When we arrived in La Paz, we checked into Hotel Elegance. When booking hotels, I read a million reviews so I have gotten pretty good at hotel selection. On Hotel Elegance, most of the reviews were positive with a few “a bit dated” comments. Since we do not really care about “a bit dated”, I booked the hotel. Once I had convinced the desk employee that I really could live without the “wonderful view from the seventh floor” (the elevator only went to the fifth floor), we made our way to the fifth floor. I am pretty sure that in 1972, the Hotel Elegance was a sight to be seen! Unfortunately, it had not been updated since that time. When I sat in the chair, the arm fell off. The sofas were something that not even a frat house would have saved from the trash bin and everything in the room was burnt orange. However, the room was clean and besides the fear of crashing out of the chairs, it was safe. The next morning, we began our day at the buffet breakfast that was also from 1972. Thank goodness for the pineapple and watermelon that kept us alive each day. The altitude of La Paz was over 12,000 feet above sea level so we were a couple of slow moving snails. We managed to make it to the San Francisco Basilica which was a grand cathedral that was very dark and ominous. I am guessing it costs too much to keep it well lit during the day but it was beautiful none the less. On this tour, we discovered that the Bolivians tend to honor their commanders that lost battles. We think it was because they have not won many battles in history so they must take what they can get. Our guide would say, “Here lies so and so. On such and such a date, he was defeated at the battle of ____. He is a great hero for us.” Thus the reason that Bolivia is landlocked (see previous blog about Guano Wars)! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town wondering why every other shop was a barbershop or a beauty salon. The current population of the metropolitan area is just under 2 million so based on our calculations, every person would need to get their hair cut weekly to support all the barbers and hairdressers. The funny part was that 99 percent of Bolivians had straight, black hair….not a curl or color to be found! We had a very busy second day which started with a ride on the teleferico which offered amazing views of La Paz. We made our mandatory stop at the cemetery and found something unique to Bolivia. Each mausoleum had a small, enclosed shelf where the family would put keepsakes and things that the person had enjoyed. For example, Bill’s would have a beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a small UGA bulldog with a bobble head and a boat (and of course, he quickly added “and a picture of you” just to cover himself!....wise man). After the cemetery, we made our way over to the Witches Market which we were both excited to see. People on Youtube made the Witch Market sound really cool….it was not. It was a replica of the usual cruise port with the same tourist junk for sale at each store. As we hunted for the supposed witches, we came across an Irish pub called “The Lucky Llama”. We could not pass by an Irish pub in the middle of the Witches Market in La Paz, Bolivia so we ate lunch. After further hunting, we finally asked where the witches were and we were directed to two small stores at the end of the street which had some petrified animals hanging on the storefront. I went into the store to try to find a curse potion as a gift for my daughter (yes, she would say, “Who doesn’t love a good curse potion!”). All I could find was tea that would make someone fall in love with you. What kind of weak spell is that? We voted that the Witches Market was our biggest disappointment we have had in all of our travels….that is a sad statement.
Our next sightseeing expedition was to visit the Valley of the Moon. It was on the far side of La Paz and it was like stepping into another world (see the picture below because it is difficult to explain). After an easy hike through the valley, we stopped by the La Paz Golf Club which claims to be the highest golf course in the world. We chose not to play a round of golf given the altitude issues but it was a fun item to check off the list. Our evening entertainment was the ultimate thing to check off one’s list. La Paz has an event called Cholita Wrestling which was a must see. Walking into the building was like stepping into a Las Vegas casino from the 1950s. The wrestling ring was center stage and we had front row seats. With music blaring and lights flashing, the show began. Cholitas are a major symbol of Bolivia. They are the women that wear the bowler hats, corsets and huge, puffy skirts. Now, imagine these woman in full regalia….wrestling each other. In true WWE fashion (no pun intended), one “good” cholita and one “bad” cholita would enter the ring and try to pull the crowd to cheer for them. As the “match” began, the Cholitas would climb onto the ropes and soar through the air with skirts flying to “land” on top of the other cholita. Inevitably, the two would end up throwing chairs at each other or spitting water on each other right in front of our seats. The night was raucous fun and we decided that anyone who could not have fun at Cholita Wrestling must have no sense of humor in their entire body. Our final day in