Ups and Downs - March 29, 2008

Hey guys.

So yesterday we were super happy that we managed to get a bus to La Paz for only 40 soles (20ish dollars), but then, there is always a price to pay.

Got into Puno at 5:30 am, and realized that both Jess and I had our cameras stolen on the overnight trip. Pretty amazing, since we were quite great at protecting our stuff, but all the bus people were super dodgy, and the camera, and all my photos from this trip, was a big loss. Actually fairly devastating, for now at least. Faint, and I mean faint chances mine fell out of my bag in the Cuzco Hostel, but it´s just a dream at this point. Anyways, both feeling pretty down.

Grabbed our even dodgier bus to La Paz, only to have, (and I am not making this up) boiling hot water explode from the panneling next to my seat and flood the bus. The bus soon filled completely with steam and rushing water, and the drivers reluctantly pulled over in the middle of super rural Peru. I wish I could have had some photos, it was grand.

Anyways, snuck the bus to the border with some shepherd´s help, where the Bolivian customs would absolutely in now way under no conditions not gonna happen give me a visa for more than 30 days. Not so hot, since I´m planning on spending the next four months in the country, so my future looks filled with border runs until I can get a better extension. At least it was free...

Okay, enough bad, now, only wondrous! Our new replacement bus, which qualified for the probably powered by donkeys category managed to crawl into the edges of La Paz, and as we did so, the ravishing power of the Bolivian mountains wiped the whole day away. La Paz lies inside a great canyon, it´s adobe houses clinging to the canyon walls, and standing upon the canyon edges guard massive mountain sentinals, rocks of such glacier covered might that they seem almost unimpressed with themselves. Illimani, the half-mountain half-god that overlooks the entire city is crushing in its power.

We´ve had a wonderful day in the city, the people are alive and ecstatic, fiesta parades march through the streets, and the difference in culture between here and Peru is outstanding. (And welcome)

We will probably stay here for a week at least, more if we decide we like it enough to rent a place and I´ll take intensive Spanish lessons for a month. I can´t wait to show it to you all, but at least for now it´s not a possibility. (Ah! Frustration!)

So much to do, got drafted into a street dance in Cuzco, rode a mini van today, and tomorrow am buying dehydrated llama corpses from the Witches´ Market across the way.

From the wild,
Nick