The Finale

If there was anything that I would plan a bit differently about my trip, I would have loved to have more time

Marcia and I in front of the Oasis

to stay in Huacachina. Perhaps it was just the dearly missed heat, sun, and oxygen levels, but this place is so cool! Huacachina is a only a few miles outside of the bigger town of Ica, but has a completely different feel. It's plopped right down in the middle of giant sand dunes, of which I find their impressiveness comes from their vastness rather than their size. The town is built around an oasis in the middle of the dunes, which they actually now pump ground water into to keep the water level up. Ha - tourism can really ruin everything, huh?

So, logically, the only things to do in such in a place are booze with 20 year old drunk Australians at the hostel or romp in the sand dunes. First thing in the morning, Marcia and were piling into a

Sand Boards and Dune Buggies 

sand buggy and roller coastering our way to the top of the dunes. SO MUCH FUN! Which is saying something a for a girl who grew up with Cedar Point. We parked at the top of a large sand dune, got the sand boards out of the back, and strapped in. How does this work? I've never been snowboarding before, but I would imagine these two activities are remarkably similar. Thankfully, I got the hang of it pretty fast. When you eat it on a sand board, it's quite a bit more painful than snow and probably even pavement. With sand in literally every place sand could be, I was finally making it down to the bottoms of the dunes without falling. A lot of folks just used the sand boards as sleds, going down the dunes on their stomachs. It looked a bit unpleasant to get that much sand in the face! Hope they packed dental floss...The heat and sand warranted a much deserved afternoon by the pool at the hostel, as we rode out our last hours of summer weather before catching our bus back to Lima.

Being back in Lima made me a bit nostalgic. Marcia and I walked through Parque Kennedy and I reflected back to over 3 months ago when I made my first footprints in South America here. I remember trepidation, I remember being worried about if my luggage was ever going to arrive, I remember struggles with Spanish. I remember a high - of pure freedom, joy, power that I had 100 days of an open book to write for myself and just myself. The last time I set foot in the same park was when I returned to South America after my victorious battle with Leptospirosis. I felt confident and comfortable with navigating the South America ropes, yet with a heavy dose of caution after SA's harsh reminder it will go big, or go home. I felt so humbled, lucky and oh so grateful that I was back in SA - a reality that could have been so quickly taken away from me if I didn't have the world's greatest friends and family. I felt empowered - yes! - that I came back determined to end SA on a better note than when I last left. So much unfinished business!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! What a trip. I'm still your same old Katie, so don't fret when I say that this still was a life changing journey. I learned so so so much during my travels, and my learning won't stop even though I'm now back in the States. My perspective and values have been re-calibrated, challenged, and tested. I've been through some rather interesting adventures (and misadventures) with love in both relationships and friendships alike. My feelings towards my family have changed and developed in profound ways during my travels, which is something that I wasn't necessarily expecting to take on. Traveling with Marcia was incredible; her wisdom and spirit were inspiring and humbling. Being the person who you want to be and become is a full time, never ending job. There is so much more I want to say, and I prefer to talk to you (yes, you!) over a beer or tea or a hike about it all.

So I guess this is it: dun dun dun the final post on my blog! For your safety and comfort, we ask that you please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign. Well, the South America chapter that is. My next steps almost feel like a continuation of my travels, just in the US this time. I'll be in and out Cleveland until the first week of August, and then it's off to my much anticipated trip back west. I'll be rompin' in the Bay Area with dear friends for a bit, and then up to Portland on August 13th. GET READY PDX!!!! I miss Portland and my friends there more than I ever thought I would, and I'm quite anxious to get back. Yes, even to pop in a visit at my old job I was so stoked to leave! But SA taught me quite a few lessons in patience, and I know it'll be well worth the wait. Come mid-September I'll be starting my Biophysics PhD at UC Davis. I couldn't be more ready.

So while I've mastered goodbyes during the past 3 months as a backpacker, I still don't really now how one ends a blog. Wait, what's that you say, Bob? "Goodbye's too good a word, babe so I'll just say fare thee well" (Don't Think Twice, It's All Right). Ahhhh, well put. So without further ado...

