La Paz: Lockdowns, Prisons and a Miniature Festival

I had no idea comming to La Paz that the city would be shutting down for the weekend. A vote for a new constitution was in order and that meant that much would be closed in the city. The popular president for the people Evo Morales had made a referendum for a new constitution. It would limit the amount of land that people could own in a country where ninty percentof the land is owned by ten percent. One of the problems is that the land is not being used and Bolivia is importing vast quantities of food when they have the resources to produce it themselves. Friday there were peaceful demonstrations in the streets. However a feeling of uneasiness was felt by the foreigners in the hoslte as signs read:

NO BOZE WEEKEND!!!
Friday- No selling alcohol after 12PM.
Clubs will be closed. Anyone found
outside drunk is liable for arrest
and can be detained for three days

Saturday- No selling alcohol all day
Clubs will be closed. Anyone found
outside drunk is liable for arrest
and can be detained for three days.
Groups of three or more can be
arrested and held for three days

Sunday - Same

However the following day new signs went up.

SHHHHHHHHHH!!!
We are going to do our best to keep the bar open for the weekend. However we need your cooperation. There is a police station across the street and we need to be quiet or we risk being shut down. (not only the bar but the whole hostle and we assume you would like a bed to sleep in) Please be cooperative and don´t leave the hostle after drinking because you and the manager are liable to be arrested and detained for three days. If we shush you during this time it is because we need to keep the noise down.

So Friday afternoon the maintenance crew came into the bar/restaurant with huge inch thick styrofoam sheets and hundreds a egg crates. Soon after the windows were covered and the room was very dark. It stayed this way all weekend. At one time I asked about the police station directly across the street noticing that the windows were suddenly covered. I was informed that they had been paid off and that the reason for the noise barrier was to keep the noise from reaching the patrol cars on the street two stories below. This was the fourth time such actions had taken place and the managers knew how to approach the situation by now.

Saturday we were able to go out in the day. There was a minature festival going on where you would buy miniature replicas of items you wanted to manifest into reality for the upcomming year. So in the main square two blocks from out hotel where the Presidental Palace is located a huge celebration was taking place. Minature stacks of US hundreds, Euro notes and Bolivianos could be purchased and after you would have them blessed over smoke and flowers. Other people carries miniature houses, stores, cars, roosters (to ensure finding good husband), horseshoes...blah blah blah. name it and it was there.
After this we visited the popular tourist destination San Pedro Prison. As nine of us were walkng toward the prison a guy named Daniel approached us and said he could take us in on the tour. He was a prisoner about to finish his time and was able to leave during the day, yet had to return at night. So we followed him in through the side gate and the guards signed us in. We all paid the 250 boliviano fee which is about thirty five US dollars. We got a stamp on our hand and we were in.
Now this isn´t an ordinary prison with guards and cells. Instead there are families and apartments. Once past the gate we went into a courtyard where tables of men and women and children were eating meals. Othere children ran around and played games. Inmates and their visiting friends roamed freely, played guitar and sang and did anything else they felt like doing.
The way it works in San Pedro is this. You get arrested for smuggling drugs which almost everyone there is incarcerated. You then are thrown into the prison. From then on its up to you to work your way up. If you have money you buy your way into the part we took a tour of. Its called the international section and is the nice part. If not you stay in the other side. Here you have to find a job such as cleaning rooms or whatever. Then you can get paid money from other inmates. So with your money you can purchase a cell or food or blankets, clothes whatever. If not you just sleep in the courtyard dont eat and be miserable. There are no guards comming to help you or feed you. You have to figure it out for yourself.
So we toured the rich section. There was a small shop where you could buy snacks, a weight room, a game and tv room wth a pool table and a big courtyard and a church. We went into a cell, or apartment, of one of Pablo Escobars partners. He had purchased his cell for twenty three thousand dollars. It was three stories high. The rooftop floor had panoramic views of the city. He showd us his gunshot would from his shootout with the Bolivian army and the DEA when he got caught. We then watched movies about the prison. Unfortuantly we got the crappy tour. The tour into the Bolivian side is much longer. Otheres talked about playing vollyball with the prisoners. There is a famous water pool which just happens to say martin in the bottom. The pool is famous for people being murdered in and also one way of punishment is to throw the icy water on to someone early in the morning or throw them into the pool.

Sunsday night people gathered in the presidential square and celebrated the voting in of the new constitution. We watched on tv as celebrations took place throughout the country. After all the uneasiment the weekend went pretty smoothly and today everything is fine. Tonight I take a bus to the Salt desserts in the south where I will tour the next three days.

