boliviaaa...livin' the high life (literally)

OR

in search of the elusive chicha

“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they really are.” – Samuel Johnson


it's been just about three weeks since we've been back to our "normal" lives.  it was amazing being home, but we relish in the ability to make spur of the moment decisions that can land us in a new country within a matter of hours!  since our return to south america, we've been in a variety of places...taking us from lima, peru all the way to sucre, bolivia.  check it!


note: in the title of this post, "livin' the high life" does not refer to drinking the 'champagne of beers' (miller high life).  nor does it mean that we are smoking copious amounts of 'mary-jane' or 'the pot' (to use the parlance of our times).  we are also not referring to the musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to sierra leone, nigeria, and other west african countries by 1920 (look it up). what we mean is literally high, as in mountainous, way far up above sea level, winded after climbing a short staircase because the air is so thin, need to bake things at a higher temperature (not that we ever have an oven). anyhoo...


steps walked this leg/total = 299,000 / 2.8 millioooooooon
miles traveled this leg/total = 5,400! / 23,000
buses hopped on this leg/total = 11 / 148

from the east coast snow to the west coast south american sun :) our first stop was a brief bit living a non-backpacker, traveling lifestyle.  we stayed with our friend diana's family and friends in lima and in asia, a beach resort area about an hour south of the city.  amazing.  (a big thanks to diana and michelle!)

first day there...michelle, diana's sister was competing in a ceviche competition.  we enjoyed the crazy atmosphere of the competition, delicious ceviche, and free cusquena beers :)

michelle and teammates cutting up the fish!  yummmmmers

beachy beach

probably one of the best sunsets we've ever seen.

ciao beach!  hello torture museum!  checking out one last tourist attraction in lima, the museo de la inquisicion.  check out the kid in the back doing some imitations for the camera.

and...to bolivia!  after a 24 hour journey to the border, we made our way to copacabana, a little touristy town off the coast of lake titicaca (yes, it really does exist).  

we've promised ourselves to take more pictures of ridiculous translations.  this is one of the best - "trout to the devil!"

our first bolivian beer - at extremely high altitude (around 3800 meters).  check out that foam!

the copacabana dog gang.  they ran the place

mountains of palomitas (popped corn) flooded the streets

having some bad driving luck?  come get your car blessed in copacabana!  complete with a man breaking a bottle of champagne on your car and then spraying it everywhere. and you can't forget the hordes of flowers covering your front windshield...that will surely help you prevent more accidents ;0

the port of copa - whilst on our way to isla del sol, a tiny island inhabited by about 2,000 people.  no roads, just trails :)

lauren's spy shot.  had to get one of the bolivian women and their awesome/ridiculous hats.  this is extremely common among the indigenous.

pre-hair cut / post-shower after walking up to our hostel in the sun and altitude

many thanks to my stylist, joe. that damn hair was getting annoying

rico is not doing very well - he no longer has a green piece on him :( - but he always manages to put on a smile. especially with an awesome view

mini hike after we sat inside for 6+ hours waiting out the rain

i called him the regal sheep

bolivian beer numero dos - pacena.  eh...

our effort to hike the whole island, ida y vuelta (roundtrip), started out beautiful...

although those clouds are looking a little worrisome...

questioning whether or not we should continue...

we turned back half-way!  extremely glad we did that

isla del sol and a sweeeet sunset

lauren coming down the incan staircase.  much more fun coming down than up...

the son of the sun god!

checking out the view before getting on our boat ride back to the mainland.  didn't really notice these gorgeous mountains at first. they kind of just appeared out of the clouds.

we were glad that we met some girls in copa that told us about the river we had to cross on our way to la paz.  otherwise, we would have been very confused when being told to get off the bus so that the bus can take a separate ferry and we would have to take a tiny little boat...

here is the boat for humans.  a crazy system they have here - four or five buses from copa leave for la paz at the same time.  therefore, they reach the ferries at the exact same time, resulting in a line 100 people long to buy our ferry ticket.

la paz during the alasitas festival.  there are 200 little stands in this temporary market, all selling miniature versions of everything.  houses, cars, animals, groceries, building materials... everything!  the point is to buy these little representations and have them blessed at the festival.  this results in you receiving what the object represents over the next year.  we got a house, a car, a donkey, a turtle and a llama.  can't wait for that llama...

what's that smell?  what's that burning sensation in my lungs?  oh - its this guy melting and burning lead all day long!  they sit around melting lead, then they pour some of it into a tin can full of water, producing a strange shape.  they use this to tell your future...
life expectancy of this guy = should have died from lead poisoning years ago...

