Titi side of the Lago/Canyon

So PUNO PERU we made it. After 4 weeks of Fantastic Bolivia. We thought indigenous termoil was over, but NOW we are in Peru it is actually worse than Bolivia. When we arrived at the Bus Station in Puno travelers were sent in a tizzy because NO ONE COULD GO TO CUZCO/Macchu Picchu. The roads were closed due to indigenous people (Campesinos/Farmers) blocking the roads because of them not getting along with the government. They block the road with boulders, rocks, trees, cars, fire and keep it going for many days. So many travelers were trying figure out their situation.

It was great for us because we did not have to be in Cuzco yet.....So Puno

Puno was great. We took a boat out to see the Uros People. They have left the mainland and live on Islands in Lake Titicaca. So back in the day, the Incas killed most of them and they decided to move to where they were safe. So they took these grass reeds and made islands, houses, boats, food, bedding, and everything you can think of out of these reeds. It is quite amazing how they live. Such a different culture. We only spent an afternoon out on the water and then headed back to the bus terminal and took a VERY COLD bus to Arequipa Peru. So we arrived from Bolivia, stirred with cuzco people, left bus terminal, went to islands, returned to bus and left to Arequipa. Busy day.

Nacky has become a great travel partner with us. He has been fun and his fluency in spanish has been beneficial. He might finish his travels with us in Peru and head back to Puerto Rico for the Holidays.

After a 6 hour bus ride to Arequipa we all found a hostal close to the bus station. We had Asian food in the Bus station for 4 soles 1 american dollar. Then went to bed.

We woke early on the sunday to go to the bus station to head to Colca Canyon. Since it was Sunday all the bus tickets were sold so we had to wait a day. So we toured Arequipa, had ceviche (Raw Fish cured in citrus) It was great. Then had a great dinner in town and then headed back to sleep.

Early the next day we took a 6 hour bus to the 2nd DEEPEST (in capital's for Cassie's Perfect grammer discussion) Canyon in the World Colca Canyon. It is 3191 m about 10,500 ft or so. We arrived in Cabanaconde. Ate lunch and started what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike which turned into 3 because of some wrong turns. We followed local advice as best as possible. The trail kept shrinking and shrinking and then we started going down steep cliffs and we all decided that it could not be the way. On our way back up an indigenous woman in the picture above was waving us toward her up on the hill. She told us people go the way we went but they never come back. We told her that is why we turned around. She guided us to the main trail down the canyon and smooth sailing after that. We went down about 1500 m to the river in the canyon.

There was a wonderful place to camp with pools, other travelers to chat with. We had a great dinner. Sat by the river for a while and just talked with a variety of people. The views of the Canyon were amazing. The next morning we woke and headed back up. 3.5 hours straight up. Tough work. Stair stepper for that long is tough. Cassie, Nacky, and Myself had Jello legs for 2 days afterwards. That afternoon we took a bus back to Arequipa after sitting and observing the steep canyon from the top. It was beautiful scenery.

We arrived in Arequipa and again travelers were sent into a tizzy the Road to Cuzco was open for 2 days. SO everyone except us bought tickets to Cuzco. We were tired and decided to sleep in Arequipa for the night.

We bought our tickets in the morning and headed out on a bus to Cuzco. We left at 7:30 and arrived at 6 pm. The road block remnants were still there. IT made it interesting for about an hour of zig zagging through random materials on the road, but we made it to Cuzco through all the civil unrest. It is nice to be here. We talked to people that left Arequipa the night before. Their bus broke down, they slept in the bus overnight, hitch hiked in the morning and caught another bus and cost them double the price and then arrived at 10 pm 26 hours later. They arrived in Cuzco 4 hours after us. They were pissed. We were happy to make a good decision.

Well we are in Cuzco. THE INCAN EMPIRE! Great Details to Come.....................

Isla del Sol Trek and our final days in Bolivia...

So many of you already know, but Lake Titicaca is on the border of Peru, it is said that Peru has Titi and Bolivia has Caca... we really enjoyed the caca part of the lake!

We awoke in Copacabana with our plan for a three day trek out to Isla del Sol, it is a relatively easy hike from the city to Yampapata where you take a boat across to Isla del Sol which is the main attraction. As we were hiking we kept our eyes out for fellow travelers to share a boat with... and we came upon Ingrid and John... from the UK and they were doing the same trek as us. We talked politics and world travels, they have been married for 26 years and are loving life at the bright young age of 78! Yes I said 78 years young! They truly inspired us to continue to enjoy life to the fullest... You can see them in the picture of Tito helping the local woman row the boat we took to the Island.

