Sorry for the lack of blog posts over the past 2 weeks... as i neared the end of my trip I lost motivation to "blog". Anyways, Im home now in CO and headed to Montana tomorrow. I will continue to post more stuff, including some videos that i wanted to post before but couldn't due to slow internet.
I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer, I am going on month number 6 of warm sunny days!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Copacbana y un mal estomago...
When I drove into Bolivia during my jeep tour, I was with a gal from California named Kat. She told me that the big joke for touristas in Bolivia is “if you don’t get sick from the water or the food than you will from the altitude…”
Well I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to get sick from the altitude, and after 4 months I like to think that I have a strong stomach, so I was betting that I would be just fine. Well I returned from Rurrenabaque and spent the night in La Paz, and I woke up the next morning to discover that I was not “just fine”. Unfortunately I had to get on a bus that afternoon to head to Copacabana. I survived the bus ride (Bolivian busses don’t have bathrooms, so long rides can be a bit nerve racking and stressful) only to get much worse the fallowing day. I decided to check myself into a Hotel, instead of a hostel so that I could enjoy the “luxury” of a private bathroom. I basically did nothing other than sleep and feel bad for the next 3 days, oye.
But on my fourth day, after consuming all of the pepto-bismol that Forrest and I brought, I rallied! I felt so good I bought myself a bus ticket to Peru and boat tickets for the fallowing day. I wandered around the town of Copacabana, which is a really nice, touristy town on the Bolivian shores of lake Titicaca. The lake is really beautiful, the shores were lined with fishing boats, tour boats, paddle boats along with the traditional reed boats that islanders have used since the time of the Incas. For my last 2 nights I switched hotels to a place called La Cupula, supposedly one of the nicer hotels in Bolivia. I thought I could splurge for it because one room only cost 18$. It was really nice, it was bar far the nicest bathroom that I have been in, in south America and I had it all to myself (i didnt realize how much i took for granted in the bathroom department until I came to Boliva, hot water and water pressure, not to mention toilet seats, dont really exisit in this country).
On my last full day in Copa I took a tour boat to the Isla del Sol (the island of the sun) which is supposedly the birthplace of Inca sun mythology. The boat ride was beautiful, you could see the Cordillera Real off to one side, and the island on the other. The boat took us to the north end of the Island first, where we were dropped off to explore for a few hours. Normally most people walk from one end to the other, it is a 4 hr walk that is supposedly pretty strenuous (the island is at about 13,000ft) I decided not to do that since I had been sick for the past 3 days. So, I walked on the trail for about an hour, went to the museam, and had a nice conversation with a little girl who lived on the island about her farm animals, before heading back onto the boat. We then went to visit the south end of the island for a bit, where I climbed the legendary “1000 steps” to get to the small village, then I went back down them. The boat ride back was warm, sunny and beautiful. Lake Titicaca is truly amazing. I wish that I could have explored more while I was there, but alas my bowels wouldn’t allow it.
Presently I am back in Peru, for my last reaming in days until the grand adventures of Southie come to an end…
View of Copacabana from La Cupula
Sail boat out on the lake
View of the Cordillera Real over the north end of Isla del Sol
The 1000 steps to the village on the south end of the island
traditional reed boat on Lake Titicaca
Well I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to get sick from the altitude, and after 4 months I like to think that I have a strong stomach, so I was betting that I would be just fine. Well I returned from Rurrenabaque and spent the night in La Paz, and I woke up the next morning to discover that I was not “just fine”. Unfortunately I had to get on a bus that afternoon to head to Copacabana. I survived the bus ride (Bolivian busses don’t have bathrooms, so long rides can be a bit nerve racking and stressful) only to get much worse the fallowing day. I decided to check myself into a Hotel, instead of a hostel so that I could enjoy the “luxury” of a private bathroom. I basically did nothing other than sleep and feel bad for the next 3 days, oye.
But on my fourth day, after consuming all of the pepto-bismol that Forrest and I brought, I rallied! I felt so good I bought myself a bus ticket to Peru and boat tickets for the fallowing day. I wandered around the town of Copacabana, which is a really nice, touristy town on the Bolivian shores of lake Titicaca. The lake is really beautiful, the shores were lined with fishing boats, tour boats, paddle boats along with the traditional reed boats that islanders have used since the time of the Incas. For my last 2 nights I switched hotels to a place called La Cupula, supposedly one of the nicer hotels in Bolivia. I thought I could splurge for it because one room only cost 18$. It was really nice, it was bar far the nicest bathroom that I have been in, in south America and I had it all to myself (i didnt realize how much i took for granted in the bathroom department until I came to Boliva, hot water and water pressure, not to mention toilet seats, dont really exisit in this country).
