Santa Cruz de la Sierra

We are in Santa Cruz, eastern Bolivia. this is in the lowland jungle region of the country, most of the way towards Brasil. Things are steamy, hot, and wet (it´s the rainy season) and we are mostly expending our energy just keeping cool and dry. Yesterday we undertook an epic 12 hour bus ride from Cochabamba, in the central highlands, down down down to this region. Tomorrow we head up to our volunteer assignment at Etta Projects in the town of Montero, some 30 miles north of here. Wish us luck, and more soon!!!!

The Most Dangerous Road in the World

Hi --

Please don´t get mad, those of you who know us and/or worry (which I guess come to think of it is everyone who reads this probably) but on Tuesday we set out on another adventure -- this time to mountain bike down the ´most dangerous road in the world` .... also known as the `death road`. In truth it´s probably not the most dangerous road in the world anymore (at one time it was) ... they built a new safe paved road on the opposite side of the canyon from it, so now all of the busses and trucks go on that other road, and it´s only crazy white people on bikes who go down this road anymore. Ok ... backtracking ... the road connects the top of the pass outside of La Paz (altitude 14,000 feet) with the jungle valley containing the town of Coroico, altitude (3600 feet) ... So the vertical drop is OVER 10,000 feet in just 40 miles. Over that distance, the landscape changes from snowy altiplano to humid jungle, with cloud forests in between. It´s absolutely stunning. The downside is that there are some places where the cliffs are 3000 ft straight down and the road is about 10 feet wide. Huge busses and trucks used to ply this route, and would have to honk loudly as they came around blind corners. An average of 26 people per year died on the road.

So that is the scary part ... the nice part is that now it´s relatively safe .. we went with great equipment (Rocky Mountain Bikes made in BC and big helmets) and good guides who ride the road every day. We did not feel afraid, really, just totally amazed at the scope and beauty of what we saw.

Like I said, at the top it was frozen. Here´s the start:

By lunch time we were lower, and finally got to the exciting bit of the road. The vegetation was lush, the humidity started to close in, and there were butterflies and flowering trees everywhere. Plus there was this cliff (imagine large busses going along here!):

As we continued to descend, the heat got more intense and we started to find ourselves in a real jungle. Finally, after crossing two rivers (that was fun) we ended up in the sleepy little town way down at the bottom. Here we are at the bottom with our group:

To our moms: we decided to not tell you about this in advance so that you wouldn´t worry. Please know that it´s really not as dangerous as it sounds, and that we are not taking lots of crazy risks. In fact, Britt and Betty, we kind of think you´d have tried it too if you were down here!

- ML MP

La Paz -- Updated

Well here we are in the beautiful city of La Paz. La paz is one of the most dramatic places either of us has ever been. It sits in a massive bowl at about 12,000 feet above sea level, surrounded by the high peaks of the Andes. Over the last few days we have been exploring the city and preparing to do a little side trip to the Yungas, a nearby area that is the transition zone between the high Andes and the Amazon jungle. It is supposed to be very beautiful too.

La Paz is a city of contrasts, with many people still living and dressing traditionally, but also with a sense of progress and modernity not found in many other cities we´ve been in so far. As soon as we can find a computer that will cooperate, we have many cool photos of this city ... including some from the Witches` market, where you can by ingredients for Aymarà ceremonies, including things like llama foetuses.

(Later ... Ok here are some photos of La Paz ... enjoy!)

View from our window:

Ceremonial guards outside of president Morales` palace:

A girl runs up an old colonial street (calle Jeán) in central La Paz:

Dried Llama Foetus for sale:

Graffiti in support of the president:






Love to all! - MP

Bolivia!

Yesterday we arried in Bolivia, which really just meant we took a bus to the other side of Lake Titicaca, crossed at a very beaurocratic border post and then made our way into Copacabana - which is a lakeside tourist town in Bolivia, and not the famous beach in Rio (there is a beach, but it´s not the kind you´d want to lay around on.)

Copacabana is a holy site for both the Catholic church and traditional Aymará religion. There is a very famous virgin (image of Mary) here -- one of the most famous in all of Peru and Bolivia. There is also the equally famous virgin negra, or black virigin, which was carved in ancient days by a decendent of one of the Inca kings. Here is Matt L after lighting a candle in her sanctuary:

We climbed up a small mountain next to the town and found another set of holy sites, along with a series of soft drink/ritual materials stands. This woman is selling soft drinks at 12,500 feet:

There were other retail outlets as well, including one at which you could by a huge assortment of miniature cars, truck, busses, houses and animals. Having the miniatures blessed at this holy spot is supposed to cuase you to acquire them in the upcoming year. The family in the photo below is performing an Aymará blessing of some sort. We watched as they arranged flowers, jewelry, holy water and images of the virgin mary on the ground. They then sprinkled water, wine and corn beer on the assembled ritual stuff. The view from their ritual site pointed directly toward the Isla del Sol (island of the sun) which the Incas belived to be the birthplace of the sun and moon, which are symbolic of male and female energy respectively, and so the island is the source of all life. This is why sacrifices have always been made at this point. It was cool to watch this family because they were having an incredible amount of fun preforming their ritual duty -- laughing, smiling and embracing eachother the whole time. They also drank all of the leftover corn beer.