Once we got to the Island we hiked a bit further and set up camp... it was definitely one of the most scenic campsites we have encountered on our travels so far. There is also a picture... We awoke the next morning and headed out early (they don't call it Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun for nothing!) We arrived to our next destination by 11 AM... way ahead of schedule. We enjoyed some ruins just before the hoards of tourist boats arrived to see the same thing... then we headed to our final campsite of the trip a nice quiet cove with livestock grazing along the edge. Some local young kids sat down and just stared at us for awhile and a Burro came over and wouldn't leave Tito alone.... it was an amusing afternoon.

Next day we got up and walked to the boat launch to get back to Copacabana. We just missed the cut off and almost had to wait until late afternoon to take the boat, but we hooked up with another traveler and snagged a ride on a private boat.... That traveler has turned out to be a great friend, his name is Nacky and his from Puerto Rico we met up with him that night for our last night in Bolivia... we enjoyed ourselves greatly at a local restaurant and then were invited to a birthday party of a woman named Roxanne from Argentina. We enjoyed music and a fire with people from all over south america and the U.S. it was a great way to say farewell to our favorite country so far! We boarded a bus the next morning, very tired and it took all of 10 minutes to get to the border of Peru, where our bus driver proceeded to sideswipe a car because he was trying to squeeze by a delivery truck. After a slight battle of words, we were on our way in PERU!

Sorata...Our Trekking Days Begin!

We finished up Rurre with a night out with the New Zealand couple. Talked about our journeys. In the morning we loaded up and took the 1 hour flight back to La Paz. We had a good meal in La Paz and took a 4 hour ride to Sorata. Before we left La Paz there was a march of thousands of people because Bolivia is changing the constitution. While I was waiting for Cassie (Bano) two guys came up and tried to pick pocket cassies large backpack but but I was aware and quickly looked at each of them and they quickly took off. A woman selling bread next to me was furious and was yelling at them too. She was on to them before I was. She was nice. Making sure everything was good afterwards.

Then we left....

Wow what a town! We arrived in Sorata the night before Titos birthday ready to get into the back country on our own... we soon found out we had to hire a guide which was frustrating, but we spent the money and went ahead with it. Mario was our guide and by the photo you can see we sure tired him out :)

Sorata is at 8500 ft roughly and the first days hike was to end at Laguna Chillata which was roughly 13,500 ft. IT was all up hill/mountain. No mules needed though we are tough like that....or stupid. Some parts were very steep. Our guide took us into his back yard. We left at like 9:30 am and arrived at the lake around 4:30 tired. Cloud coverage was crazy. We could not see much that day because of the clouds.

We ate dinner and tried to sleep..... TRIED..... due to such high ascent our bodies did not do well. We were ok but did not feel the greatest. I went out to use the bathroom and the clouds were so thick I only walked maybe 50 ft from the tent and tried to walk back and could not see the tent. I had to yell Cassies name several times before she heard me then I followed her voice to the tent. SCARY a little. I was not far only 20 ft to the left. She was up using the bathroom several times. THEN a crazy lightening storm came in. Being up that high it seemed nerve racking lightning strikes all around. It lasted 2 hours. Scary story part 2. So when it was all said and done it was 3 am and we woke up at 5:30 am to start our climb up to very high heights.

We woke with our guide hiking up with his daughter. She was our guard. She guarded the tents. He awoke at 2 am and walked down an hour and a half to get her and then walked back up 2 hours to be there for breakfast.

We left for our hike up. We both were not feeling the greatest but we made it to the base of the glacier which was fantastic at 16,500 to 17,000 ft or so. It took us 4 hours. STEEP hiking up on little energy passing mines, water flows, huge snowy mountain landscape. It was gorgeous. Great views for miles. Enjoy the pictures. We then headed back down and arrived in camp with his daughter dancing to the radio. We packed up and walked two more hours down feeling better every step of the way. It was great to get lower for lightning and for health. We slept well that night and woke at 6 am so our guide (who is a politician for his little town) could get to La Paz to focus on the constitution. He walked to his town and we walked on our own to Sorata. The mountains were gorgeous that day.

