La Paz-Not Another Local Mexican Restuarant

We had met some travelers on our way to Isla Del Sol that recommended we stay at a certain Irish hostel in La Paz. Well, we did!!

After three weeks on attempting conversation in Spanish, we readily welcomed the change of pace at the Wild Rover in La Paz. La Paz is a busy, smog -filled city whose size can not be described: it is simply HUGE. It is set down in a valley with hills, odd in comparison to the rest of the country, covered with trees.

 In such a large city, it was a comfort to stumble into the Wild Rover. The hostel was great, it of course had an Irish bar and Irish food. Best of all, the staff was mainly English-speaking young locals and the bar constantly was playing American music. In short, it was the closest thing to home we had felt in a long time. At this point the only thing that could have made us more at home would have been a restuarant with the words "La Paz" actually in it; unforunately the states are the only place to find such a fake mexican treasure.

Similarly, the city is filled with young, rebelious hipsters (some foreign and some local) who work at a host of restaurants and bars that cater to English-speaking travelers from all over the world. Gratefully, after three weeks of chicken and rice, we ate well in La Paz for real cheap.

If we were cooler, and we are just not, we could have gotten lost in the party scene in La Paz. We heard more than one story of naive travelers starting the night innocently by getting close to naked ontop of the bar at the Wild Rover to be later swept by local women to the "Blue House" where the first thing offered is as much cocaine as you want. Instead while this was going on, Bobby and Natalie most likely had their ear plugs in trying to catch their Zzzzzssss at around 9pm.

La Paz being filled with rolling hills makes a quick walk anywhere a tiring one at that. The meandering streets were buzzing with a constant flow of people and small street vendors making this a noisy but ever-interesting place. We can honestly say, if you ever wanted a one stop shop for candy, watches, hammers, ironing boards, or a toilet seat-well most vendors would be able to help you out with their supplies.

Not sure if this is up to Code.

The roads are crazy here, no mercy if you try to cross.

After roaming the streets looking at the Presidential Palace, the ornate churches and plazas, we entered the Wild Rover with headaches from the unimaginable amount of gas emanating from cars and busses.

Guards outside the Presidential Palace. Unlike the Brits-these guys laugh if you make faces at them.

We really enjoyed our time in La Paz but.....

Ummmm....Donuts

Last snack before heading onto Uyuni on the overnight bus from hell.

We had to keep on moving. Next Up, Uyuni and the Salt Flats.

To Bolivian and Beyond: The Money Taking Special

From Cuzco, we took an eight hour bus ride to Puno, a Peruvian city on Lake Titicaca. Luckily, we got the front seats on our double-decker bus and had a prime view of the dry Peruvian country-side on our way there.

Our seats were the front ones on the top left, amazing ride.

Yep, that's Bobby's feet.

Someone needs a haircut bad

You may have heard of the floating islands on the Lake...well, Puno is the theme park entrance to this old tradition. As soon as we arrived at the busy bus station, we were immediately attacked (in true Peruvian fashion) with several hostel workers buying for our attention and money. Soooo many promises of spacious rooms and hot showers; everyone of them broken of course. However, the verbal competition between the men stopped after these quick introductions...not much else to offer. Luckily, we only really needed a roof over our head. Without possibilities of four-five star hotels, we simply choose the cheapest one.

This simple selection process served us well as we only spent one night in Puno.

View of Puno driving in.

Our adventures in this town revolved around a trip out to the reed islands on Lake Titcaca, let the pictures begin.

Natalie was a big fan of the front of one of the reed boats, pretty scary

Next we had a surprisingly good meal at a local german-inspired restaurant, and a visit with the smallest and almost cutest dog.

Don't worry Marstons..."almost cutest" is not the same as the cutest dog...which of course, is Bailey-Waggles!!


The next day we left the shores of the Peruvian Lake Titicaca side behind for the Bolivian side, where the idea of nickel and diming originated.

The original Copacabana resides just across the Bolivian border which first means, we Americans must PAY PAY PAY at the border crossing. While every other nationality simply needs a stamp to enter Bolivia; Americans need shot records, copies of passports and credit cards, and a visa worth a cool $135 US dollars. We were the last people at the border while the whole bus waited because of our longer visa process. Natalie was running to and from the bus attempting to keep the bus and our bags from leaving, and urging the guards to hurry up before we got stranded. Bobby, on the other hand, was enduring (rather well, we may add) the continuing insults from the Bolivian guards who continually made cry-baby noises at the worried and rushed American. Because of this, our first impression of Bolivia was beautiful scenery filled with money-taking Bolivians not shy about insulting us to our faces (luckily, we couldn't understand the insults). Unfortunately, our last impression of Bolivia was much the same, having to pay extra just to leave the country-Thanks guys!!!

After running to the bus, we crossed the border, to be immediately stopped by a man at the edge of Copacabana. He casually boarded the bus and-as you would guess-demanded money from each passenger "to enter the city's limits." This same trend of unidentified people taking money happened at every possible turn in Bolivia. We would be on a bus ...but then suddendly, wtih no choice we would have to pay a ferry tax. For example, we took a tour to an island, as soon as we arrive, not to our surprise there were people collecting a mysterious island tax. We are talking much less than a dollar here...but it's the principle right? We were constantly joking with other exasperated travelers, that the bus/boat drivers would just tell their buddies to stand on the corner at a certain time...and then they would demand money to pass as if that was the way it always happened, yeah right. Bobby was of course making loud remarks about the smell of scam in the air the whole time.