La Paz was spent exploring the Pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku. We hired a driver to take us to Tiwanaku and he was an interesting source of local information. On our way into La Paz, we had passed a row of tents on the side of the street that was at least a mile long. We could not believe La Paz would have such a horrible homeless problem. Our driver explained that the tents were not for homeless people. Twice a year, the army holds its recruitment. Every Bolivian must serve a mandatory year in the service. The tents were filled with young people who wanted to be first in line on recruitment day because first in line meant the best assignment of location. He stated that “no one wants to be in the Amazon jungle…there’s too much oxygen there and we can’t breathe. La Paz is the top pick for recruits”. Seriously? Give us some oxygen! We found it humorous that their kids camp out for the service and we camped out for concert tickets at their age. Our driver also explained Evos Morales, Bolivia’s president from 2006 to 2019. As described by our driver, “He was a great communist and did amazing things for our people. At first. Then, he became corrupt and it was not good.” As usual, communism worked well…it was designed to make a select few have everything and the people have nothing in the end so it worked like a charm. As we travelled throughout Bolivia, we found it curious that cities where people worked hard jobs like mining hated Morales and people who were more reliant on government loved Morales. Politics are always the same story no matter where you are! Tiwanaku was interesting and had some well preserved ruins and an informative museum. As we walked through the ruins, dark clouds began to gather overhead and we jumped back into the van just as a storm began. A hailstorm. The outside temperature had just been close to 80 degrees so we were not sure how Bolivia managed hail. Our guide kept trying to talk us into stopping at a “must see” sight in the middle of a hailstorm but we voted him down and said we would just have to survive without another stop. After a great visit in La Paz, it was time to head to Uyuni to visit the largest salt flat in the world. Our flight to Uyuni was uneventful with the exception of our fellow passengers. We are used to being the minority in South America but this flight was different. We were the minority but so were the South Americans! The entire flight was booked by people from Asian countries. We had Chinese people, Japanese people, Korean people and I am sure others as well. When we arrived in Uyuni and met our tour guide, he commented in Spanish something about Asians and gave a big sigh. We later found out that for some reason, Uyuni was a top destination for the Asian continent. If you look at Uyuni online, you will see the entire town is about 5 blocks wide and 15 blocks long. The roads are dirt and only about 6 blocks had anything that would hold a tourist’s interest for even a few minutes. Outside of those 6 blocks the roads were ruled by dogs which ran everywhere and made the tour buses dodge and weave around them. At some point, the locals figured out tourism was a far easier way to make a living than digging salt and now it is Bolivia’s top tourism destination. For our first day of touring, our group had two vans so we were around 12 people total. We headed out of town and as we started on the main road into the salt flats, we came upon a toll booth. Just before the toll booth, our driver took a sharp left off the road onto a side dirt path and drove around the toll booth. We all laughed and our guide said, “Avoiding taxes!” Evidently the toll booth workers did not care because all day there was a line of tour vans passing to the left. Our first stop was at the Train Cemetery. Back in the day, mining companies in Bolivia set up trains to move minerals more easily. Now, the engines sit on the abandoned tracks, rusting in the hot sun and salt. It was a cool stop and everyone enjoyed climbing on the trains for pictures. The salt refining “factory” was next. It was a small building with a few mounds of salt and some processing tables. The salt was only used by locals and no exporting was done because the salt was low in iodine so not very healthy without some tweaking. As we drove across the salt flats, our guide explained the importance of hiring a professional tour because if tourists try to drive themselves over the flats, they do not know the dangers. Much like a frozen lake, the salt flats have parts that are not stable and cars can break through the surface and sink. The salt flat was once a lake that has now become Lake Titicaca as it has evaporated over hundreds of thousands of years (so much for climate change being “new” and caused by man). The flats stretch on as far as you can see and you had to wear sunglasses because the reflection was very intense. In the middle of the flat was an “island” that had cactus growing all over it. We spent some time walking around the island and it was like a different world. The next activity was the greatest marketing scheme ever devised by man. The perspective pictures! The guides took us out to a spot that had nothing in the background but salt flat and blue skies. Then, they set up pictures that made everyday objects look huge next to