Finalmente...Peru y Bolivia

Well I've made it back from Peru and Bolivia and let me tell you, it was a great and beautiful trip! Our first stop was Arequipa, Peru. It's the second most visited city in Peru I think, after Cusco and for good reasons! After a day of traveling from Arica, CHile to Arequipa our first full day we made it to the Santa Catalina monastery. This monastery was huge, and is essentially another city within the city of Arequipa. It was also very colorful and beautiful as you can see in the first two picture below. In the monastery I felt the serenity and the peaceful lives that the nuns lead in this city as everything was clean, quiet, and beautiful. I also felt that the walls were restricting and baring down on me while I was within. While the walls kept everything unsafe, dirty and bad outside, it also kept everything inside removed from reality. 

Santa Catalina:

On our second full day in Arequipa we woke up at 2:15 am to go on a full day tour of the Colca Canyon, which was a three hour drive away from Arequipa. The tour was beautiful and worth the early morning wake up! The canyon is considered the deepest canyon in the world by National Geographic, and I personally would consider it one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The canyon is still inhabited by small farming communities. The walls of the canyon are mostly pre-inca made terraces where these communities today still grow quinoa and potatoes. It was an incredible day and I feel as though it makes up for not making it to Machu Pichu. 

This first picture is at the highest point in Peru at 4,910 meters! The stacks of rocks that are sort of visible are wishes made by the Quechua and Aymara people of Peru.

The terraces that were everywhere along the valley

from the point where it is deepest!

 

On the drive home, the canyon changes from hilly and rough rock to soft grass plain-land. We saw many llama, Alpaca and Vicuña along the side of the road.

From Arequipa we took a bus to Puno, Peru on lake Titicaca. Our original plan had been to go straight to Bolivia but we weren't able to make it across the border in time before it closed. Which is weird right? The border closed at 6pm! But lucky for us it did, because we got to see an amazing culture from the lake. The Uros Islands are a group of floating islands in which a community of 2,000 Aymara live. It takes about a year to make an island of reeds in which 4 or 5 families live on. It was amazing to see and experience the island life, even for an hour or so. These are some of my favorite shots from my time on the Islas de Uros. 

 

Then from Islas de Uros we went to Copacabana, Bolivia and the Island of the Sun! Copacabana was a sleepy little beach town with really good trout and a lot of tour agencies. This picture is the amazing view from our hostel! Because we were detained in Puno, we only had a afternoon and a morning in Copacabana so we weren't able to spend a full day on the Island of the Sun which was a disappointment but we were able to see quite a bit!

Here is a picture from our walk along the Island of the Sun. It was a beautiful little island filled with Aymara indigenous people who speak the Aymara language more than Spanish. 

And then from Copacabana we took a bus to La Paz, Bolivia and two hours later we caught an overnight bus to Uyuni where we began a three day tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats and surrounding desert. It was a lot to do in little time and we were exhausted when we arrived in Uyuni but it was amazing! Our tour group there was our guide/chauffeur/chef Iver, two guys from Italy who didn't know each other previously, a swedish kid who was spending 6 months in South America, and the three of us girls.

Our first day was the day of the Salt flats

Our second day was the day of the lagoons in which we saw tons of flamingos

 
Our third day was the day of the rocks

It was a beautiful tour and a beautiful time. However, the three of us upon reflection, realized that the tour was very uncomfortable in terms of the relationship with the Bolivians and the tourists. OUr bolivian tour guide was working extremely hard all day to make sure that everything was perfect for us tourists, while being payed relatively very low wages. The money we payed was no where near how much the tour should have cost. And us, the tourists, getting carted around taking pictures and having a jolly old time. It instigated a lot of discussion between us as we struggled to identify our roles and responsibilities in changing this system of injustice and inequality. 

From Uyuni we took another night bus to La Paz, Bolivia. This is a view from the top of La Paz looking down into the valley that the city was built within. La Paz is the highest city in the world and trust me, altitude is no joke. Also, the pollution combined with the altitude made for very difficult breathing. The city of La Paz was very interesting and a very good experience for us to have I think. Bolivia is 60% indigenous and the indigenous culture is very strong. So is too however, poverty. It was very difficult to see the little boys and girls dancing on the side of the street in their dirty little shoes and faces, while walking on through as our terroists our day as tourists.