Fare thee well, team! 

adventure on

Full Breaths!

Ahhhh we have been at high altitude for 2 and a half weeks until today. We descended into Nazca, a small town that is only at 500m of altitude. I FEEL LIKE SUPERWOMAN! Full breaths of air, not getting winded on stairs, etc. To make things even better, Nazca was warm enough for a t-shirt - something else we had yet to experience on our trip so far.

So, Nazca. To sum it up: We saw some lines and the water was hot.

We really only spent half a day in Nazca, but it made it on our itinerary because Marcia really wanted to see the Nazca lines. We arrived off our night but at 7am, plopped our bags off in a hostel, and found a reasonably priced company to take us in a flight over Nazca to see the infamous lines. How those lines were created will probably continued to baffle scientists for centuries to come, and it was very interesting to see them in real life. What are your theories?

We found a surprisingly good chinese restaurant for lunch and then returned to our hostel for a quick nap and a hot shower - I repeat: hot shower (!!!!). I had 2 days of Rio Chilli in my hair which had solidified into one giant dread, of which I found a stick in today. Oh dear... I need to get check myself in check before I come back to the States. Later in the afternoon we hopped on a 3 hour bus ride to Ica where they played the Tom Cruise movie Jack Reacher during the ride. Oh man it was so dumb and predictable but still so good! We had to get off the bus in the last 5 minutes of the movie - poor planning, Cruz del Sur. So yep, that was Nazca in a nutshell.

We're spending the night in Huacachina which is a cute town where more sand buggies are on the road than cars. The whole place is surrounded by the biggest dunes I've ever seen in my life! Marcia and I are signed up for sand boarding and a sand buggie ride (basically a roller coaster ride without the tracks and South American seatbelts) tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! In the afternoon we're going to explore the dunes some more and the oasis in the middle of town before we hit the road to Lima. 

Tomorrow is my last full day in South America for the foreseeable future. Wow. I have so mixed emotions about it, but mostly I just want to stay traveling for a bit longer (maybe the rest of my life? haha). Over 3 months ago I set foot in Peru for the first time in my life bumbling with trepidation and eagerness. It's fun to look back on the places I've ended up and the people I've met along the way, some even of whom I'll be meeting up with again in the next few months. I met a 26 year old from Michigan tonight at the hostel who is only week into his multi-month trip. I got so so so excited for him and his open book he will fill with incredible stories as well. Sigh. Enough writing for now - time to take in my last dose of the southern hemisphere! Bottoms up!

Arequipa and the SDD (Salsa Dancing Discount)

Arequipa is downright gorgeous! The city is quite clean with colonial streets and buildings, yet a very modern feel. The plaza de armas offers an incredible green space in the middle of the city and is bustling with tourists and locals alike 24/7. The city is surrounded by 3 snow capped volcanoes (Chichani, Misti, and Pichu Pichu) and it's easy to get glimpes of these ominous majesties from anywhere in the city.

Home to many great museums, restaurants, and cultural festivities - it was really hard to figure out how to fill our 3 days in Arequipa. To make the decision even harder- Arequipa is the home base for many outdoor adventures into the surrounding wilderness, including the infamous Colca Canyon. You can book anything from a half day horseback riding trip to a 14 day rafting trip through the canyon. Gah! The possibilities are endless!