a person in a picture. At one point, the guide had us all dancing around in a silly way and moving in between cones he had set. When all was said and done, he had a video of us dancing (and prancing!) out of a Pringles can and then running back in as we were chased by a giant T-Rex. Steven Spielberg could not have done better! Evidently, all the tour guides compete to see who can come up with the most clever idea. Afterwards, the guide took individual pictures and then asked that everyone post them on social media so “others will come to visit our salt flats”. Very clever! Day one ended with sunset photos without any sunset but I managed to capture some incredible reflection shots despite the challenging lighting. Day two we were a smaller group of six. Two Peruvians who spoke no English, two Japanese who spoke English and us who spoke English and survival Spanish. Our guide kept forgetting about the Peruvians in the back seat so I would turn around and try to piece together a few words for them to understand so you can imagine how well that went. Bill finally prodded the guide to remember the Peruvians on occasion. On this day, we headed out to a volcano that jutted out of the salt flats. As everyone else decided they were going to hike to the crater of the volcano, Bill and I tagged along to see the burial cave with skeletons which was cool. After the cave, Bill and I headed back down the hill to wait in the car and we were so glad we did. The guide decided to take them to the top of the volcano which was an even further hike and when they returned, even the Peruvians (who were born and raised in Cusco’s altitude) were in pain. On the way back to town, we stopped at the most breathtaking area where the flats melted seamlessly into the sky and it was difficult to tell sky from land. As I tried to capture some of the beauty with my Nikon camera, I teased the young Japanese woman about using her cell phone when her country made the greatest cameras on Earth. Her boyfriend laughed loudly and said, “It gets better….her father works for Nikon!” Shame, shame, shame! I could go on and on about the Uyuni leg of the trip but I know you are tired of reading! Next week’s blog will be filled with planes, trains and automobiles as we round out our incredible time in Bolivia. ****More awesome pics on Pictures tab
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After our very cold and rainy bus ride to Puno, we worried that our weather luck might be running out but we woke to a beautiful, sunny day in Puno. Puno’s claim to fame is the Uros Islands. The people of Uros fled from the Incas and figured out a way to build an entire city on the lake. We had scheduled a tour to go and visit the islands because they were only accessible by boat. Along the way, we learned the history of Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake in the world (12,500 feet above sea level). Lake Titicaca is shared by Peru and Bolivia and each country claims to have a larger part of the lake. Each country also claims that their side of the lake is “Titi” and the other side of the lake is “Caca”. As we approached Uros, we saw dozens of “islands” with huts on them. The island we visited was inhabited by 10 people and one person was elected “President” of the island and represented their island at the larger council which had an overall “President”. The President of our island explained in depth that the islands were made from reeds that were cut apart, dragged to the location of the island and bound back together. As the reeds settle, the islanders add to the top layer continuously and each island lasts approximately 30 years. If one of the islanders wants to go and build his own island, the new island must be approved by the council. The islanders made beautiful handmade crafts and relied heavily on tourism for survival. They did not speak English or Spanish but spoke Imada so our guide had to translate. The huts were one room and our guide (who lived on another island in a different region of the lake) said even he could not stand to sleep in the huts because it was so cold. At the end of our visit, our hosts sang some traditional songs for us and yelled, “Hasta la Vista, Baby!” as we left which gave us all a laugh. Our stay in Puno was a quick one as we jumped onto our double decker Peru Hop bus the next morning to make our way across the border into Bolivia. After a pleasant ride around the lake through some very tiny Peruvian villages, we disembarked at the border to begin the laborious task of checking into Bolivia. Earlier in the 2000s, someone in the United States pissed off Evo Morales (previous President of Bolivia…more to come on him next week) so US citizens are now required to have a Visa to enter Bolivia. Prior to leaving on our trip, we had gathered all of the necessary information including: passport, two passport photos, proof of flight to exit country, proof of hotel stay, a bank account statement to prove we had money and most importantly, $160 USD each. First, we had to pass through the Peruvian immigration office to exit the country. Our guide from Peru Hop walked with us to the Bolivian immigration office to assist. Luckily, he had a copy machine handy because we needed two copies of all the materials. A woman from China was also checking in with us