Bolivia and Lake Titicaca

A view from The Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca

The trip into Bolivia went well. The first stop was to a border town in Peru where a parade and festival just happened to be taking place. It lasted all day and the only type of group in it were marching bands. One after another after another...all day long. A group of dancers preceded the horns and drums. The only differences were the colors they wore.
Lucky for us United States Citizens we get to pay one hundred thirty five dollars to get a sticker in our passport while everyone else just gets a free stamp. At least we got to cut to the front of the line.
Shortly after passing through customs we arrived at the small Lake Titicacan town of Copacabana. Here a boat brought tourists to The Island of the Sun or Isla del Sol. There were a few ruins there but nothing spectacular. Some big rocks that resembled a face of a puma if you had the imagination of a three year old. They were also magical and across from them was a large block which was used to sacrifice animals. Another part of the island had another rock marker where they used to sacrifice women. Men luckily were spared from the rituals.
Anyways there were nice views of the lake and the mountains that borders the edges. On the boat ride home we dove past some floating islands. The locals had piled layers and layers of reeds into the water over the years and had built homes on top of the reeds. This was to protect themselves from attacks from other tribes.

The Floating Islands

To Machu Picchu

Day 1

After uncountable switch backs thourough the high mountain passes the bus arrived at a peak of 4300 meters. Snowcapped mountains filled the background while green verticle walls fell into the valley below. Here clouds rose up from below untill they blended into a one big cloud blocking the sun. It was here that the bus dropped the eleven of us off with bikes and a helmets. At the first sharp turn a river crossed over the road and water splashed all over our feet. It was the first of many such occurances. For fifty five kilometers we zigzagged down the high slopes of the Andes. Waterfalls and rivers cut throught the lush vegetation that covered the terrain.

We arrived to our hostle and I shared a room with a Brazilian guy. After a cold shower in the cool mountain evening we all had a big dinner. In the group we had representatives from Israel, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Holland, The United States and our giude who was Peruvian. The rest of them ate guinea pig. Sorry Bunny if you read this. If it makes you feel better I ate an omlet.

Day Two

At five thirty it was downpouring. Luckily after an early breakfast it stopped and we continued out travels.We hiked along a dirt road, going upstream next to a muddy river. After we used a local plant to warpaint our faces we took a trail into the dense vegetation up the mountain side. Soon we arrived at a house where we bought drinks and played with the pet monkey and capico, a relative of the anteater. I was eating a chocolate bar when a woman placed the capico on my shoulder. Here he reached our with his long nose and stole the remaing part of my chocolate. We continued the tour throught banana, coffee, coca and mango fields.

We soon arrived on a section of the famed inca trail, a meter wide dirt and stone trail that clung to the face of the mountain cliffs. To one side a wall rose what seemed thousands of feet verticle into the skyand dissapeared into the clouds. On the other side it fell thousands more into valley below. You will never watch every step you make more carefully in your life.

We got off the cliff side after an hour or so and back into the fields and jungles. The heavy rains had created landslides and we had to have the local farmers give us detours because the usual paths were washed out. In parts we had to cross newly formed waterways where gray mud surrounded the narrow water channel. We arrived at a walking bridge like you might see in the movies. Two cables streatched over a river and held up a small wooden walkway. Through holes in the wood, class six rapids could be seen rushing below. After more trails through the jungle we arrived at a zip line with a two person basket attatched to a cable. Two at a time we crossed back over the river. In the middle gravity held us suspended over the water and people on the other side had to pull us across with ropes.

Just when we didnt think we could walk any more we walked out of the jungle. We had arrived at the hot water springs. Three large man made pools trapped water from flowing mountain side springs. In the middle of them a waterfall fell from the cliff above. we sat in the pools for an hour and were all wrinkly when we got out. It was a much needed stop after walking eighteen kilometers on cliffsides, over landslides and throught jungle mountainsides.

Day Three

Not much happened on the third day on our way to Machu Picchu. We mostly walked along we train tracks under rainy skys. The wet rails were uncomfprtable to walk on and after the two previous days we were beginning to get tired and sore. The uneven wet rail ties made the walk more difficult. There was no path on either side so this was the best way to go.

After lunch we walked for three hours this way and noone seemed to be having a great time. However it paid off when we arrived at the town below Machu Picchu. Nestled on the river between two giant green mountain sides the town came into view. Streatching between the two mountains was a rainbow directly over the town. While there was no pot of gold, hot showers and the best hotel room of the trip were under the rainbow. At that point it was worth more than the pot of gold. We had a big dinner and Peruvian flute bands played in the plaza outside the restuarant. Our spirts were lifted high after the miserable walk.

Day Four

Moonlight and fire flies illuminated the path up the mountain side to the lost city of the Inca Empire. The little bit of light refleted off the stone staircase. It cut straight throught the dirt road that had about a dozen switchbacks. Think of ten dollar signs stacked on top of each other. We went up the lind than cuts though the S. Every hundred steps or so we crossed back over the road.