Our first day in Arequipa was spent exploring the town, getting our bearings, and figuring out what excursion we wanted to do the next day. Drumroll!!!!! We picked rafting! To refresh you memory, the last time I went rafting was in the jungle in Ecuador that resulted in a huge stitchable gash to the face and the contraction of a life-threatening water-borne bacterial infection. So, logically, I was a bit nervous about rafting again - but mind over matter had me squeezing into a wetsuit and splash jacket the next day. I chose to tell my parents about this adventure after I made it down the Rio Chilli without a scratch, so as not to make them instantly sprout dozens of grey hairs out of their head.
Rio Chilli is a very appropriate name for the river we rafted; the water was 7C (~45F) and the snow melt from the nearby Chichani volcano. The day was mostly class 2 and 3 rapids, with a few 4s in the mix. Our guide, Pedro, was very talented - getting us down the river without flipping nor any scary encounters with hydraulics like last time. This isn't to say we didn't go swimming. We pulled over to the bank and climbed up a rather tall rock to jump off of. It was quite shocking to be submerged in the frigid water! Brrrrrr! The rafting trip was over so fast, as it always goes. I'm so in my element when rafting and I was beaming ear to ear for every km of that river. What a blast.
That night, we went out to the bar with the folks from the rafting company, who by default are awesome people. Let's be honest - how can you be a whitewater kayaker for a living and not be cool? Even the boss was there to party up saturday night with us - a husky guy with beautiful dreads and dancing on top of the bar by the end of the night. I had such a great time with all of them - proof being I earned myself an invitation to come out on the river with them the next day for free. D'aaaw :)
Pedro asked me to go Salsa dancing, and for the first time during my travels I said yes. We walked Marcia back to our hostel and then headed out to the dance club. I gave him ample warning that his safety was in jeopardy being my dancing partner and all. Despite the help of Jager bombs, I was still horrific dancer to the entertainment of Pedro. If that wasn't enough to draw attention to myself, I also was the only white person, the only blonde haired person, the only one wearing a knee-length dress, the only one with open toed shoes, and I was taller than literally every person there. Regardless, I had so much fun! Pedro was quite patient with me and a really great teacher. Pedro made sure I got back to my hostel safely, and I finally rolled into bed a 3:30am. Mere hours later, I was back on the river with the same awesome crew, taking advantage of my Salsa Dancing Discount (newly coined term). Marcia spent the day exploring museums and went on an epic shopping adventure while I was on the river again.

One of the more interesting parts of our time in Arequipa was when Marcia and I decided to check out a sunday mass at one of the many elaborate churches in Arequipa. I didn't understand anything the priest was saying, but I don't know how much of that was me being in a Catholic church or the fact that the sermon was in Spanish. Visually the church was fascinating - with elaborate pulpits, offerings, and several graphic lifesize Jesus crucifixes. The service didn't last very long, thank god (haha), because the wooden pews were horribly uncomfortable. For Jesus supposedly being a carpenter, they really could have invested in a good planer tool. You could tell that this church, and community, were part of dozens of people's weekly routines. How beautiful to witness such a snapshot in the Arequipa Catholic tradition. Not a typical tourist adventure, but I'm so glad we went.

We spent many hours in Arequipa in the Plaza de Armas - one of the more remarkable town centers of the places I've been. Marcia and I sat on a bench in the middle of the park and taking in some sunshine one afternoon. While Marcia napped, I talked with a guy from New Jersey for awhile who had a very interesting story. He was studying to be a landscape artist, recently finished his service with the Marines, and had won a trip to the Galapagos during the showcase showdown of the Price is Right 3 years back. Also in the Plaza, I met the parents of one of my fellow classmates from Lewis and Clark - this world is getting smaller by the minute! Throughout the entire time we were there, a passive protest was happening in front of the church in the plaza. Similar to the Occupy movement, it seemed quite unorganized, without any goals (I mustered up enough spanish to ask some of the protesters what was up-they all had different answers), and resulted in just a bunch a people sleeping in tents in a public space. Power to 'em, though! It's nice to see that people haven't given up on fighting for what they think is right, especially since the US has taken a few steps back in Civil Rights this week.

As our time in Arequipa drew to a close, we where overcome with that adrenaline kick associated with the final stretch of our trip. Only 3 more days left! We hopped on a night bus from Arequipa to Nazca - a great time to catch up on this blog and some zzzzzzs. Stay classy, folks.

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!

Uyuni

Uyuni is a small, wind-swept ghost town whose main economy is now catering to tourists wanting to visit the Salt Flats and surrounding areas. Because of this, it only took all of one hour, and one mediocre cappuccino, to find a driver to take us to the Salt Flats for our three day tour.

Also in our jeep were four folks from England; Alex (30), Charles (26), Jemma (23) and Hannah (23). Jemma and Hannah had graduated from university together and were travelling around South America for a month or so. Charles and Alex met a week prior during their own independent travels. The four of them met at a hostel, where the girls convinced the guys to join them on the Salt Flat tour. For lack of a better description,, I found the four of them intellectually unstimulating. This resulted in Marcia and I having

Rompin' in the train graveyard

delightful and thought-provoking conversations from the very back seat of the jeep for three whole days.

