Detours

The night bus ride back to La Paz from Uyuni was more or less uneventful. We knew we were coming back into the city not because of the lights and traffic, but because we were graced with the comfort of paved roads. I'll never take them for granted again!

We spent our morning of the 9th exploring La Paz and I agree with other traveler's that it's not that impressive of a city, but it does capture the essence of Bolivia remarkably well. At most, La Paz is a great place to grab a cappuccino while people watching and get some gift shopping out of the way. That afternoon we hopped on a bus to Puno, Peru with a great relief that we were finally leaving Bolivia. Well kind of - we ended up staying an extra day but more on that detour later. I grew to love Bolivia even in the short time I was there, but there is a roughness about it that I haven't quite figured out. You have to approach Bolivia with very low standards and no expectations to keep your sanity. What a great country to test out the "you live and your learn" and "that's just the way it is" mentalities. Hostels and hotels advertise hot showers - but that means that the hot water either worked yesterday or will be fixed tomorrow. Same goes for wifi - "no functionar" is an all to common phrase in Bolivian vocabulary. If you ask the receptionist of the hostel to call a taxi, and they say yes while picking up the phone, chances are you'll be hailing a taxi 5 minutes after the non-called taxi was supposed to be there. We mailed a package home - but days later we saw the package still sitting in the post office (wonder if it'll ever make it?). Live wires stuck out of the one and only 'outlet' at our hostel in la paz - which was still nicer than another one we stayed at in Copacabana where the bathroom mirror was duct taped to the wall. How dare we expect there to be light bulbs in the lamps! We splurged on a really nice hostel one night overlooking Lake Titicaca that even had a hot tub you could reserve- silly us for expecting there to be water in it. One time our taxi (with windows that wouldn't shut) broke down as Marcia and I saw our window of time before our bus departure slowly fizzling away. Oh man, I could gone on forever! If you need to work on practicing acceptance for things out of your control, I highly recommend a vacation to Bolivia. Marcia and I have mastered the art!

So getting to Puno, Peru. We waited in a crowded office in the La Paz bus terminal. Our bus route went through Copacabana, where we would switch buses once and then switch buses again after the border

Dylan and I

crossing. Also waiting for the bus was a kid around my age, with a pair of chacos hanging off his pack. In my fiesty bolivia mood, I didn't hesitate being vocal about my sterotyping abilities "Ha - Chacos! Where in the States are you from?" He laughed, and responded, "Portland, Oregon." "GET OUTTA TOWN! ME TOO!" 30 seconds later, we were rolling out the names of several friends we had in common, as he had coached the ultimate frisbee team at Lewis and Clark one year and worked at a brewery staffed by many LC alumni. Dylan is yet one more small world story to add to the list during my travels - how cool. We talked the whole bus ride to Copacabana which was his final destination. Instead of boarding our next bus on to Puno, Marcia and I decided to crash in Copacabana for the night so we could spend more time with Dylan. We grubbed on some delicious cheese fondu and played cards together until the wee hours of the morning. (Dylan, if you're reading this, I expect many more adventures in PDX in the very near future!)

Come morning, Marcia and I were on the first bus to Puno, Peru which included an easy and uneventful border crossing. We spent the afternoon exploring the floating island of Uros, which are only about a half hour boat ride out of Puno. If you haven't heard about these islands before, you should look them up. These islands (and the buildings on the islands) are made entirely out of the torta reed. The reed is quick to rot so the people of the island are constantly adding new layers of reed to 'ground'. Same goes for their reed boats they use for fishing and moving between islands - which take a day to build and only last 2 weeks before they rot away and are unusable. The people who live on the islands are now a mixed breed of Uros descendants, who speak more Spanish than they do the indigenous Uro language known to the Uros people. The island was quite touristy, unfortunately - the residents selling many handicraft to visitors and a lot of impuestos (small taxes) to enter each of the islands. I knew of the touristy nature of the islands going into it, but i was still curious about the islanders way of life that I had to see it for myself. I left the islands with even more questions and few answers as to exactly how life works on these islands. From diet to political structure to school/education to the sustainability of the torta reed resource...I still don't understand how such a community functions.

We spent the night in Puno, and finally got to sleep in until 7am! New record! We took a morning bus to Arequipa, Peru which was possibly the worst 5 hours of bussing in South America yet. Some guy got on the bus with a microphone as he paced the isle trying to sell his homemade breakthrough weightloss products. Think super low budget infomercial that you can't turn off. By the end of his hour long schpeel, he only had children still captivated because of the periodic candy he was handing out. Let's just say it was quite delightful to arrive in Arequipa - a city many traveler's have raved about. So much so, that Marcia and I had 3 whole days set aside for the city in our very time crunched schedule. Looking forward to a day or two of having a home base!