We arrived at our hostal packed up all our belongings we did not take with us on the hike and took a small vw bus (called a Micro) to Haurina with our guide (he was in the bus too). Now these buses hold 12 passengers comfortably. How many were in our first Micro of the day? 21... yes I said 21 passengers! At Haurina we got off and then waited from 11 to 3 or so to catch another small vw bus to Taquina where we took a Ferry across lake titicaca (that Micro trip started with Cassie sitting on my lap because there were no more seats!). Then another vw Bus to Copacabana where we are currently updating the blog and doing laundry. My clothes from the jungle WREEEEEK of pungent smelly sweaty days of jungle hiking. I mean smelling up the whole hostal smelly. We are proud of ourselves for the heights we traveled in hiking, our muscles are sore and we are relaxing them too.

Tomorrow we head out to Isla del Sol for another three day trek... stay tuned for more updates when we get to Peru... as you can tell we found a computer lab that is super fast and can upload lots of photos... enjoy!

Welcome To the Jungle

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE??? YOUR IN THE JUNGLE BABY!!! AND YOUR GONNA ............. You all know G&R, come on. That is correct, we went and did a fantastic Amazon Jungle Tour with an Eco Lodge called Madidi Travels. If you want information about the park itself and the lodge we visited and the woman in charge you can look at the National Geographic March 2000. The front cover is with 2 Macaws flying and it Says Bolivias Madidi National Park. Great story and info. ANYWAYS!!!

We arrived in Rurrenbaque at 7 in the morning to hot and humid and rainy conditions. We went to the Madidi Travel place and met 2 great volunteers from New Zealand and we booked a 4 day 3 night tour. We finished up odds and ends in the morning and left around11:30 am with 2 others from Italy/Chile. The boat ride was down the Rio Beni for 3 hours to some private land with 4 lagunas, lots of trails, canoeing, and wildlife/plantlife fauna.

Upon our arrival a pecory (wild pig) came to the boat and bathed itself. We also took a baby anteater out to be released because its mom was taken from it. So they were feeding it and releasing it once big enough. It was cool to see it up close. We saw tons of monkeys in the trees and learn about many plants on the 20 minute walk from the river to the cabins.

We then became cozy in our screened in private cabana. IT was great. You could hear and see tons of wildlife right from our cabana. The first night Cassie and I were tired so we just had dinner with the other couple (The food was great for each meal). They went on a night hike and we went back and went to sleep after the long bus ride over night the day before.

Each day after we woke early to walk starting around 6:30 am and hiking until 1 pm. It was hot. The bugs not too bad but the ticks were amazing Cassie wore shorts the first hike from the boat to the cabana and ended up with at least 40 ticks on her body. I had some as well but we cleaned her off like a family of monkeys and she was good to go. During our hikes we saw tons of birds, Macaws were awesome in the wild, anteaters, monkeys (3 types), Coati (raccoon like), A weasel of some sort, tons of insects, snakes, lizards, stingrays, fish, caimen, tarantulas, spiders, leaf cutter ants, giant ants. These one monkeys sounded like gorillas and you could hear them from miles away and we found them. I was scared when we were really close because they sound huge but only as big as a 10 year old child or so. I am sure they are strong and they sound ferocious so no need to wrestle or anything.

We took a hike through there plantation. They are self sufficient growing all their own fruits and veggies plus rice all themselves. The jungle is amazing and I hope you enjoy the pictures. This trip excited us about our trip down the amazon if it is possible. So much wildlife. We saw native people fishing as well. Just beautiful. Totally reccomend this trip to everyone. Enjoy the pictures. Read below if you want to hear about some poor behavior in the park.

Skip reading the next section if you dont want to hear about bad USA behavior.

Last but not least. A soap box a little. So the Madidi National park where we were, is home to many animals and wildlife. The park is not protected the best because people are poor and the officials are being paid off by rich logging companies and the jungle is being devistated. Read the article I mentioned above and it goes into depth. BUT AGAIN which seems to be a trend, 60% of the logged trees which are Mohogany mostly GOES TO THE USA!! WE as a people want to help save the world but we again use ALL THE RESOURCES. In the end USE LESS STUFF you dont really need it anyways!! Sorry I had to do it. It is funny to me how we protect the USA national parks but we just go to other countries and take their beautiful things from their beautiful places to make sure we have what we need. I know sorry I end it there. It just frustrates a little.