while everyone else on the bus got simple stamps in their passports and left on the bus to continue the trip. After copying all the nonsense, we got in line behind the Chinese woman. She went through all the steps to obtain the Visa until the officer asked her where her exit stamp from Peru was located. She had not exited Peru, therefore, she could not enter Bolivia. The officer told her she needed to walk down the hill and get her passport stamped. While she was gone, Bill and I continued our check-in process. The most hilarious (and yet, sad) part of the event was the list on the wall of countries who needed the same level Visa as the USA. The countries on the list included Yemen, Somalia, CHADD, Syria and all the “stan” countries. Seriously?! Again, I am not sure who made Evo so mad but evidently he was really mad. Unfortunately, all the Visa requirement does is cause US citizens to choose other countries in South America which hurts the Bolivian citizens far more than it hurts the USA. As we were wrapping up our Visa party, the Chinese woman came barreling back in front of us and said, “I have NEVER been treated so rudely in my life! I am not going to get an exit stamp from Peru! I will just NOT enter Bolivia. I will take my business elsewhere!” Bill and I were very confused as to who had treated her poorly because the officer had been nothing but polite to her. As the tour guide, Bill and I got into the taxi to go to our hotel, all we saw in the rearview mirror was the Chinese woman walking back down the hill toward Peru.
Our first stay in Bolivia was the beach town of Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. If we had to vote, we would definitely say that Bolivia got the “Titi” portion of the lake and Peru got the “Caca” portion. The temperature in Copacabana was in the upper 60s/lower 70s the day we arrived. The lake was packed with locals partying like it was the Fourth of July! If you have ever been to Myrtle Beach, I want you to close your eyes and picture all the “toys” that Myrtle Beach has from jet skis to parasailing to the banana boats. Now, multiply that amount of toys tenfold! Boats were dragging hundreds of people around on dragon boats, octopus boats, spaceship boats, pirate ships and amongst all that chaos were a few crazy people rowing kayaks. Speed boats zipped in and out in a complete frenzy barely missing each other. It was insanity. Given how much Bill and I love crowds, we headed in the opposite direction to get some food. We found a local restaurant that was playing old USA rock songs from the 1970s and 80s which was a vast improvement from the Musak we had been suffering through the past few days. We decided to order Carbonara pasta which might seem odd but we were tired of the usual South America food this particular day. When the pasta arrived, it was one of the best pastas we had ever eaten! For another snack in Copacabana, we had onion rings which were amazing and finished off our odd food tour with an Oreo cheesecake. Who knew that Copacabana, Boliva would be such a unique food mecca?! To wrap up our stay in Copacabana, we went on a tour to Isla del Sol which was the supposed birthplace of the Incan Empire. Our boat ride was about an hour and when we arrived, we explored an Incan temple. At that point, the guide pointed out the hiking trail to go to the top of the island for “views” and stated that the walk was about an hour long. Since Bill and I continued to struggle with breathing, we did not want to slow the rest of the group down so we voted to sit at the bar and wait for the hikers to return. We were very happy with our decision when the younger ones were returning from the hike looking exhausted. With no time to spare, we all hopped back in the boat and headed to meet the bus which would take us on to La Paz. When we reached the bus stop, our guide came over to me and said, “You are going to ride in this van with another family because the bus is full.” I checked out the van and agreed that option would work for us. Meanwhile, a woman we called “Karen” went over to the van with her husband and son. She immediately refused to ride in the van “because there are no seatbelts”. I said, “I understand. Your son needs a seatbelt”. She turned to me and said, “Um, we ALL need seatbelts!” with a very snotty tone. I burst out laughing and said, “Good luck with that in Bolivia!” because we have not had seatbelts in any cars since we left the States in 2020. We were just happy the car had wheels and doors! In the end, they crammed that family on the bus and Bill and I had a private taxi to La Paz. When the guide climbed into the car, Bill asked him how the bus was overbooked. The guide simply said, “Ah. It was election day in this region so all the usual drivers were drunk. Only the one bus driver was able to make it.” And to think Karen was worried about seatbelts! The drive through the mountains with the lake below had some amazing views. In the distance, we saw mountains with glaciers and when the sun was setting, the reflections off the glaciers were breathtaking. Bill asked why the Bolivian bus was not a double decker bus like we had in Peru. The guide laughed and said, “A double decker bus won’t fit on the ferry.” So, Bill and I were both picturing a ferry with a lower clearance. When we approached the ferry