From Bolivia to Peru

I have an amazing ability to torture myself: I returned from Rurrenabaque by bus (ref. an earlier blog update). Back in La Paz I felt weak due to the altitude, but saved the day by going to the movies in the evening to see 'Sex and the City 2'. I couldn't have waited until I'm back in Finland, and it was good to escape the Bolivian reality for two hours. The next day I visited the Coca Museum, walked around the city and spent several hours on the computer updating my blog, downloading photos, buying a flight ticket...

My next stop was the enormous lake Titicaca, one of the highest navigable lakes in the world and the largest in South America. The town of Copacabana was too touristy to my taste, but I really enjoyed my excursion to the island of Isla del Sol: seeing the Inca ruins, dipping into the lake at an empty beach, walking through the island and enjoying my breakfast with an amazing view to the lake.

From Copacabana I travelled straight to Arequipa, Peru. I had a very nice guy sitting next to me, and we were chatting the whole way - a good practice for my Spanish. Just before arriving I got something to add to my stories about busrides: we had a flat tire.

The next morning I headed for Colca, a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. On the way I met an American guy and two girls from the Czech Republic. We teamed up and decided to get up at 5 am the following morning in order to get an early start for our hike into the canyon. As much as I hate getting up early, it was a good decision, as we could do the zig-zag path along the steep mountain side down to the river at the bottom of the canyon before the sun hit us. It was a descent of about 1000 meters. Then it was a sweaty hike up to the village of Talca, where we had lunch (alpaca, rice and tomatoes at a very basic restaurant) and a siesta. People live at weird places: the only transport to and from the village is by mules via the 4-hour mountain trail. Despite the amazing landscapes I might not be able to live there... In the afternoon we walked down to Oasis, a place offering dinner and accomodation in basic bungalows. The following morning the Czech girls walked up to Cabanaconde to return to Arequipa, whereas William, the American, had decided to continue to a waterfall about 5 hours away. I felt like having a bit more excercise - to my surprise my knees were ok after the long hike down to the canyon - so I stayed with Will. Unfortunately we got lost twice that morning. The path we had been following - a narrow path and partly a bit scary due to the altitude and the steep drop down - suddendly ended into a land of bush and cacti. We had to climb up the hill to see another path - this time obviously the correct one. But we had lost a lot of time and I was so tired that I decided to forget about the waterfall and just head back to Cabanaconde. I was planning to have lunch in the village of Paclla on the way. But there are only four old people living in the village and the señora who has a small shop and cooks for hikers wasn't home. The old man I met advised me to continue to the next village of Llahuar - which proved out to be just two houses offering accomodation. On the way there I suddenly saw a snake on the path. "Oh, fuck!" slipped out of my mouth as I stepped back. I'm really afraid of snakes, but as the snake wasn't moving, I managed to keep calm and take photos of it. But it did scare me out; I started to think how dangerous it was to walk alone in those mountains. In the next village the people told me that the snake wasn't poisonous. And later in Arequipa I was also told that a snake symbolises 'Pachamama', Mother Earth, so it was a lucky sign and I would now have the wisdom of the earth. Anyways, after getting lost and seeing the snake I just wanted to get out of the damn valley, no matter how peaceful and beutiful it was. After having a good lunch in Llahuar I felt much better. Even though the hostel owner tried to convince me to stay the night, enjoy the swimming pool and walk back to Cabanaconde early in the morning, I decided to go. But it meant that I had to walk the last two hours in the dark. Luckily I had my headlamp and the trail was wide. I've never been so happy to see animal dung - seeing mule poo on the trail always proved I was on the correct trail. I was tired after about 12 hours of walking, but just kept going. Finally, a little before 8 pm I arrived in Cabanaconde. It felt a bit like going to the Middle Ages. (Although there was electricity and street lamps.) Adobe houses, donkeys, women wearing scarves on their shoulders, a massive old church next to the central square...

Now I'm in Cusco where I met again my friend Kati, who hosted me in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Tomorrow we'll start our trip to Machu Picchu.