Hello Everyone! Although our trip is over, our blogging is not! We have finally just gone through the pictures of our trip and will post some every week!
Please stay tuned!!
xoxo
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Lake Titicaca, Bolivia
ok so as most of you know we have safely arrived back to the united states. little did WE know that there were people actually following our blog and have been patiently awaiting our next update. so we have decided that although we are home to continue blogging..... last we left off we were in bolivia still...... so lets time warp back to october 23rd!!!!
We packed up our things and said goodbye to La Paz this day and were off to Copacabana. Copacabana is the main bolivian town on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is know as the birthplace of the Incas and therefore very sacred to the people here. According to Incan mythology, it was from Lake Titicaca that the creator god Viracoca rose up to create the sun, moon, stars, and first human beings (ok so the story is much more elaborate than just that but just to get the gist of things...). There are many ruins that can be seen in this area and very recently a large temple was discovered submerged in the lake. Aesthetically, it is stunning. It's honestly so big it feels like you are looking out over the ocean. It is 50 MILES wide, 118 MILES long, and its max. depth is about 1,000 ft.
Here we spent the first day just hanging out with some street vendors that we met and a few friends in the hostel; jessi got a hair wrap and I was learning how to make a necklace. We ended up heading over to the sand with them, a bongo drum, an abnormally large didgeridoo (it looked like it could have been a wooly mammoth tusk or something) that no one could really play that well because it was so big, and sang songs to pacha mama (mother earth). Ironically a tourist came by and took a picture of all of us.. we then asked for un boliviano (boliviano= bolivian money, thats what the locals do if you want to take a picture of them)... they didnt pay..
The next day we woke up to take a boat to la isla del sol, the island on the lake where the Incan sun god was said to be born. We of course were late and went running after the boat..... On the boat, it really truly looks like you are on the ocean. You cant see a single building or mountain or anything along the horizon. After about an hour, we arrived at la isla del sol. Here our 2 rasta friends from the other day set up camp on the beach and were planning on staying the night. We fed some of the little pigs that were running around on the sand and then went to have lunch. After lunch we just relaxed on the beach.. its very peaceful there.
The boat picked us up again and scooted us over to another island. We watched these little peruvian boys jumping in the freezing cold water for a swim, a woman washing her clothes and laying them out to dry on the rocks, and a little LITTLE boy leading his family's donkeys to the water for a drink.
It was around 4 p.m. by this point and time to hop on the boat to head back to Copacabana. We had crystal clear blue skies ALL day and as soon as we got on a boat a few darker clouds started rolling in. About 5 min before leaving a few rain drops started to fall. By the time we set out, there was a full on storm. The waves were pushing our little dinky boat around like crazy. Everyone from the roof came to the first floor to get out of the rain and we were all squashed in this cramped space that was not meant for that many people. It started to get hot. Babies were crying, people started vomiting. Some guy was yelling to turn the boat around and wait until the storm passed. Another was talking about punching through one of the windows because it was getting so hot. People were yelling for bags. Its kind of funny looking back on it now, but 3 hours of that and the boat going up and down and up and down and up and down was more like a nightmare at the time.
We were never so happy to see land.
We packed up our things and said goodbye to La Paz this day and were off to Copacabana. Copacabana is the main bolivian town on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is know as the birthplace of the Incas and therefore very sacred to the people here. According to Incan mythology, it was from Lake Titicaca that the creator god Viracoca rose up to create the sun, moon, stars, and first human beings (ok so the story is much more elaborate than just that but just to get the gist of things...). There are many ruins that can be seen in this area and very recently a large temple was discovered submerged in the lake. Aesthetically, it is stunning. It's honestly so big it feels like you are looking out over the ocean. It is 50 MILES wide, 118 MILES long, and its max. depth is about 1,000 ft.
Here we spent the first day just hanging out with some street vendors that we met and a few friends in the hostel; jessi got a hair wrap and I was learning how to make a necklace. We ended up heading over to the sand with them, a bongo drum, an abnormally large didgeridoo (it looked like it could have been a wooly mammoth tusk or something) that no one could really play that well because it was so big, and sang songs to pacha mama (mother earth). Ironically a tourist came by and took a picture of all of us.. we then asked for un boliviano (boliviano= bolivian money, thats what the locals do if you want to take a picture of them)... they didnt pay..
The next day we woke up to take a boat to la isla del sol, the island on the lake where the Incan sun god was said to be born. We of course were late and went running after the boat..... On the boat, it really truly looks like you are on the ocean. You cant see a single building or mountain or anything along the horizon. After about an hour, we arrived at la isla del sol. Here our 2 rasta friends from the other day set up camp on the beach and were planning on staying the night. We fed some of the little pigs that were running around on the sand and then went to have lunch. After lunch we just relaxed on the beach.. its very peaceful there.
The boat picked us up again and scooted us over to another island. We watched these little peruvian boys jumping in the freezing cold water for a swim, a woman washing her clothes and laying them out to dry on the rocks, and a little LITTLE boy leading his family's donkeys to the water for a drink.