Our trip started off visiting a train cemetery just outside the town of Uyuni, a glorified playground of old rusted train cars. Let's just say they were in need of a very experienced mechanic! My dad and my old FEI co-workers would have definitely nerded out here for the day! However, my favorite part of the day hands down was exploring Salar de Uyuni. I remember seeing photos of the vast polygon shaped patterns of the salt flats in National Geographic when I was a little kid. Seeing it with my own two eyes

Loving the Salt Flats!

was just as unreal as the pictures made it seem. It took hours to drive across the salt flat, and it began to sink in how vast and unique this place really was. I was amazed at how harsh it seemed, despite its beauty. The wind, the cold, the endless plain of pure salt made for quite the dehydrating and humbling experience.
That night, we stayed in a hostel made out of salt blocks on the outskirts of the salar. It was freezing cold, but that didn't deter Marcia and I from taking in the gorgeous night sky. It was a new moon, which made for brilliant star gazing to the very edge of the horizon line. The shooting stars, and the wishes I made to go with, were truly the cherry on top of an already magical day.

Because you have to do the cool shots too...

The next day we were up before the sun, ready for a full day of exploring cool rock formations and lagunas on our drive down south. Most of the lakes that we came across on our way to the National Reserve Eduardo Avaroa were inhabited by flocks of flamingos, which were so so so cool to see. Other than the Galapagos earlier on in my travels, I had only previously seen flamingos in the zoo. And there I was, looking at dozens of these majestic birds, complemented by a beautiful blue

sky and snow capped volcanoes in every direction.

Flamingos, Lagunas, and Volcanoes - Oh My!

At sunset, we entered the National Reserve Eduardo Avaroa which protects many endangered species that live in the salt flats. The landscapes that we saw along the drive changed drastically, and each one resembled a moonscape. In fact, the whole tour felt as if we were on another planet. This place is unreal!!!! We gained some serious altitude during the day and were in a snowstorm by late afternoon. brrrrr.....and to think that I am missing my Portland summer! It was at this point that I was thankful for our driver, Freddie, as we towed other 4WD vehicles that got stuck in the snow. He was awesome! The chill sunk into our bones as the sun went down, but hardly took away from enjoying the incredible landscapes we were in. Picture this: herds of vicunas roaming the vast plains of the reserve, snow capped volcanoes in the distance, an orange sunset, and patches of white snow all around. The days go by so fast here!

We woke up long before sunrise on our third and last day of our excursion. We started the day cuddling

Warming our hands over the hot springs

mugs of hot beverages and worked up excitement for geysers and hot springs. Exploring the geysers was wonderful, as the hot steam was a nice reprieve from the teeth chattering and frigid air. This is no Yellowstone, folks. You can walk right up to the geysers and stand over bubbling stews of scalding mud. It did get a little sketchy at times when you would be looking over a boiling pit and then start to feel the ground give out beneath you. I think I understand why Yellowstone has everything roped off now.......

Later on in the day, we went to some hot springs that seemed randomly placed in the reserve. It was

awful getting in to just a swimsuit in the freezing cold. I hurriedly tip-toed across a sheet of ice to the

Rompin' in the Moonscape

hotspring, and luxuriated in the steaming sulphury bath of awesome! An hour later, we were back in the 4WD, making good time and tracks back to Uyuni. To the east of Salar de Uyuni on our way to the Dessert of Salvador Dali, there were some really cool rock formations that we had the chance to explore. I have never been to Arches or Moab, but this area is what I imagine it would be like. Brilliant red rocks -which were a blast to climb - completed the desert scene.

All too quickly, we were back in Uyuni, hurriedly repacking our bags, saying the all too common goodbyes, and catching the night bus for an 11 hour bumpy ride back to La Paz. Zzzzzzzzz.