dock, it was not a lower clearance…it was no clearance. The “ferries” were barge-like creations that would hold two to three normal sized cars. The ferry man would grind the edge of the barge onto the shore using a small outboard engine and then the cars would quickly load before the barge floated back out onto the lake. Bill and I enjoyed our taxi ride on the “ferry” as all the bus passengers had to disembark and take smaller boats across while the bus went on the ferry. I am guessing the ferry man did not trust that his ferry would not sink to the bottom of the lake. After the ferry excitement, our remaining drive to La Paz was uneventful. We ended the initial leg of the Bolivia trip by checking into the Hotel Elegance….trust me when I say it was a hotel but it was no longer elegant! More information to come next week! **More pics on Pictures Tab Our exploration of South America continues to be a success! Our biggest challenge in planning our trip to Peru and Bolivia was transportation. First came the flights. In order to get to our jumping off destination which was Arequipa, Peru, we had to fly into Lima, overnight at a hotel and then continue onto Arequipa in the morning. At the airport in Cartagena, we were stopped at the check-in desk and asked about our departure from Peru. The agent stated that Peru required proof of exit from the country prior to arriving. Since we had just visited Peru in September, we doubted the validity of this news. However, after much ado, I was able to produce a receipt for the bus tour I had purchased for our crossing into Bolivia which seemed to make the agent happy. Sigh. We arrived in Lima late at night and had luckily booked the onsite Wyndham so it was an easy walk out of the gate and into the hotel. The next morning, we caught our short flight to Arequipa and found our hotel which was conveniently located across from our first site to visit, the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. We have visited many monasteries on our trips but this one was unique. The monastery was a small city. Each monk or nun (depending on the point in history), had his or her own living unit like an apartment. Units were different sizes but most had a bedroom, kitchen area and sitting area. We figured out the more the family paid to the church, the better the accommodation. The “kitchens” were built out of rock and had stone, wood-fueled ovens. I think everyone cooking a separate meal for one person would have been a lot of trouble! After the monastery, we walked to the main square and were immediately attacked by the restaurant hawkers. Given we had not eaten since breakfast, we voted on a restaurant that touted a “rooftop” sitting area. Once we had huffed and puffed our way up the stairs, we found the rooftop area to literally have a view of the neighbor’s rooftop. No false advertising there! You will hear much complaining on this trip about altitude. Arequipa is at approximately 8000 feet above sea level so any sort of extended walking or climbing took us twice as long as usual. Heading back down to the non-rooftop area, we found a table on the balcony overlooking the square. I ordered a bowl of soup so if I had a repeat of the altitude sickness from Cusco, soup was a safe choice and I knew what to expect. When my soup arrived, it was a swimming pool of soup! The bowl would have easily fed an entire family of 4 people. Needless to say, we had some leftovers! Due to the fact that it was New Years Eve, many sites in town were closed so we decided to turn in early…until the midnight fireworks began on the square. Happy New Year!
On the first day of the new year, we managed to find two attractions on our list open for business. We grabbed a taxi out to the Molina de Sabandia which was a restored mill. For those of you who do not know, my family were all Millers and we owned a mill in Henry County, GA (Miller’s Mill….very original) so old mills hold a special place in my heart. It was a bit of a ride to the mill and along the way, we had some great views of the huge volcanoes that surround Arequipa. Arequipa has three major volcanoes that loom on the horizon with Misti being the largest at 19,000 feet. Misti lies only 12 miles from the center of Arequipa. While it is considered a “dormant” volcano, the experts seem to have differing opinions and they decided in 2005 that perhaps someone should monitor the volcano for any activity and formulate an evacuation plan for the city. At least the Incas knew to sacrifice some folks and since the last major eruption was in the 1400s, I guess the sacrifices worked! Our trip to the mill was a bit disappointing as most of the renovation had been done on one large rectangular building that mostly contained plagues dedicated to the financiers of the renovation project. We walked into town to grab some helado y queso (cheese ice cream) and our disappointment continued when we discovered the Peruvian helado y queso was nothing like the amazing cheese ice cream we had in Ecuador….sorry, Peru, but Ecuador wins this battle! The battle of the taxis was definitely won by our next taxi adventure. We climbed into a 1982 Ford Fiesta (not kidding!) to find that the driver had “refurbished” the interior using mostly vinyl flooring. Vinyl covered the seats, doors and floorboards. The car travelled