We are doing well! We had thought of going over to the Isla del Sol ourselves today, but it has clouded over and looks stormy so we are jumping on a bus to La Paz, Bolivia´s capital. More from there.

-MP

Joan is Known

Ok brief note ... we are here on the high Peruvian altiplano, drinking a coffee when in walks a gringo-looking couple. They turn out to be from Ellensburg, which is odd enough. Then we ask them if they know our dear friend Joan Neslund. Of course they do. Either this is a very small planet, or Joan is an excedingly famous woman. Or perhaps both.

La Fiesta Video

Here`s some more stuff from our time here in Puno. The video shows the kind of dancing and parades that have been going on here lately. There are many different dancing troops, all of whom roam the streets during the day and into the night. There are also competitions etc. Most of the imagery of the costume has to do with indiginous beliefs and gods. Many processions are lead by an imag of the virgin. The dragon figures in the video are common, and are supposed to represent both the christian devil and the native underworld god. It is funny to see a whole troop of devils cross themselves when they pass one of the many churches.

-MP ML

Party Time!

Well we arrived in Puno, Peru today, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The dive over from Arequipa was nothing less than spectacular. The skies were clear and blue and the high planes (in places over 14,000 feet) spread around us, with distant snowcapped volcanos towering over everything. It was absolutely amazing. For me, so far, the most amazing sight was of this city of Puno, spread out below us on the shores of the giant lake. When we got to the center, it was immediately clear that a party was on.

The streets near our hostel were crowded with people, dancers, vendors and marching bands. The Andean marching band is not the kind that marches around a football stadium at half time. Rather it´s a sort of party machine, complete with huge percussion section and an army of dancers. A numer roamed the streets today:

It was like a 4ht of July parade. These women had staked our their ground to view the procedings:

We also discovered the carnival custom of spraying random strangers with detergent foam. Little armies of kids wait on every street corner to spray anyone who looks like they have a sense of humor. Here´s Matt L after a particularly vigorous attack (note Peruvians in the background laughing at him) :

-MP

Our Family in Arequipa

As we leave Arequipa, we owe a big thank you to our dear host family, la familia Collantes. La señora Gladys was our host mother, and took very good care of us with many excellent breakfasts and general warm hospitality. Here we are with her:

The family also includes two wonderful young people, Fernando and his sister Francesca, who were both very hospitible as well, and didn´t seem to mind too much our invasion of their house. Fernando is an excellent fútbol player, and Francesca is an aspiring model (we even went to one of her student fashion show, in which she wore a beautiful pink gown. Ever since I have been calling her `superstar`.)

So ... what else have we done this week? Well I think it is safe to say that we´ve kept it relatively low-key after our big adventure last weekend (see previous post), but we have managed to have some fun. Our friends Giovanna and Rosa took us to an outlying plaza for a meal of fried beef heart, potatoes and these delicious sort of donut things covered in caramelized sugar. Not the best for the colestorol count, but delicious. Aslo, we visited the amazing museum at the monestario de al Ricoleta, a ancient franciscan monestary with a wonderful ancient library. Among the precious colonial books there was a very early edition (1st or second printing) of Don Quixote. It must have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it was just sort of sitting there in an unlocked glass case.

The museum was lovely, with lots of beautifully preserved cells and rooms ... in this picture you can see the monk`s scourge hanging conveniently over his bed, just in case mortification of the flesh is needed pronto.

As in all of Peru, pure enigma is never far around the corner, and indeed here in the monestary as we rounded one of the next corners, we were presented with a display concerning the history of Peruvian dolls. We were not sure what to make of this. Maybe you can help us:

We are off to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. More soon from there.

- MP

Our Colca Adventure

Where even to start ... we had such an eventful weekend that it's hard to know what to write about first. We left Arequipa at the rather insane hour of 1:30 am with our friend and guide. Our bus left the busy (even early in the morning) bus station over-full with people. Imagine a Greyhound where people are allowed to pay extra to stand in the aisle. And stand they did -- all night and into the early morning as we lurched across a 15,000 foot pass in the Andes. The paved road ended at the provincial capital of Chivay, where we stopped for long enough to take a very short break, then continued three hours more via Holdenesque roads to our final stop -- the village of Cabanaconde. Cabanacode is a tiny town perched on a outcropping above the Colca Canyon -- one of the deepest canyons in the world (deeper anyway than the Grand Canyon.) Here's a picture as we started to decend from the town into the Canyon .. note that the bottom is not visible ... it keeps going down and down and down.

As we decended the climate began to change from the cool, almost semi-alpine feel of Cabanaconde to a more arid, punishing environment. Terraces of corn gave way to wild cactus groves, some of which were in full bloom, in this the wet season. (It didn't feel that wet to us.)

