: Day 4

Day 4: unique

Wake up at 3:30am to eat breakfast, then wait in line for the trail to open at 5:30am 

for the last stretch to Machu Picchu. By now, after all of the experiences that happen to you on the Trail, it's easy to forget why you set out in the first place.

One of my group members asked me if I studied horticulture since I took so many photos of flowers & plants.

We hiked for about two hours before reaching the Sun Gate and our first view of Machu Picchu from above. To get to the Gate, we had to climb about 50 nearly vertical steps. I didn't even realize at the time that I was headed toward the Sun Gate, I didn't look ahead nor back, I just kept climbing upward with my walking poles like a spider.

I later learned that one of the guides had a 21 year old woman who fell and died on the stairs of the Sun Gate right before getting the first view. That's one thing nobody ever seems to mention - the Inca trail can actually be quite dangerous, even if you're fit and in good health.

Heading downhill further, we finally made it to the ruins. It looks so much bigger in person. It was really hot out too, so funnily enough most of our group didn't want to stay and wander the ruins for too long.

Following the postcard pictures, we began a 2 hour tour of the ruins. One guy in our group had been unable to eat, he was so nervous. He proposed to his girlfriend while we were sitting on one of the terraces overlooking Machu Picchu. 

Wilfredo thanked us

"You have wonderful energies."

Mr. Hiram Bigham, an American historian, was first led to Machu Picchu in 1911 and the one responsible for bringing it into the spotlight.

'Machu' means ancient, or old, and 'Picchu' means peak. However, the name always reminded me of Pokemon as a child.

The Spanish ended up changing the names of many places that they conquered as they had difficulty pronouncing the Quechua words. Both of our guides speak Quechua!

Machu Picchu is located in the middle of 3 mountains which is indicative of the importance of duality and trilogy at Machu Picchu and in Incan culture.

It is estimated that there were 800-1000 inhabitants here in the 200 plus buildings. The exact purpose of Machu Picchu may be reached by educated speculation, though it likely had multiple purposes, with farmers, builders, teachers, priests, and military probably living there.

It was built around the 1450s, but it was unfinished. The structures are about 80% original. The terraces for farming have different temperatures, with each facing the South East or East so that they're exposed to the sun in the morning, and in turn the stones absorb the heat till the afternoon.

It's also fascinating to note that Incans used to divert snow from the mountains for water rather than always relying on sources from nearby bodies of water.

In 1533 the Spanish arrived, and today Cusco has 23 churches as a souvenir.

With 180 men, the Spanish began their conquest of the Incan empire of 10-12 million which extended across Peru, Bolivia, Chile, & Ecuador. Say what? Well, the civil war between two brothers in Peru helped speed things along. This, and that the Spanish sought the assistance of the Chankas - one of the Incan's worst enemies.

Summer and winter solstice were important occasions fr the Incans, and some windows were built specifically with these dates in mind.

Sampling of what grew in an Incan garden:

Modern-day Incan builder

We bussed to nearby town Aguascalientes for lunch & goodbye.

A few of us hit up the hot springs which was even nicer considering none of us had showered for the last 4 days.

Perhaps a little too modern for the Andes.

I had one more meal before leaving Aguascalientes in the evening. The town is tourist-ready, with hoards of overpriced restaurants lining the streets and staff trying to lure you in. The waiter practically begged us to sit down at the restaurant we went to. It also ended up being a funny ordering experience.

From there, we took a train to Ollantaytambo which swayed side-to-side as magical flute music spread through the air and helped drown out the group of obnoxious drunk American 20-somethings. Finally, we took a bus back to Cusco where the showers are.