World's Most Dangerous Road

I'm not one for big cities, and La Paz was no exception. Marcia and I took a bus from Copacabana to La Paz after a ferocious morning of hail and sleet over Lake Titicaca. La Paz wasn't much warmer, and transitioning to such a bustling place was overwhelming. The demeanor of Bolivians is drastically different

La Cumbre (4700m): The Start of the Death Road

than those in Peru and Ecuador: more aggressive and a pronounced dog eat dog mentality. We were advised from other travelers to do day trips out of La Paz; as a city there wasn't a whole lot of must-sees or must-dos. The one day trip that we went on was the 40 mile mountain bike ride down the World's Most Dangerous Road. It came highly recommended to us and I as well will share such enthusiasm. WHAT A BLAST!

We woke up early (ugh I still have yet to sleep in past 6:30am on this trip) and met our group at a cafe in downtown La Paz. We met our group and our guide who was a rare breed of Aussie/Kiwi mix (if only I could capture how ridiculous his accent was...). Similar to my Cotopaxi adventure, we piled into a van with mountain bikes attached to the roof. Up, up, up we went as we took in fantastic views of Mount Huyana Potosi and Illimani. We braved snow and wind at the top of our ride, but by the end we were suffering through the hot and humid jungle (we descended 3600m).

The easiest way to describe the WMDR is to outline 4 sections of it: the first part was a very easy downhill

Yum...mountains!

on paved road for those who haven't biked in a while to get to know their bikes and brakes. The second part of the ride was loose gravel and sharper turns and a bit steeper of a grade. The third part of the ride whizzed around turns with a 500 meter drop off to one side. The fourth part of the ride was extremely easy and came with a wall of heat and humidity as we entered the jungle. It felt so good to be on bike again! So free...so fast...so exhilarating! The ride itself was extremely beautiful. I still have yet to take it for granted of the beautiful mountains, volcanoes, and jungles that I have seen so much of on my trip.

The most exciting part of the day was when I put my WFR skills to use. I was on the heels of two bags of Aussie testosterone as they raced each other down the road. Luke (bless his heart) has been quite accident -prone on his trip so far, the WMDR being no exception. He hit a big rock and flipped over his handle bars, landing into a quite uncomfortable looking faceplant. I got him into a safe position, went through the ABC's

There's the road...and the cliff that drops 500m...

of first aid, and provided the calm over chaos needed until other medical help arrived. The report is one dislocated jaw, two broken arm bones, several broken ribs, and probably one doozer of a hospital bill. Yeesh....at least it's not me going to the hospital for once.

The last part of the ride was my favorite, simply because I was basking in warmth and oxygen levels (we descended pretty far in altitude) that Marcia and I hadn't seen for almost two weeks. The jungle never ceases to amaze me, and I loved riding through the different pockets of sounds and smells of this remarkable road.

Our muddy group (minus Luke) had our last laughs together over some cold brewski's before we parted ways. Our day was long from over, despite having mountain biked over 40 miles. It took three hours to return back to La Paz, and then we got our luggage out of storage and headed off to the bus terminal. We took the overnight bus to Uyuni, which was 10 hours of bumpy, unpaved roads. I could have sworn that the bus had square wheels, If I hadn't known any better....

Upon arrival to Uyuni, we hunted around for a reliable agency to take us into the Salt Flats, on a highly recommended three day jeep tour. Success! Stay tuned, team!

4th of July Started With a Bang!

Quite literally that is. We took a night bus to Puno, arriving at 5am. We then boarded a 6am bus to Copcabana, Bolivia. We got maybe 5 minutes out of the bus terminal, before our bus came to a halt. The riots/strike/political protest were still going on, so the road was blocked for easily over a mile. Our bus driver asked us to quickly close our curtains as we obtained a police escort through the riot. IT was a very slow process because they had to remove the giant rocks that protesters put in the roads to block traffic. Nevertheless, we inched our way through the riot and I couldn't help but peek out of the small gap between the curtain in the window. It was a rather passive crowd for a riot; some folks were shouting into megaphones and there was even a marching band. Ooooo a parade! It's starting to sound like 4th of July! Small bombs were being set off (some uncomfortably close to our bus), filling the air with the sulfur smell and loud bangs that until now I've only associated with 4th of July and model rockets. Looks like we didn't even have to wait for nightfall for some independence day excitement! It took about an hour and a half to pass through the strike, but I was more fascinated with watching the sunrise over Lake Titicaca. Periodically the sound of broken glass, or the crowds of riot police would draw my attention. It made me a bit nervous to see so many people with guns and cracked windshields on all the police vehicles, but I never felt like my safety was in jeopardy. I'm not sure what the riot was entirely about - some say it was a strike by the teacher union, others say it was residents protesting a proposed dam. Regardless, I thought it was really cool to witness such fights for civil freedoms, especially on our independence day.
So while Marcia and I have sparklers and stupid red white and blue glow stick glasses to celebrate our national holiday, it's really not about fireworks and bbqs. It's about freedom. And that word has gained so much more weight for me since I began my travels. More on this later...I want to tell you more about how we spent our July 4th.

