Bolivia, Machu Picchu, and a crazy encounter

After saying goodbye to my sister and an uneventful flight from Santiago, I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia. I stayed at a nice but very party-hard Irish hostel called the Wild Rover. I’m now actually at another Wild Rover in Cusco, Peru. La Paz is at around 13,300 feet (4,000 meters) of altitude, and I noticed immediately. I initially suffered a little from altitude sickness and just walking up three flights of stairs to my room put me out of breath. The first night I just chilled in the hostel and partied with a random Brazilian guy.

The next morning I was in the bar area eating some breakfast when I saw an American guy that looked really familiar. I initially assumed it was somebody that I had seen traveling in another hostel at some point, which wouldn´t have been a huge coincidence. He also looked at me with a strange sense of familiarity. I then realized that it was Chris Hartle, one of my future co-workers that I had met back in November, when Bain had us all down for the weekend in Atlanta. Running into each other in Bolivia was absolutely absurd. He had also been traveling in South America for a few months as well, and was heading with a couple of British guys, George and Gareth, in the same direction that I was planning to go. So I decided to join them for the next few days.

That day we did a little exploring of the city, which was fairly uneventful. La Paz is pretty cool, but noticeably poorer than other places I have visited thus far. Despite the lack of decoration in its houses, L a Paz has a certain charm because the city is actually in the mountains very high up. At a market we visited, I did buy a sweater and socks made of Alpaca, and with designs of Alpaca on them. They were really cheap and are already starting to fall apart, but they are good for staying warm, which is sometimes hard to do here, especially at night. When originally packing for this trip, I mistakenly assumed that because Bolivia and Peru were much closer to the equator than Argentina and Chile, that they would in fact be warmer. I was very wrong, due to the much higher altitude.

The next day, we went on an all-day bike tour in the Bolivian Andes outside of La Paz on “Death Road.” It was absolutely incredible. We started early in the morning really high up. With good mountain bikes, helmets, elbow and knee pads, and many layers of clothing, we began the journey, which was 64 KM and mostly downhill. The first part was paved, but the actual Death Rode was dirt. It is called so because so many people have died on it (Imagine that). It is a one lane road that people used to drive on both ways. Unfortunately, if you fall off the side, you tend to plummet to your death 1000 meters below. Now it’s basically just used by bikers. I made a point to maintain a comfortable speed and not fall off the side of the mountain and plunge to my death. In fact, I got a t-shirt commending my survival. By the end, we had descended to what was technically the Bolivian Amazon, and it was really hot, especially compared to the temperature at the top. We were rewarded with a cold beer and a few hours at a pool. It was one of the best days I’ve had while traveling.

The next morning, the four of us headed for Copacabana, a small Bolivian town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the world’s largest high altitude lake. From there, we took a boat to Isla del Sol, where we stayed the night. We arrived at the shore and didn’t see much. Looking for our “hotel,” we realized that we had to climb up hundreds and hundreds of stairs with our enormous backpacks. Thanks especially to the altitude, the climb was incredibly exhausting. It was worth it though. The view was incredible from up top. I found the community of Isla del Sol to be fascinating. At this point, it seemed the island was totally dependent on tourism, but it was still very poor. Running water was scarce, because it had to be carried up the mountain all day in jugs on donkeys. We ate dinner at a “pizzeria,” which had dirt floors and only used electricity for the pizza oven. We ate by candlelight and the owner used a headlight to see what he was doing in the kitchen. It was a very pleasant experience though, especially watching the sun set over the lake and other mountainous islands.

The following morning, we took the boat back to Copacabana to catch a bus to Puno, Peru, which is on the opposite side of Lake Titicaca. In Puno, we did a quick tour of the floating islands, which are really hard to describe. Basically, the islands are made up some kind of grass that grows from the bottom of the lake and makes the islands appear to be floating. People have lived there for a very long time. They travel between the small islands on grass made boats, in one of which we got to ride. It was all really cool.

We returned to Puno to catch a solid Peruvian meal before getting on an overnight bus to Cusco. We arrived in Cusco and 5:00 AM and per usual, I barely slept. After randomly spending an hour and a half in the apartment of our tour guide, we took another bus, then a train for a combined three hours to arrive in Aguas Calientes, the small tourism town in the valley next to Machu Picchu. After another 30-minute bus ride, we arrived to the top where we entered and were sorted into a tour group to see Machu Picchu. It really was unbelievable to see the Incan city, still very in-tact up high up in the Andes. Unfortunately, I was really tired, it was very hot, and the place was slammed with tourists, so I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate it as much as it deserved to be appreciated. Even still, it was Inca-redible (Thanks George). After the park closed, we headed down to Aguas Calientes to kill a few hours before catching the train out. We ended up doing so by eating and all getting massages. It was completely random, but a great use of $20 USD for an hour. We then made the journey back to Cusco and, completely exhausted, crashed when we got to the hostel.

Today I said goodbye to the guys, as they headed off to Santiago. I’ll be hanging out in Cusco for a few days before heading to Arequipa, from which I will fly to Lima, then home. It’s hard to believe that I only have 10 days left to go.