On my last full day in Copa I took a tour boat to the Isla del Sol (the island of the sun) which is supposedly the birthplace of Inca sun mythology. The boat ride was beautiful, you could see the Cordillera Real off to one side, and the island on the other. The boat took us to the north end of the Island first, where we were dropped off to explore for a few hours. Normally most people walk from one end to the other, it is a 4 hr walk that is supposedly pretty strenuous (the island is at about 13,000ft) I decided not to do that since I had been sick for the past 3 days. So, I walked on the trail for about an hour, went to the museam, and had a nice conversation with a little girl who lived on the island about her farm animals, before heading back onto the boat. We then went to visit the south end of the island for a bit, where I climbed the legendary “1000 steps” to get to the small village, then I went back down them. The boat ride back was warm, sunny and beautiful. Lake Titicaca is truly amazing. I wish that I could have explored more while I was there, but alas my bowels wouldn’t allow it.
Presently I am back in Peru, for my last reaming in days until the grand adventures of Southie come to an end…
View of Copacabana from La Cupula
Sail boat out on the lake
View of the Cordillera Real over the north end of Isla del Sol
The 1000 steps to the village on the south end of the island
traditional reed boat on Lake Titicaca
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Baby monky vs Macaw
Baby monkey Chinina really wants to play with the Macaw... the macaw is only interested in getting inside. It was hysterical to watch their interaction.
Both of the animals were brought to the reserve to be rehabilitated. The Macaw was a house pet, but the owners we convinced to let it be wild. She is in the process of re-growing her cut feathers so that she can fly again. She climbs up everyday to the top of her favorite tree... my last morning I saw 2 other Macaws come to visit her, so it appears that things are looking good. The monkey Chinina is one of many baby monkeys that are sold in the local towns after thir mothers are shot and killed for sport, she is 5 months old. Once she´s is big enough they will put her in another part of the reserve with another spider monkey that they rehabilitated.
Both of the animals were brought to the reserve to be rehabilitated. The Macaw was a house pet, but the owners we convinced to let it be wild. She is in the process of re-growing her cut feathers so that she can fly again. She climbs up everyday to the top of her favorite tree... my last morning I saw 2 other Macaws come to visit her, so it appears that things are looking good. The monkey Chinina is one of many baby monkeys that are sold in the local towns after thir mothers are shot and killed for sport, she is 5 months old. Once she´s is big enough they will put her in another part of the reserve with another spider monkey that they rehabilitated.
La Paz... and Rurrenabaque. Montanas y selva!
LA PAZ
I spent about 5 days in La Paz, before heading to Rurrenabaque to visit a part of the Bolivian Amazon. I loved La Paz, it´s really beautiful, located in a valley with huge peaks surrounding it. The city is built up the sidewalls of the canyon and onto the pampa (flat land) above. I visited several museams including a museam about the history of the Coca leaf, which was really fascinating. My other favoite was a museam of instruments (Forrest would have loved it), they have really nice examples of instrument from Bolivia and all arround the world (behind glass cases), but then they have replicas of them everwhere so that you can play them, it was really fun. I visited the Vally de la Luna outside of La Paz, which is a series of badlands. What was more interesting than the badlands however, was the journey to get there. I went with a gal I met from South Africa. We took public transportation (aka a mini-bus, designed for small people like Bolivians, crammed FULL of people) on the way to get there we drove through the Zona Sur, which is the most affluent part of La Paz, and boy was it fancy! Huge mansions, and lots of hummers... on of the school kids on the mini bus asked me if we have big box cars in the US! ha! I also venture up onto the rim of La Paz to view the famous ¨Colitas Wrestling¨ which was one of the more rediculous things that I have seen. It is Bolivia´s version of WWF, complete with a midget wrestler (not very PC). The crowd which was mostly Bolivians all had signs for their favorite wrestlers. It was an experience.