It was around 4 p.m. by this point and time to hop on the boat to head back to Copacabana. We had crystal clear blue skies ALL day and as soon as we got on a boat a few darker clouds started rolling in. About 5 min before leaving a few rain drops started to fall. By the time we set out, there was a full on storm. The waves were pushing our little dinky boat around like crazy. Everyone from the roof came to the first floor to get out of the rain and we were all squashed in this cramped space that was not meant for that many people. It started to get hot. Babies were crying, people started vomiting. Some guy was yelling to turn the boat around and wait until the storm passed. Another was talking about punching through one of the windows because it was getting so hot. People were yelling for bags. Its kind of funny looking back on it now, but 3 hours of that and the boat going up and down and up and down and up and down was more like a nightmare at the time.
We were never so happy to see land.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
BOLIVIA
Although we are now in peru enjoying the not so sunny days at the beach.... we remember bolivia.... you cant beat lunch for 90 cents!!!!
after being there for a few days jessi overheard some fellow travelers saying ¨oh my god!!! i saw all the zebras having lunch today!!!!¨.. slightly confused because we are NOT anywhere where zebras she inquired.....
apparently because the traffic is so bad in la paz, (which we have witnessed first hand... crossing the street is like playing a game of frogger) it´s not completely out of the ordinary for people to get hit by a car. drivers dont seem to care if you are crossing.... they just acknowledge your presence with a friendly beep that says ¨get the hell out of the way because im not slowing down!!¨over 20 children got hit by cars and died last year trying to get home from school. The city installed this program where people dress up in zebra costumes to help the kids cross the street.. kind of like crossing guards.. but more like they go and dance and jump around in the street in order to get all the cars attention so that they stop.
our LAST day as we were leaving our hostel to go to the bus station and head north.... WE SPOTTED ZEBRAS IN LA PAZ!!!! pretty funny thing to see.....
Friday, October 23, 2009
Off the radar.. Into the jungle...
So while in La Paz, Bolivia we bumped into Tim, a fellow new jersian.. who happened to live in Somerville, NJ, about 20 min away from where we grew up (yes sometimes the world is that small). The next morning, we found ourselves on an 18 hour bus ride with Tim to the amazon basin. There we spent 3 days building a puma cage for Luna, a one and a half year old puma who will be the newest addition to inti warri yassi. Inti warri yassi is a VERY new park (its actually not even considered a park yet) that takes in any animals that people have taken from the wild and realize that they cant take care of it. The goal of the park is to rehabilitate the animals and release them into the wild. Unfortunately, for the pumas, it is too late for them so they give them the best life possible at the park. Simba and Leishu are the two pumas currently at the park. Volunteers who stay for long periods of time are able to work with them... play with them, walk them, and get kitty kisses (which apparently are extremely painful... like sandpaper scraping your skin over and over... but you cant really say no to a puma who wants a kiss i guess).
Our time there was spent doing some hardcore manual labor, eating ammaazzing vegetarian food, chewing coca leaves, embracing the sweat bees that were crawling all over us, drinking from and swimming in the creek, and sleeping off a long hard days work.. only to wake up at 7 am to do it all over again. It was awesome.
We didn´t take a lot of pictures because we were working so hard, but here a few that we managed to snap...
Our time there was spent doing some hardcore manual labor, eating ammaazzing vegetarian food, chewing coca leaves, embracing the sweat bees that were crawling all over us, drinking from and swimming in the creek, and sleeping off a long hard days work.. only to wake up at 7 am to do it all over again. It was awesome.
We didn´t take a lot of pictures because we were working so hard, but here a few that we managed to snap...
back of a pick-up truck
happy face!!
our first hike in the jungle
this is our friend tim... :)
the bus ride
until next time!
xoxo the traveling sisters...
Chile to Bolivia
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile... the driest place on earth
sandboarding, salt lakes, flamingos, and beautiful sunsets...
sandboarding, salt lakes, flamingos, and beautiful sunsets...
After missing the train to Oruro we had an unexpected, but pleasant visit to Tupiza, Bolivia. Famous for where butch cassidy and the sundance kid had allegedly met their maker...
We took a cabalgata trip out to see the surrounding area... dry, dusty, desert.. but beautiful. the rocks were rainbow colored :) we had a little buddy on our ride too.. just a few months old this calf was learning the trail for when he is one day old enough to take some gringas for a ride! and yes the hats came WITH our horseback riding tour...
standing at la puerta del diablo. look closely.. i am in that picture!!!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
bolovia begins
On to the next leg of the trip... we are in our second month and we will be heading into Bolivia tonight or tomorrow morning.... we will be posting some new pics soon, but for now, we head into a new country... wish us luck!!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Valparaiso and Arte Urbano
About 2 weeks ago, we visited a place 1.5 hours west of Santiago, Chile. We had heard that it was not to be missed so we decided to go... The neighborhoods are made up of colorful houses, one stacked upon another strategically placed on cerros (hills) that surround the city at the bottom. Here is a small peek at the houses and the beautiful street art that makes this town quite unique.
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