Biking Down the World´s Most Dangerous Road! & Animal Refuge

So we survived biking down the ¨World´s Most Dangerous Road¨, La Paz to Coroico with a company called Gravity. This was Tito´s second time defying the odds... we had a great time, enjoyed the scenery and the company of the other travelers. There were 6 Aussies, 4 Irish folks, a Dutch couple and us. Unfortunately one of the Irish guys, took a digger towards the bottom and he may have broken his shoulder. Tito and I stayed in Coroico instead of going back to La Paz with the rest of the group because we were headed North to Rurrenebaque by bus. So we don´t know his outcome, but we´re hoping for the best for him!

The bike trip ended at an animal refuge where the Monkey´s were literally all over Tito, there are some pictures of me trying desperately to get the monkey´s to come to me, but they were too interested in Tito! :) It was fun, but because we had to take a taxi to the closest town of Coroico, we couldn´t stay too long.

The bike trip started in white capped mountains as you can see, and ended in the jungle! Major temperature and humidity change which was unreal!

We continued by bus the following day. We had to take a ¨taxi¨to a town called Yolosita where we would take the ¨2:00¨bus (really anytime between 1:30 and 4 - it arrived around 3:30). When we showed up for the taxi, they put us in the open flatbed of a beat up old truck with three other local people and we enjoyed a hot, dusty 20 minute ride to the town. It was funny because we asked about 5 different people how long the bus was and when it would arrive in Rurrenebaque the answers varied from 12 hours to 2o hours and arriving anywhere between 5 am and 9 am! It turned out to be 16 HOT, HUMID, HOURS, OVERNIGHT in a bus with no bathroom on a dirt road! I didn´t realize that the bus would continue down ¨The Most Dangerous Road¨ but it sure did... it even managed to pass other busses and trucks without falling off the edge. There were a few times I couldn´t look and just prayed! They also pick up lots of people en route to anywhere because people use all the busses for public transportation so they literally pack people in so much that people stand in the aisles and sometimes seats are double booked. An older Chola woman was in Tito´s seat when we got on the bus, but luckily he found another and she got off after about 3 hours... it was interesting to say the least!

Rurrenebaque was amazing, they are getting ready to close the computer lab, so I have to go, but we will update more later. Tomorrow is Tito´s birthday and we are going to celebrate by going on a three day backpacking trek in Sorata to some glaciers and lagunas, we are back in the altitude, so it will be cold, but fun! We´ll update when we get back down!

Amazing La Paz...

WOW! What a city! We took a bus from Cochabamba that was supposed to be 7 hours to La Paz, two hours into the trip, the bus stopped working! Broken down on the side of the road, ended up waiting for over 2 hours for a new bus... but it did arrive and we got to La Paz still during daylight.

But what an incredible city to drive into! You come in from the top on the Altiplano and as you get closer, you see the city plunging into the Valley with snow covered mountains in the background! It was awesome!

La Paz is a bustling city, lots of people, markets, color, and culture. Just take a look at the pictures. Some of the pictures attached are from Tarabuco a market outside the city of Sucre which is famous for it´s detailed textiles. It was pretty amazing to be around that kind of culture with almost everyone in native clothing, we certainly did stick out, but did we ever get hassled! Man it was hard to get out of there without buying everything we looked at! We ended up with two hats, and a bracelet.

Back to La Paz, it has been a lot of fun! A few days touring the city, and tomorrow we are off on a mountain biking trip from the altiplano to the jungle! We have tasted the local flavor of the markets, but unfortunately it has not been sitting well with Cassie, if you know what I mean, so she is back to bland foods!

A Few of the highlights:
All the fruit you could ever want or get in big heaping bowls for 5 Bolivianos which is less than $1.00!

Fresh juice at every corner...

Shoemakers repairing shoes on the side of the street! There is a picture of some people talking to him...

Mate de Coca tea which cures everything from headaches to stomach aches to altitude sickness (we may test positive for cocaine, but we feel better) j-k it´s true we might test positive, but it has NO effects of cocaine

We stayed in a hostal in the Witches market area, in one of the pictures, you can see the sign, Mercado de Brujas... interesting things for sale, for sure!

Lots of micros which are minivans that take people different places inside and outside the city, all with a person hanging out the front window yelling in a monotone voice their destinations, over and over again!

It is a whirilwind, but one we have loved every minute of, even if we don´t feel 100%... stayed tuned for more pictures soon!

Oh and for all those of you emailing us to ask, we are printing out our absentee ballots as we speak and they will be sent in ASAP! All those of you in the US, get out and vote!

lots of love,
Cassie and Tito