At Six the sun was starting to light the sky. After waiting for a half hour the park was opened and we were allowed inside. We went straight across to another gate and lined up to get into Wayna Picchu. Only four hundred people a day are allowed to go up this mountain which rises over Machu Picchu. The trail to get to the top of Wayna Picchu is almost verticle. We arrived at the top when thr sun was rising over the mountain tops in the distance. From here we looked down at the Incan Ciy which was minaturized by the elevation. After five minutes or so the clouds rose up from the valley below and we no longer could see the city below. We had been in the first ten people to get to the top and were the only few to get to see the view.

After the trip to Wayna Picchu we decended back to Machu Picchu and took the tour. There were carving of Condors which is a symbolic bird of the Incas. It is said that they can fly to the coast and back in a single day to catch fish. It takes twenty one hours on a bus to go one way. There were also rooms where the sun would illuminate on the winter and summer solstices. In the newer part of the city they had perfected the stonework and the stones fit perfectly together without using morter. In the older part it was more rustic and the stone work was held together with mud.





The View from Wayna Picchu. Looking down at Machu Picchu

High in the Andes

Bad Moon A Rising



City Of Cusco from the Hostle

Mountain top in the Andes

The bus trip took longer than expected. After twenty one hours of winding through the Andes hillsides the bus finally arrived in Cusco. Along the way farming villages dotted the mountain sides. In some villages entire slopes were covered with fields. The Andes are full of vegetation in contrast to the barren Himalayas. Green mountainsides rise from the brown rivers in the valleys below.
After one sharp turn the city of Cusco appeared in the valley below. Spanish style rooftops were all that was seen from the mountain side. In the city giant cathedrals surround plazas with water fountains, gardens and park benches. People fill the seats all day and well into the night.
The hoslte is a four hundred year old mansion nestled on a cobblestone street high on a hill side. Views of the whole city can been seen from the common room where couches, tables and computers are present. Over one hundred and fifty backpackers from all over the world stay here every night. Some dorms have thirteen beds in them and most are co-ed.
It took almost two full days to get acclimated to the altitude. Walking up the hill to the hoslte is still difficult. To fight the altitude sickness it is comon to drink tea of coco leaf. In the hoslte restaurant a coffee and tea station is completed by a large bowl of coco leaves. Also there is packaged tea bags of coco leaf. However it is no stronger than a cup of regular tea and can be bought in any supermarket.
Dinner last night was a two course meal. The first course was vegetable soup with bread followed by a plate of rice with a fried egg, a fried plantain, cucumber and tomato. It also included a cup of mate tea. The total cost was four Soles, about a dollar thirty US money. It felt like robbery.

The Beach and The Pacific

Its funny when a girl winks at you on a bus. Thats was the icebreaker on my way to the beach. I had planed on going to a beach called San Bartolo. That changed after I started talking to the peruvian girl and her friends. I was convinced to go to la playa negra with them. After spending some time there I understood why its called the black beach. The sand was sand colored but it left a black tint on your feet.
At La Playa Negra I swam in the pacific for the first time. It wasnt much of a swim however. I was just tossed around by waves in wast deep water. I had never been afraid of the ocean before. I decided not to test my luck and stayed shallow.
With that swim I can now check off the Pacific Ocean from my lifetime to do list. I now only have to swim in the Arctic to complete the four oceans. I will have to think about that. Sounds Cold.
In the past week I also checked off visiting the southern hemisphere, and the south west quadrant. I now only need to go to the South East and I will have been to the four corners. Also I can check off South America as my third continent visited. So in a week I completed a new hemisphere and quadrant, a new continent and a new ocean. Not a bad week.
Today I am taking a bus to Cuzco. Destination Matchu Pichu. If I survive the twenty hour bus ride through the Andes and climb to the once mighty Inca Capital I can check off my second of the Seven New Wonder of the World. Did I mention its a twenty hour bus ride. I cant wait.

Good Night, Sleep Tight...

Bed Bugs Bite!

El Ano Nuevo en Lima, Peru

January 1, 2009

The 21 hour trip to Lima, Peru went well. The only problem was in Fort Lauderdale airport when breakfast consisted of an good egg sandwich followed by a gulp of chunky milk.
The new year was celebrated in Lima airport while waiting for the driver. Seven of us had a cerveza toast while sitting on our luggage. Once in the van, small fires were unattended on every other street corner. The local custome is to were yellow underwear, place photo copies of politicians faces in a suitcase and set it on fire at midnight to ensure the new year will have safe travels. Must be nice to travel without a suitcase.
The Hostle is located in a nice part of town overlooking a park with many resturantes and nightclubs near. Music and dancing filled the streets untill bedtime at 4 am. There were still children playing on the swings and slides directly below the hostles window at this time. Its summer vacation for schools here but 4 am!

Looking out of the Hoslte Window

A view from an outdoor shopping

mall overlooking the beach and cliff