at about 30 mph top speed and at every redlight, the driver would turn off the car while we were stopped. In addition to the high fashioned vehicle, the driver listened to preaching on the radio the entire ride. Bill and I both figured out that we should listen to more preaching in Spanish because we could understand most of what he was saying! Jim and Tammy Faye Baker had nothing on this evangelist! For the afternoon, we grabbed another taxi and headed out to a huge rock quarry. The rock quarry was special because the men who worked at the quarry began carving large sculptures into the rock face and then it expanded into a full-blown sculpture exhibit. The rock quarry had originally provided all of the stone for Arequipa. Our taxi out to the quarry was a step above the 1982 Ford Fiesta but we noticed that the car’s VIN number had been etched into every removeable part of the car. Evidently, stealing doors and parts from taxis to refit your own car must be a big deal in Arequipa! The rock quarry was amazing! The road meandered through the quarry and different areas had different sculpted attractions. We had a replica of the Treasury of Petra, several complete nativity scenes and huge animals such as lions, bears, bulls and even frogs. What these men had accomplished were truly works of art. We finished our busy day at a restaurant where we ordered a meat plate for two. The amount of meat that showed up on our table was ridiculous! We ate and ate and ate and still had to get a to go box. Sorry, Ecuador….Peru won the meat plate battle! Our final day in Arequipa, the Basilica Cathedral was finally open so we took a tour and enjoyed the views from the rooftop. We headed over to the museum where “Juanita” the mummy was housed but when we found out that another tour was required, we voted to head back to the hotel and rest because the next day was going to be a long one. Sorry Juanita. Along the way, we chuckled to hear a couple listening to Olivia Newton John’s Physical as if it were a brand-new release. We also enjoyed the Musak throughout Peru which consisted of Pink Floyd and Ozzy Osbourne remixes which were hilarious. You never realize how difficult it is to figure out what a song is until you have to muddle through simpering Musak to get to some semblance of the song’s chorus. We turned it into a guessing game to see who could figure out the song first. The next morning, we joined our bus tour out to Chivay and Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world and houses one of my major bucket list items…Condors! Along the way to Chivay, our tour guide spent the first hour of the tour discussing the wonders of coca leaves for altitude sickness. He showed us how to mix the leaves with a flavored gum-like substance, roll the leaves into a wad and shove it in your cheek. Then, we stopped at a store where everyone could purchase the necessary items to make their own coca wad. Bill and I passed on the coca wad and stuck to our altitude pills which seemed to be doing the trick. The altitude discussion was an important one because the Colca Valley sits at 12,000 feet above sea level and one point along the way was at 16,203 feet. Definitely not much oxygen at those levels! In addition to all things coca, we learned about llamas, alpacas and vicunas. Very similar animals but we learned vicunas are the ones who were not domesticated. We drove through a vicuna reserve and saw herds of them. One funny thing….my father has a group of old men that meet several times a week to share the same stories they have been sharing for years. We call them the “Biscuit Bunch” because my cousin always supplied them with ham biscuits. It turns out the vicunas also have a Biscuit Bunch! Each herd of vicuna have only one male. Once the male loses his virility, the female vicunas kick him out and get a new male. But….they do not kill the old male…..he goes off to live in an all male herd until he dies! Vicuna Biscuit Bunch! Our night in Chivay was a quiet one. We managed to order some dinner even though we had to use mostly hand gestures because the young people did not seem to speak our form of gringo Spanish in Chivay. We assumed most of them spoke Quechua. Our hotel was a simple spot that had no hot water, a small space heater and so many blankets on the bed that once you were in, you were not going to move an inch! We rose early the next morning to head to the canyon in search of condors. On the way, the weather was overcast and foggy. Our guide explained that spotting condors during the wet season would be difficult but we would get to see some beautiful scenery…if the weather cleared. As we approached the canyon, the fog and clouds began to lift and the views were incredible! We did a short hike along the cliffs desperately looking for condors. Our guide called over to the main viewing point and told us no condors had been spotted. Just as we were pulling into the viewing point, Bill and I both spotted a condor at the same time! The driver quickly pulled into the parking lot and we all sprang out of the bus, cameras in hand. Just as we were giving up hope, the condors began to fly! Adult condors have a wingspan of 10 feet, 10 inches so they are massive birds. It was difficult to capture the size in my pictures because the canyon was huge as well but they were