Happy New Year!

I´m in Sucre, Bolivia now. The most beautiful city I´ve seen to date in South America. Whitewashed walls, old churches, and red tiled roofs abound. Alan and I hung out at a little cafe that overlooked the entire city and we chatted with some Canadians. The internet here is pretty slow so I´m not even attempting to upload photos. I probably won´t post any until I get to Chile. We´ll see.

Hope all of you are well, and wish you the best in the new year.

More info on La Paz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz,_Bolivia

Here is a photo of a work of art from the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. It was one of the most impressive modern art museums that I´ve been to. This work is by Hans Hoffman. I preferred the works drawings of Froilán Cosme, but there was glass in front of them and I couldn´t get a good pic with or without flash. Google him.

Government Palace, La Paz. You guys are sick of cathedrals by now, right?

This is a view of La Paz from my hotel window.

So now I am in La Paz, and have been since the 26th. La Paz is huge (2.5 million inhabitants) and built in the middle of a canyon. You never walk on a flat plane here, it is either up or down. And it is steep. And I´m still not used to the altitude, so I am out of breath most of the time. As a rule, I generally walk downhill into the city then take a cab back.

Here are a couple of photos of my ride from Copacabana to La Paz. Lots of snowcapped mountains in the distance.

The sad thing is that all along the 3 hour ride are literally hundreds of children and families hanging out by the side of the road. They are all screaming at the buses with their hands extended asking for the people on the buses to throw them money. This is what they do all day long. Attached is pic of two boys along the side of the road.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. It is landlocked, and, until recently, the majority of its natural resources were owned by foreign companies. Evo Morales, the new president, is nationalizing many of the resources, such as petroleum. Hopefully some of the profits of these resources will start to go to the people, but who knows. Evo could be as corrupt as Castro. It´s interesting though to watch all of the recent elections here, socialists and leftists have been winning. Again, I´m not saying that they will govern any better than their predecessors, but when governments continually only support the rich, as in latin america, who do the expect the poor people to vote for? The status quo? Empty promises? It´s going to be extemely interesting to watch latin american politics for the next few years. Will Chavez turn Venezuela into a Cuban copycat? Will Correa of Ecuador follow Chavez? Does anyone in America really pay hardly any attention to Latin American politics? Happy New Year! Be thankful you live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

I made a friend from Montana, Corey, on the way to Isla del Sol. We climbed a crapload of stairs to the top of the island to the hotel (I forget its name). We spent Christmas Eve drinking Bolivian wine on the deck and talking with two argentinians. It rained all the next morning so, instead of exploring the island more, we headed to La Paz. Between 3 and 6pm on the 24th we hiked around the island in search of some ruins that we never found. It was still fun to walk about all of the ancient terraces that are still in use by farmers today.

The 24th was a perfect sunny day. I hopped on a boat to Isla del Sol. It was about an hour and a half ride with 40 of my closest friends crammed into a tiny two-level boat. I sat on the top level next to some French guy who unconsciously elbowed me in the side the whole trip. I still enjoyed the ride, because the vistas were spectacular.

After the border I arrived in Copacabana. I stayed there for about an hour and a half before I caught my boat to Isla del Sol, the birthplace of the Inca (one of three). The townspeople were partaking in various Christmas rituals as it was the 24th. The Cathedral here is in the Moorish style.

Here are some pics from the border of Peru and Bolivia. The bus stops, everyone gets out, then you get your exit stamp for Peru. Then you change your money cos everyone says to do it there, and they give you the worst exchange rate ever. They don´t tell you that if you wait until you are in Copacabana, the exchange rate will be much better. Then you walk to the arch you see in the one pic, and you are in Bolivia, and you get your passport entry stamp there. Then you get back on the bus. Takes about half an hour for everyone to go through the process.

I am currently in La Paz. Here are some photos from Puno, Peru, a town I stopped in on the way to Copacobana, Bolivia. I was supposed to go to the Uros islands, man-made islands made out of reeds, but it was storming, so I skipped it. Here is a link to info on the islands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uros.

It´s similar to what I would have seen had I gone and had it been a sunny day.

Happy Holidays to everyone! Hope all of you are doing well.

I plan on leaving Arequipa tomorrow morning for Puno, Peru. It is on the border of Lake Titicaca. I should leave there on Monday for Copacabana, Bolivia, and I want to be in La Paz, Bolivia on the 28th. My buddy Alan is coming down from Minnesota to visit me for two weeks (starting the 28th). We plan on seeing La Paz, Sucre, and the Salt Flats of Uyuni, and anywhere else Alan wants to go. Right now I only plan on spending about 2 and a half weeks in Bolivia to leave more time for Chile and Argentina, and the rest.

The eagle has landed.

This is from a stop we made in a tiny town on the way back to Chivay from Colca Canyon.