The canyon was absolutely beautiful. Unbelievable. 6000+ meter peaks dropped down to a valley floor more than 4000 meters below. That's a sheer drop of over 12,000 feet. We saw wildlife too, including andean condors circling high above, yellow cactus nesting birds and this cool lizard:

Down further in the canyon, we saw a train of burros approaching from the depths. It turned out to be a husband and wife -- well into their sixties -- taking their load of tree fruit from their orchard at the bottom of the canyon (where it is nice and hot for fruit trees) to market in Cabanaconde. That's only a 4500 foot, six hour climb for two senior citizens and their donkeys! Here you can sort of see the woman, with Matt L (w/ backpack) in the background. Shortly thereafter, the woman 'asked' me for a tip for taking her picture.

At long last we reached the bottom of the gorge and the rushing Rio Colca. Here's Matt L crossing the rickety bridge at the bottom with a friend. It was a great feeling to get to the bottom.

The bottom of the gorge is very different from the top. It had an almost tropical feel, and indeed there were palm trees growning in places. Besides fruit, the other principal crop is a sort of cactus that is grown not for its own sake but for the fact that it is host to a parasite bug that leaves strange white deposits behind, but when crushed can be chemically coaxed into producing a rare and bright red dye.

An hour after crossing the bridge we arrived at the tiny village of Llahuar where we planned to stay the night before going on the big Fiesta in Malata the next day. Llahuar was perched atop a cliff high above the confluence of the Colca and another river. It was a beautiful place.

We stayed in a hut. Our party of four tripled the number of inhabitants currently present in the village -- all of the rest were at the big party a few miles away (and a few thousand feet higher.) We stayed in bamboo walled and tin roof buildings with dirt floors and no electricity. If it felt like we were at the end of the trail, that's probably because we were ... The two guys running the town cooked us some river trout on a wood stove.

Then Matt P began to barf. Alot. And other things too. Simultaneously. All night (for 18 hours.) At the end of the burro path, at the bottom of the deepest canyon in the world.

This was disapointing and inconvenient for a couple of reasons. First of all, it probably meant that we were destined to miss the great Fiesta (which we did) because the rapidly dehydrating MattP had to get back to civilization (and antibiotics.) Also, it meant that we faced a 4500 ft. ASCENT on foot back to the town with the only road out of the area, with one of us barfing the whole way in the tropical heat.

That's when Rosa, our somewhat preoccupied but very helpful guide, showed up and said: 'Hay un camion en Llanca a las nueve! Tenemos solomente una hora y media!'

Translation: three miles down the valley there's a road that makes the Holden switchbacks look like a superhighway. Why don't we all scale a number of dangerous cliffs of loose volcanic rock, pick our way through a few cactus plantations and throw up (and other things) in some campesino's orchard so that we can ride in the back of a rickety cattle truck packed full of 40 peruvian farmers and their produce for a 2.5 hour ride up a 3000 foot cliff in the blistering summer heat?

Sounds great!

Here were just a few of our friendly fellow passengers on the camion ... the human ones anyway:

2.5 hours later, thanks to Rosa's idea, we were indeed back in Cabonacode and within reach of medical help. Here's our pimped-out ride through treacherous mountain terrain ... who knew that it was destined to hang 2 wheels off the edge while making switchback turns:

By the way, we've noticed that most camiones (and taxis for that matter) are dedicated to and/or blessed by some incarnation of the Virgin Mary. Ours for example was rather grandiosly called 'La Virgen del Carmen'. In the cabin were multiple talismans of good luck, all featuring images of the blessed virgin and or the sacred heart of Jesus -- all were needed. (We also noticed that a dump truck called El Corazon de Jesucristo was parked nearby upon our return to Cabanaconde. Maybe it went up and down the same road.)

We finally made it home after another 6 hours in another crowded bus, during which it was Matt L's turn to puke out the window at 15,000 feet (motion sickness we think.) We are both healthy now and back in Arequipa at school. The weekend certainly wasn´t what we'd expected, nor what we'd really been looking forward to (see previous entry) but what it was was a great adventure.

-ML MP

Colca

Hi everyone --

Wish us luck. This weekend we are off to Colca Canyon. There´s some controversy about this, but some consider Colca to be the deepest canyon in the world. In any case, from top to bottom it is twice as deep as the grand canyon. Our plan (with some help) is to take a six hour bus ride to a remote town, climb down into the canyon (in the depths of which tropical oases and even orchids are aparently found) and then back up the other way to a series of little towns, which this weekend will be celebrating a great fiesta of the Virgin de la Candalaria:



In this festival, the virgin is aparently processed out form her usual home in the church, and what follows is a great big party for the whole town and whoever else shows up. The event comes 40 days after Christmas in the liturgical year. It is also known as Candlemas. The virgin is of course the virgin Mary, but also has resonances with pre-Christian Andean religions and festivals. We´re excited for the weekend.

- MP ML