impressive creatures! After about an hour of viewing, we headed to lunch and just as we pulled out of the valley, the rain started. Our lucky weather card had paid off again! Later, we paid the price for our condor viewing weather because our bus ride from Chivay to Puno was freezing. We kept asking for more heat but our driver did not seem to understand that just because his small, enclosed area was warm did not equate to the rest of the bus being warm. It also did not help that one crazy mask wearing lady on the bus insisted she needed her window open to have “fresh” air. The people behind her finally revolted and made her close the window. You could hear the silent cheering throughout the bus. As we pulled into Puno, Peru, the home city for Lake Titicaca, the weather cleared, we left our tour group, checked into our hotel and prepared for the next phase of our trip. Puno and the crossing into Bolivia coming next week! We woke early to catch our plane into Pereira, Colombia. The flight took less than an hour which was much better than an 8 hour bus ride from Medellin….and that is with the new “expressway”. We decided to rent a car to explore the Cocora Valley. It was Bill’s first time driving in Colombia so we hoped it would be a little less chaotic than Peru had been. Our first stop was the Ukumari Zoo. As far as zoos go, it was less than stellar. It had a grand entrance with huge dinosaur replicas everywhere and it looked like Animal Kingdom at Disney World. That was the only comparison for the day. The zoo was separated into two sections, Andino and African. Most of the African side was under renovation so we did not get to see many animals. Of course, as Bill pointed out, after seeing the animals on the Serengeti, any zoo would be disappointing. The Andino side of the zoo featured animals from the Andes region and was definitely a step up from the African side. The zoo only took us a couple of hours so we were on our way early out to the town of Salento where we would spend the night. Salento was the main hub for people going to the Cocora Valley so the entire place was full of hostels and backpackers. Our favorite stop in town was the bakery where we got a bag full of treats for under $3.00! Our “hotel” was on the outskirts of town so we made our way down a very twisty road. Along the way, we passed a putt-putt course! We could not find a putt-putt course in Ft. Lauderdale that was open but middle of nowhere Colombia was ready to serve. Bill tracked down the owner of the place and she came out and handed us two putters and a bucket of balls. I am pretty sure these were her only two putters. The course was unique in its setup because it had sticks and bumps blocking every inch of the green. In fact, there were only a couple of holes that we managed to shoot 2 or 3 which is saying something since Bill is a good golfer (he won as usual). I was looking forward to our “hotel” because I had booked us a cabin for the night. Online, it was surrounded by beautiful nature and it looked like a peaceful place to spend the night. Upon arrival, our host asked if we were okay with climbing stairs. I said we were so he began leading us to the cabin. Exactly 66 steps straight uphill led to our cabin. The cabin was very cute and had all the modern conveniences….except for glass windows or screens. The cabin was built in traditional style so the windows had wooden shutters on them that opened into nature. Nature in Colombia. South America has the largest number of bug species in the world….and here we were inviting each and every one of them to come in and share our cabin. Luckily, the night air was cool so we were able to close the windows and not suffocate in the cabin. Bill and I hiked back down 66 steps to go get our backpacks out of the car. We hiked back up 66 steps only to realize that the cabin door locked automatically behind us and we had left the key on the table. I took one for the team and hiked back down 66 steps to get the caretaker. Then, back up 66 steps to open the door. More than enough exercise for the day!
We awoke the next morning to rain. We have been very lucky on our travels and have had very few days of rain so we figured we could not complain. Well, maybe a little complaining because today was our trip to the Corcora Valley with no option for alternate indoor plans. As we drove the curvy road to the valley, I decided the misty clouds clinging to the mountain tops were going to make some sensational pictures. We entered the valley and were greeted by the tallest trees I have ever seen. The wax palms are what makes the valley famous and they did not disappoint. It would not surprise me if Dr. Seuss had based the Lorax valley on Cocora. It looked just like the Truffula trees winding through the hills and the valleys. The rain even cooperated long enough for me to get some pictures without needing the umbrella to protect the camera. Heading out of the valley, we made our way into the city of Armenia. Armenia had a gold museum that was on our list. Given the “gold” museums we had been to in the past, our expectations were not set very high. The Armenian museum was modern and surrounded by gardens. The exhibits were more in-depth than most we had seen and featured some interesting artifacts. During our drive into the old city portion of