Colca Canyon. Nice views, a little cloudy at first. It is supposedly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It didn´t look that much deeper to me, though, but what do I know? It was still a good time. Anytime you see something that vast, you´re mind kinda halts from too much information, and you´re transported into a more zenlike space. Or maybe I just chew too many coca leaves.

Saw three condors. They were flying to high, so I didn´t attempt to take photos. You´ll have to come here if you want to see them. Also saw the giant hummingbird. Too fast for me to take a pic though. Here is a link http://www.digimorph.org/specimens/Patagona_gigas/.

More info on Colca Canyon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colca_Canyon

I love Guinea Pigs!

They taste just like chicken!

Yep that´s good ole Guinea Pig all fried up for ya.

Actually, I don´t know what it tastes like cos I never tried it.

Homey don´t eat rodents.

On the way to Chivay from Arequipa I took a couple photos. Lots of Alpaca, Vicuna and variations of llamas.

Instead of putting barbed wire or crushed glass on the tops of walls to keep people out, the people of Chivay grow thorny cacti up there.

Dog on roof barking at me. Chivay, Peru.

The dogs of South America tend to be way less aggressive than dogs in the states. Many dog owners in the states specifically raise their dogs to be aggressive, either to protect their homes and/or property, or they want to have a tough dog as a symbol of power. Here, most of the dogs run around the streets freely. They interact with well-known and foreign people all day long. If a dog becomes aggressive and starts biting people, someone takes the initiative to shoot it or kill it in some way. That dog no longer breeds and the aggressive genes are bread out of the populace. My theory as to why SA dogs are more mellow.

Anyone need a taxi?

Chivay, Peru.

Feral donkeys wandering the streets of Chivay, Peru.

Well, I finally went to Colca Canyon after many delays. Had a fun time. Lot´s too see. Before we got there we stopped at a town called Chivay in the Colca Valley. One of the more primitive towns I have ever been to, but the internet cafes (3) were full at night when I tried to write. When I finally got a computer, the land line was so slow that I gave up after 3 minutes.

More photos of Chivay to follow

Another pic of the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, Peru. I sat up on a terrace and read my novel and sipped on a cup of coffee, and this was my view.

Still biding my time in Arequipa. I´m reading a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa (peruvian author) called La Tia Julia y el Escribidor. It takes place in Lima. Traveling to latin america adds a whole new dimension to the literature, cos now I have seen many of the places that the author refers to in his novel. I dig.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Colca Canyon and I´ll be back on Thursday, then I will leave for Puno, Peru on Friday morning. I´ll probably spend Christmas there.

The pic is of a contraption for heating water. Many places don´t have, or can´t afford hot water heaters. Therefore some people purchase this wonder of a contraption. It´s a water heater that hooks onto the shower head. The water starts out cold and after a couple of minutes heats up. I tried to adjust the heat level and received a nice shock while standing naked in an inch of water. The shock was strong, but the scare of being fried in the shower was worse. Yeah, I screamed like a little girl. We´ll see how tough you are if it ever happens to you.

These are some photos from Ollantaytambo. I stopped here on the way to Macchu Picchu. I really enjoyed hiking through these ruins. It was cool to see the contrast between the ruins and the town right below. The town still has Incan walls and city planning throughout.

Hey all,

I´m in Arequipa, Peru right now, and I´ve been being quite mellow. I´ve toured the town square (Plaza del Armas), and I went to the museum of Juanita, the frozen child sacrifice corpse found up in the mountains. Here's a link as no photo taking was allowed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_Juanita. They have found these well-preserved, frozen children all over the Andes. I´m glad we know a little more about plate techtonics and volcanos these days, so people no longer have to sacrifice children to the mountain gods.

Also did a driving tour around the city to a few overlooks. It was kind of a cloudy day, so the views weren´t that spectacular. It hasn´t been clear enough for me to get a full pic of the Misti volcano that overlooks the city.

Did someone spill a bag of black jelly beans on the Inca Trail? No , silly, that´s llama crap. For all those people emailing me asking what llama crap looks like, here it is. Now leave me alone.

One last Macchu Picchu pic. I didn´t want to leave.

Standing in the Sun Gate. If I´look tired it´s cos Im tired as hell. But the view was incredible. I can only compare it to the Grand Canyon. It is one of those places that the pictures don´t do justice. It´s hard to take it all in, it´s so vast and overwhelming to the senses.

That windy road below is the road you take up to Macchu Picchu in a bus.

Macchu Picchu from far away on the way to the Sun Gate.

Llama´s in my way.

This is the beginning of the trail that leads to the Sun Gate.

I did about a 20-30 minute walk out to the Inti Point.

The pic without me in it is a look over the edge of the trail to the Inti Point. Yes, I was given to feelings of vertigo at times. No guardrails anywhere. If you slip on some llama crap, you´re done for.