A Todo el Mundo

Well.... where are we.... lets back up a few days.

We spent a day in La Paz, seeing the sights. First we went out for Japanese food... and were pretty much the only non-Japanese people in the place. Then we walked to the Coca Museum. Which was incredibly enriching. We learned that the Americans and the UN are basically evil. They blame coca leaves for poverty in South America and try to outlaw them... yet continue to allow major corporations in the States and other major nations to purchase the coca.

ANYWAYZ

then we visited "the witches market" which is basically a bunch of old ladies selling... oddities. For example llama fetuses, and dried, yet sparkily frogs. And then of course the basic tourist items of alpaca sweaters and toques.

After that we went to a Music Museum. They had instruments from archeological sites all the way to present day inventions. You even are allowed to play some of the instruments. Which Kristy sucked at, but Nate seemed to be able to make most of them work.

Then we tried to go out for supper at a French-Canadian Restaurant... mostly cuz we couldn´t figure out what French-Canadian food was... besides poutine and maple syrup. But it was closed.

Finally, the next day, we made our way to Lake Titicaca. It is HUGE and BLUE and CLEAN. We went out in a kayak and you could see soooo far into the water. And its a scary type of lake (like on the new harry potter movie) with crazy weeds growing everywhere. AND we heard that if you fall into the lake, they don´t help you out because its a sacred lake... and if it wants to eat you, it can!

We also did our first official pilgrimage. We walked uphill (in outrageous altitude... which makes the lungs feel like death) and walked through the stations of the cross. And if you want to be like the locals, you carry up rocks and put one rock at each station then cross yourself. Then we watched the sunset over the lake. It was pretty much amazing!

Now we are on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca... and you´ll be happy to know that we entered legally this time. Although we did joke about taking our kayak across the lake into Peru... but we decided that we´d save that for our next trip, when we can blame it on Amy and make her talk to the officials.

We took a nice boat out to islas flotantes, some floating islands made out of reeds where a bunch of people actually live. We hopped about on the islands for awhile while a nice turkey gaurded our boat.

We then continued out to taquile, an actual island in the middle of the lake, where we climbed all the way up to the town at lunch, and then all the way back down to the other side and took the boat back to Puno.


And yes, its alright if you want to laugh at the name... Lake Titicaca. It seems everyone has that elementary school kid inside of them that just has to come out sometimes.

ciao Kristy y Nate

So as we took our night bus from Argentina to Bolivia, we watched as the windows slowly iced over. We climbed higher and higher in altitude and it was definately freezing. We arrived at the border at like 6 am. And then walked to Bolivia. We got to the bus station, bought tickets onward, then went for some tea. Then we sat on the bench huddled under a blanket for a couple hours until our bus came.

Luckily we had a lot of people to talk to. A bunch of gringos talked to us for a while. Then when they left, some Bolivians asked Nate about his friends leaving him... and he said they werent his friends... which made him popular with the Bolivians. So they chatted it up... as much as they could haha. Then another little old lady came and squished on the bench and talked to us.

Soon our bus came, and we were excited because it actually looked pretty nice. BUT then we got on it. And aparently Bolivia doesnt have the best of roads... even on the highway. Which was closed at points, so we just had to drive beside, which is no reason to slow down. So we practically bounced out of our seats every couple of minutes... which is sooooo fun when you are trying to sleep. But then there was some random water leak. Which just happened to be under our seat. So while they fixed it, we got to stand. And Nate is incredibly tall in Bolivia... so he was crouched over the entire way.

Then we got to Potosi. 6 hours earlier than planned, which was nice. They still do not want to let us into hotels though for some reason. But eventually we found one. We spent the next day in Potosi, mostly hanging out in the markets... and watching other gringos pass by in the safety of their tourist buses... haha and they all run to the windows and plaster their faces against it whenever they pass the market...

Today we are in Sucre, Bolivia. Its pretty touristy here... and there is good and bad that comes with it. There is super good food that reminds us of home. But then there are the millions of people begging us for money. Some shoe shine kids even came and talked to us for a while and would not leave us alone. They were grabbing Kristys feet and trying to force us to get our shoes shined. Instead we just gave them money to take their picture.

Nathan just finished gourging himself on a quarter chicken, so now we are off. (he is grossly greasy and smells like chicken... so time for a nice cold shower...)

ciao
Kristy y Nate