LA SELVA (the jungle)
I booked a 5 day tour to go to the jougle when I was in La Paz, to go the the Sere reserve which is run by the same woman who sarted the Madidi national park. I flew in the morning to Rurrenabaque (Rurre), after an interesting takeoff in a very small plane (16 pasengers, one seat on each side and an open cockpit) we abruptly landed back in La Paz because the instruments on our plane werent functioning! After about 45 min, we tried again and this time we made it all the way to the tiny dirt runway of Rurre. It was a bit of a shock, getting of the plane into really hot humid air ( i had been in high altitude desert for the past month!). We arrived late so I assumed that I had missed my boat(litteraly)... The tour was supposed to leave by boat at 1030, and my plane got in at 11. I huslted to the tour office, convincing the bus driver to drop me off there first. They waited for me! Our group was 2 other couples, one german/french, one couple from Australia, me and our guide Nilo. We all piled into a large dougout canoe with a motor on the back, and motored down the Rio Beni (a tributary to the Amazon) for about 3 hours, with a floating break to have lunch. It was so beautiful, the land behind Rurre was large moutainous jungle and cloud forest and the area downstream was thick flat jungle. We got out of the boat and began our walk, which was about an hour through the jungle before we reached the cabanas that we would be staying in! They were beautiful, netted cabanas with thatched roofs, and we each had our own. The cabanas were about a 15 min walk (which seems really far when you are walking in the dark in the joungle by yourself) from the main lodge which was about 3 floors and overlooked Lago San Fransisco. The first floor was the kitchen and dining area and the other floors were devoted to lounging... old wooden canoes full of pillows and hammocks galore. I spent my 5 days exploring the joungle both on and off trails, as well as paddling arround the lakes in a wodden canoe. The joungle is really amazing, the noise is incredible, it always loud and always changing. I woke up everymorning to the masive sound of male Howler monkeys climing there teritory, the sound litteraly gives you the shivers, its incredible (youtube it). The seccond thing that really supprised me was how thick it was, vegitation growing everywhere, the Amazon also has a way of super-sizing everything... the ants were the size of my thumb! We saw tons and tons of insects (i have my fair share of mosquito bites depite my 98% deet, i also had an incident with ant crwling up my pants-and biting me) most of them are huge. The spiders were the most noticeably large insect because they are everywhere, we saw 2 types of terantula, the bigger one was about the size of a small plate, and about 2 dozen other types. The mariposas (butterflys) are beautiful, my favorite was the transparent butterfly, the really huge metalic blue ones were nice too. At night the mosquitos came out with a vengance... but they were acompanied by huge luciernagas (fire flys) which would light up the trees. My first night we went out after dinner for a late night canoe camin spotting mission. They were everwhere! All of the camin in the lake were small, less than a meter, but we saw one on the Rio Benni that was 3m long! During my visit I was also lucky enough to spot 4 different types of monkeys, a deer, pecarys, an anaconda, 2 other types of big snakes, tons and tons of different types of birs including a tiger heron )my fav), Serere, pigmy kingfisher, hummingbirds, cormorants, Macaw (all 3 types that they have there), 2 othe types of heron and lots more! The Serere reserve is truely an incredible place, it is one of the last places in the area where you can still find old growth trees that havnt been cut down, they are really big! We saw a ficus tree and the base was about the size of my living room! I was sad to leave the selva but I was happy to be out of the buggs...
So, apparently all of the photos loaded to the side instead of to the center so the captions are a bit funny... sorry.
The Rurre airport... the landing stip was dirt and it dead ended into a rock wall.
Rurrenabaque
Boating up the Rio Beni. It was a three hour motored boat trip and then a one hour walk to get to the ecolodge. It really was the middle of the Jungle.
La Selva
After fishing on Lago San Fransisco
Pirana teeth!
Pirana fishing! My guide, Nilo.
Canoeing on Lago Gringo
Me with Chinina
The Serere, the bird that the refuge is named after.
One of many crazy spiders, this guy is about the size of a coffee cup. HUGE!
A squirel monkey in the trees, one of 4 different kinds of monkeys that I saw.
Spider monkey named Chinina, one of the animals being rehabed at the reserve.
My gorgeous cabana in the Jungle
La Paz at night... from above.
"Cholitas wrestling"... Bolivas version of the WWF. Rediculous.
La Paz
The mountians outside of La Paz.
I spent about 5 days in La Paz, before heading to Rurrenabaque to visit a part of the Bolivian Amazon. I loved La Paz, it´s really beautiful, located in a valley with huge peaks surrounding it. The city is built up the sidewalls of the canyon and onto the pampa (flat land) above. I visited several museams including a museam about the history of the Coca leaf, which was really fascinating. My other favoite was a museam of instruments (Forrest would have loved it), they have really nice examples of instrument from Bolivia and all arround the world (behind glass cases), but then they have replicas of them everwhere so that you can play them, it was really fun. I visited the Vally de la Luna outside of La Paz, which is a series of badlands. What was more interesting than the badlands however, was the journey to get there. I went with a gal I met from South Africa. We took public transportation (aka a mini-bus, designed for small people like Bolivians, crammed FULL of people) on the way to get there we drove through the Zona Sur, which is the most affluent part of La Paz, and boy was it fancy! Huge mansions, and lots of hummers... on of the school kids on the mini bus asked me if we have big box cars in the US! ha! I also venture up onto the rim of La Paz to view the famous ¨Colitas Wrestling¨ which was one of the more rediculous things that I have seen. It is Bolivia´s version of WWF, complete with a midget wrestler (not very PC). The crowd which was mostly Bolivians all had signs for their favorite wrestlers. It was an experience.