Armenia, we had a first. A police officer was directing traffic and gestured for us to pull over to the curb. As soon as Bill rolled down the window, I am sure the officer was regretting his decision. He spewed out some rapid Spanish to which Bill replied our usual answer in these situations, “poquito Espanol” which means “little bit”. The officer continued to try to explain why he had pulled us over but no matter how much he wanted us to learn fluent police vocabulary Spanish in two minutes, it wasn’t going to happen! He finally pulled out his phone and Google translate. He explained that our rental car tag was not the correct tag to be in the downtown area. Bill translated back that the rental car agency had not mentioned any restrictions and we were only a block from our hotel and we needed to find parking. We could see the officer arguing his options in his head and just how awful he wanted the rest of his day to be. He finally folded up his pad, put it in his pocket and waved us off to the hotel. Obviously, he missed the memo that we were the “Safety spokespeople” for the Colombian police department! The driving woes continued as we drew closer to our hotel….our hotel was on a pedestrian only street. Bill pulled over again and I ran to the hotel to find out where we could park the car. Once again, Google translate saved the day. The young lady working reception came with me to the car, hopped into the front seat and proceeded to direct us around the block (all one way streets of course!) to a small parking lot where Bill squeezed in among a dozen motorcycles. I doubt we would have gotten such personal service in the States! The pedestrian street in Armenia was a wonderful place to walk around and it was alight with Christmas decorations everywhere. Families were running about and music was playing. As we walked to get dinner, we began counting the shoes stores on the street. There were 24 stores in a six-block span! When we ran into the shoeshine man, we decided he had chosen his career poorly because no one in Armenia was wearing shoes more than a few months old! Following our night in Armenia, we drove into the countryside to visit a coffee plantation. Along the way, we passed a huge structure that was an overlook to the coffee valley. Unfortunately, the structure was under massive renovation so we could not enter but the views from the grounds were lovely as well. Finding the coffee plantation involved a few uturns and a trip down a very bumpy, single lane dirt road. Once we arrived, the gates were locked so we were glad the scenic drive was worth the trip since no coffee was to be found that day. On the way out of the valley, we were entertained by multiple animal crossing signs including monkeys, anteaters, cows, birds and unidentified animals resembling a weasel/prairie dog/meercat/wombat/sloth. We were not clear on why they didn’t make one large “watch out for all creatures” sign which would have been more cost effective. All we could surmise was that the animals must know their specific area to cross safely. Arriving in Pereira on the last weekend before Christmas was an exciting venture. Bill creeped the car through hordes of shoppers until we reached our hotel which was located directly on the main square. Once again, he parked on the curb while I went to investigate the parking situation. The bellhop directed us to a small underground lot which was on the street just behind where we had parked on the curb. Since traffic was all one way and far too congested to throw the car in reverse, we did another tour through the hordes to the parking lot. We discovered many things about Pereira in our explorations. Pereira seems to be the place to go if you are looking for sin. There were no tell motels complete with private garages, casinos on every corner and as a last resort, billiard halls everywhere. You will notice there are no interior pictures of the main cathedral in Pereira. The cathedral ran continuous services from the time we arrived until we left two days later! We assumed they went home to sleep but I guess with all that sin, the priests figured they needed to stay open as much as possible! The main square was a constant hub of activity with Christmas lights, Santa Claus, Mickey Mouse bouncy houses, ice cream vendors and tons of street food. There was also a man renting child-sized cars and motorcycles for the four year olds to drive rampant though the crowded square. It was chaos! From the food vendors, we had meat on a stick, a hotdog, a cheese arepa and the most delicious little rings of fried-dough heaven- covered-in-sugar that I have ever tasted. Pereira also had a really nice cemetery so we enjoyed our usual walk among the silent folks. After a short flight, we landed back in Cartagena just in time to prepare for our next trip to southern Peru and Bolivia. The trip is going to be a long, intense journey full of planes and buses, limited internet and even scarcer central heating. So, there will not be another blog until we return at the end of January but I have a feeling the wonders of Lake Titicaca and Bolivia will be worth the wait! Have a wonderful and safe New Year! ****More pictures under Colombia 2023 on Pictures tab |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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