A few hours after successfully passing through the riots, we had to navigate our way through the Peruvian/Bolivian border crossing. This crossing was possibly the most confusing experience ever. We were awakened abruptly from our slumber with our driver shouting out directions for executing the border crossing. I picked up enough words to get the gist of what we had to do. We started in one building to get our Peru immigration papers and passports checked, and then moved on to another building to formerly exit Peru. We then had to walk for a few minutes near to the actual Peru/Bolivia border, where we entered a buliding to apply for our Bolivia visa. We then had to go to another building to photocopy our passport for the visa applicaiton, and then return to the other side of the previous building to formerly enter Bolivia. Marcia and I came out, each holding a random pile of paperwork, our passports, $135 poorer, and royally confused about what just happened. Whatever, we made it to Bolivia! We held hands as we official walked across the border to meet our bus, complete with a celebratory independence day "God Bless America".

When we arrived in Copacabana (a ridiculously small town), we flipped through our guide book to find a hostel to stay in. We got off the bus, gathered our bearings, and ventured to the infamous backpacker's splurge - Hostel La Capula. Complete with a heater (Bolivia is cold, folks!), clean towels, and views of Lake Titicaca, we kind of wished we could have stayed longer. We had barely been in our room for 5 minutes before Marcia was hanging up pictures of fireworks on the wall. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that loves celebrating the 4th of July!

We spent the afternoon on a boat ride to Isla del Sol - a really cool island in Lake Titicaca that is home to a rich Incan history and a is spiritual center. We didn't wander too much of the island, rather we took it in over a hot cup of coffee. We perused the local handicraft and watched boats going in and out of the docks. As we waited for our water taxi back to Copacabana, Marcia skipped stones with a little girl, who looked really confused when Marcia would count how many skips she got in a half french, half american spanglish. They both were having a blast, regardless of the language barrier, and I could only sit back and smile at the grand time these two were sharing together. Meanwhile I sat with another little girl on the dock nearby, helping her count all the super rad rocks she found in the lake. Gah! Bolvian children are so adorable! As our taxi pulled away, the little girl was still skipping stones from the shore. For those of you who don't know - Lake Titicaca is one of the 7 earth chakras. I have invested a lot of spiritual significance in the place, and watching the sunset on our way back to Cocacabana was nothing short of amazing.

When we got back to our hostel, we broke open our red white and blue glow stick glasses, and pocketed 2 boxes of sparklers. We met two other travelers - both British- on the front patio of the hostel. We chatted with them for a hot second, and then I, forgetting they were British, asked them if they wanted to play with sparklers with us to celebrate America's independence day. Oops. Marcia watched in amusement/concern as the fact that I just asked two brits to celebrate the anniversary of a battle their country lost went way over my head. They kindly declined. The first and only fizzle of the night. HA

Marcia and I sat in adirondack chairs overlooking Lake Titicaca, singing freedom songs and plowing through all of our sparklers. We started up at the gorgeous night sky - milky way and all - telling fond memories of past 4th of July celebrations. We watched a lightening storm roll in across the lake; a childlike joy and freedom washed over me - there was nowhere else I would rather be. I fell asleep with Pete Seeger stuck in my head, reminiscing on this one of kind independence day. From the booms and bangs from the strike near Puno, to dipping my toes into Lake Titicaca, we surely must have made America proud. God Bless, Team. Stay tuned.