LA SELVA (the jungle)
I booked a 5 day tour to go to the jougle when I was in La Paz, to go the the Sere reserve which is run by the same woman who sarted the Madidi national park. I flew in the morning to Rurrenabaque (Rurre), after an interesting takeoff in a very small plane (16 pasengers, one seat on each side and an open cockpit) we abruptly landed back in La Paz because the instruments on our plane werent functioning! After about 45 min, we tried again and this time we made it all the way to the tiny dirt runway of Rurre. It was a bit of a shock, getting of the plane into really hot humid air ( i had been in high altitude desert for the past month!). We arrived late so I assumed that I had missed my boat(litteraly)... The tour was supposed to leave by boat at 1030, and my plane got in at 11. I huslted to the tour office, convincing the bus driver to drop me off there first. They waited for me! Our group was 2 other couples, one german/french, one couple from Australia, me and our guide Nilo. We all piled into a large dougout canoe with a motor on the back, and motored down the Rio Beni (a tributary to the Amazon) for about 3 hours, with a floating break to have lunch. It was so beautiful, the land behind Rurre was large moutainous jungle and cloud forest and the area downstream was thick flat jungle. We got out of the boat and began our walk, which was about an hour through the jungle before we reached the cabanas that we would be staying in! They were beautiful, netted cabanas with thatched roofs, and we each had our own. The cabanas were about a 15 min walk (which seems really far when you are walking in the dark in the joungle by yourself) from the main lodge which was about 3 floors and overlooked Lago San Fransisco. The first floor was the kitchen and dining area and the other floors were devoted to lounging... old wooden canoes full of pillows and hammocks galore. I spent my 5 days exploring the joungle both on and off trails, as well as paddling arround the lakes in a wodden canoe. The joungle is really amazing, the noise is incredible, it always loud and always changing. I woke up everymorning to the masive sound of male Howler monkeys climing there teritory, the sound litteraly gives you the shivers, its incredible (youtube it). The seccond thing that really supprised me was how thick it was, vegitation growing everywhere, the Amazon also has a way of super-sizing everything... the ants were the size of my thumb! We saw tons and tons of insects (i have my fair share of mosquito bites depite my 98% deet, i also had an incident with ant crwling up my pants-and biting me) most of them are huge. The spiders were the most noticeably large insect because they are everywhere, we saw 2 types of terantula, the bigger one was about the size of a small plate, and about 2 dozen other types. The mariposas (butterflys) are beautiful, my favorite was the transparent butterfly, the really huge metalic blue ones were nice too. At night the mosquitos came out with a vengance... but they were acompanied by huge luciernagas (fire flys) which would light up the trees. My first night we went out after dinner for a late night canoe camin spotting mission. They were everwhere! All of the camin in the lake were small, less than a meter, but we saw one on the Rio Benni that was 3m long! During my visit I was also lucky enough to spot 4 different types of monkeys, a deer, pecarys, an anaconda, 2 other types of big snakes, tons and tons of different types of birs including a tiger heron )my fav), Serere, pigmy kingfisher, hummingbirds, cormorants, Macaw (all 3 types that they have there), 2 othe types of heron and lots more! The Serere reserve is truely an incredible place, it is one of the last places in the area where you can still find old growth trees that havnt been cut down, they are really big! We saw a ficus tree and the base was about the size of my living room! I was sad to leave the selva but I was happy to be out of the buggs...
So, apparently all of the photos loaded to the side instead of to the center so the captions are a bit funny... sorry.
The Rurre airport... the landing stip was dirt and it dead ended into a rock wall.
Rurrenabaque
Boating up the Rio Beni. It was a three hour motored boat trip and then a one hour walk to get to the ecolodge. It really was the middle of the Jungle.
La Selva
After fishing on Lago San Fransisco
Pirana teeth!
Pirana fishing! My guide, Nilo.
Canoeing on Lago Gringo
Me with Chinina
The Serere, the bird that the refuge is named after.
One of many crazy spiders, this guy is about the size of a coffee cup. HUGE!
A squirel monkey in the trees, one of 4 different kinds of monkeys that I saw.
Spider monkey named Chinina, one of the animals being rehabed at the reserve.
My gorgeous cabana in the Jungle
La Paz at night... from above.
"Cholitas wrestling"... Bolivas version of the WWF. Rediculous.
La Paz
The mountians outside of La Paz.
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