a trip to la paz would not be complete without a trip to the witches market.  here, you can buy quite a range of products necessary for general witchery.  they have love powder, hate powder, all sorts of potions.  check out the dried llama fetus (put under your front porch to bring good luck) and the frog with the glowing, possessed eyes! note: good ol' interweb says that "an estimated 99% of Bolivian families have a dried llama fetus thrown under the foundations of their house for luck." we ask, where do they get all these fetuses???!!!

new food!  llama curry with onions and rice - quite tasty.

all right little one, time to get on mom's back and go for a ride.  first lay down and i'll wrap this around you. then upsy-daisy, and i'll fling you over my shoulder.  ok - were ready to hit the town!

cool monument in the main plaza in la paz, also known as...

the pigeon capital of south america!  look at all those birds.  walking through a sea of pigeons is quite an experience, especially as they fly directly at your face, only to turn at the very last second. note: this picture really does not do the size of the pigeon community justice.

musical instrument museum in la paz - looks cool, but who really wants to pay 75 cents to get in?  after much discussion and number crunching, we decided to go for it!

money well spent!  several rooms full of old and new instruments from bolivia, south america, and the rest of the world.  they even had some that you could play with...

some beautiful bolivian charangos (similar to a small guitar).  the bodies of two of these ones are made from armadillo shells.

cute, narrow cobblestone street near the museum with the city learing behind.  seemed a little out of place in the fast-paced big city.

so far bolivia has been coming up short on quality graffiti - here is an exception. 

every once in a while, you look up from the hustle and bustle of la paz city life and wow - a beautiful snow-capped peak!

bright lights, big city.  and lots of buses and taxis that will come very close to hitting you if you do not walk carefully

after a crazy 3 hour drive, starting from around 3700 meters and going all the way down to 1500 meters, we made it to coroico, the vacation spot for the la paz city folk.  we took the new road, paved and complete with tons of cement guardrails. because - as you can see the tiny, gray, winding road on the middle ridge in this picture - this road is crazy!  and...this is the new road.  the old road: the most infamous "world's most dangerous road," aka "death road."  you may or may not be disappointed to know that we did not do the bicycle ride down death road due to it being the rainy season and just a tad bit more dangerous (and it being completely out of our budget!). 

dig this flower

joe, on the start of our hike along the mountain ridge to check out some waterfalls.  

such a different and awesome climate from la paz.  

so different that they are able to grow their most prized possession - coca!

this little leaf works wonders.  as mentioned in our peru blog, the coca leaf is wonderful and has been used by the indigenous of the andean countries for centuries.  we finally picked some up in the market, followed the detailed procedure of "masticating" the leaves, and enjoyed some of the benefits: increased altertness, more energy, reduced hunger, relief of altitude sickness, etc etc.  if only we could bring some home for others to try...argh US government!

dig this orchid

so, the waterfalls were great.  but, they're prime water sources for the towns below.  so, they are complete with huge fences and signs that totally take away from the natural setting.  oh well...at least we got to get our feet wet.

joe checking out to see if there is a way to get around this waterfall.  no such luck.  let's head back!

sky looking pretty awesome right now.  we're thinking, well at least the rain is staying in those ridges!  

we were a little too optimistic i guess! the rain came, hard.  within 5 minutes we were drenched through and through.  luckily we wore our sandals that day because we were walking in some ankle deep puddles the rest of the way back!

the next day brought beautiful skies once again.  

you know what to do - dig it

near the end of our journey back to la paz.  this just shows a glimpse of the awesomeness that was the la paz-coroico adventure.

off to cochabamba, a smaller, yet more cosmopolitan city than la paz.  well known for it's enormous christ statue overlooking the city (check out some of those stats - 2,200 tons!).  so...we researched a bit, although it does say on this plaque that it is the biggest image of christ in the world, it's not anymore. though it is bigger than rio de janeiro's famous christ the redeemer, poland constructed an even bigger christ recently.  sorry cochabamba, but you need to adjust your sign

doing our best impressions

overlooking the city

getting in some city views while we took our cable car ride back down...

after a 2+ hour search for chicha "cochabambina" complete with "walk down that street 10 minutes and ask for this place," "oh...you still have to walk 10 more blocks," "no, go right down this street for 5 blocks," followed by another guy, "actually, it's about 10 blocks," we gave up.  chicha was incredibly difficult to find in this town.  so, we settled for one last "normal" beer before heading off to sucre via night bus - taquina!!


we've now got another week left in bolivia to take in the sweet architecture and studenty lifestyle of sucre and the awesome-ness of the salar de uyuni, the crazy salt flats of the southwest.  it's good to be back...