However, don't let our sarcastic recount of our adventures ruin the beautiful places Bolivia has to offer!

Back to Copacabana. It is a touristy, and almost hip town...we left it immediately.

Instead, we took off after some friend's advice and went to Isla del Sol in the middle of Lake Titicaca. The lake is amazing...it is seriously like an ocean. There are points where you can't see anything but water on the horizon. It is flanked by an amazing snow-capped mountain range on one side. And at such an extreme elevation, the sky is flawless.

We stayed on the south side of Isla Del Sol, where there are bare hosteles dotting the small coast run by local women clad in traditional clothing. Much to our laughter, the island is also home to many donkeys whose mating habits can be heard where ever you may be sleeping.

View from the beach area; this place turned into a ghost town at sunset.

The view from our porch area was amazing.

This part of our trip also marks part two of "Bobby's sick." "Bobby's sick" started in Cuzco, with his first big introduction into "altitude." Bobby was sick then...but he conquered his troubles like a true-wimpy champion and fought off the headaches and naseau. However, on the Isla Del Sol, the alitude got the best of Bobby: he puked.

Bolivians are doing their part to keep the lake clean; that is a huge pile of broken glass bottles that people were smashing against the rocks-way to go guys :(

So long Lake Titicaca....

The PICCHU of MACHU

So, this leg of the trip was pretty awesome and included a few tears from Natalie as visiting Machu Picchu was a childhood dream. 

First, we caught a train outside of Cusco early in the morning of the 10th.  There are three different trains: backpacker, vista dome, and Hiram Bingham.  Guess which on we were on (just in case you can't guess, it was the backpacker and the cheapest).  The vista dome comes by its name honestly and is supposed to include a ceiling full of windows to view the terrain on the way to Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Picchu.  The Hiram Bingham (as seen on Anthony Bourdain) comes complete with a 6 course meal, servant with white gloves, white table cloths, and a price tag of over 700 big ones.  The backpacker is supposed to be neither of these...but somehow we got the vista dome anyway!!

Bobby is getting pretty pumped about our 4 hour trip up to Aguas Calientes on Perurail, especially because of the free upgrade.

In lieu of the luxuries of the Hiram Bingham train, we got an Argentinian man who sat next to us and talked the entire four hours.  But the train was fun and the view was spectacular: snow capped mountains, rushing waters, small farm communities, and sherpa's carrying the luggage of foreigners on the Inca trail. 

The view out of the vistadome (windows on the roof of train car)

Bobby kept giving this guy thumbs up; Bobby thinks it made his day considering he was about to carry all that gearfor tourists hiking the trail.  These guys carry all the equipment, food, and clothing for the trek and have to rush ahead of the hikers to prepare camp.

While stopped, Bobby made a bunch of funny faces at this little guy.  Little guy obviously enjoyed them.

Next, we arrived in Aguas Calientes.  It is hard to describe a town like this, who exists only because of the travelers to Machu Picchu, but the terrain was really cool (see pic below!).  At first we were thrilled as the restaurants seemed to hold promises of Mexican food.  We have been craving Tex Mex since we landed in South America, but it seems we will have to wait until Texas in October. Our hopes were quickly destroyed as our food arrived smothered in the strange tasting Andean cheese and missing the unhealthy Tex Mex influences.

Nat trying to figure her way around AC. Incase you were wondering, we have a theme going with Natalie and maps.

Nat looking down the tracks at the next train pulling in and all the restaurants surrounding the tracks.

This was too damn funny to pass up taking a picture of.  This guy was wondering the streets of AC with a cup of jello that he was attempting to eat, however he was doing a better job of wearing it.

However, the restaurants were helpful.  We did gain valuable insight from other customers about our plan of attack the following morning on Machu Picchu.

You have to be one of the first 400 people at the gates in the morning in order to hike the mountain in the back called Wayna Picchu.  The gates to the park open at 6, the buses start the 20 minute ascent at 5:30, and a gate at the bottom of the hill next to the river allows hiker to begin their 45 min. arduous climb at 5.  All advice given pointed to the hiking being the best way to ensure one of the 400 spots.  We were in!!

The next day we woke up at 2:50. Although the gate opens at 5, the line behind the gate for hikers begins early in the morning.  We arrived to the gate at 3:15 behind about 20 people.  By the time 4:50 rolled around and the nice guards let us hikers through a bit early, there was a mass of people behind the gates.

We passed through the gates a bit before 5 and started our hike.  We decided it would be each man for himself and whoever got up first would save a spot for the other.  Bobby was out of the gate fast leaving Natalie in the dust, but Natalie passed Bobby about 5 mins in (victory!!).  The trail is literally old rocky steps for a solid 45 minutes and the pressure is intense to get to the top quick.   Add in elevation and this hike was a lung-buster to be sure. Natalie got up a bit before Bobby and got a clutch spot in line way before the buses (sadly, in the midst of all that competition, there weren't 400 hikers so as long as you got up before the buses, you were fine...but I guess it is human nature to care where you end). 

Both happy to have made it to the top of all those steps-well worth it.

The mountains around Machu Picchu are too tall to actually see the sun rise, but we were still able to catch all the sunrise colors!

Then we entered Machu Picchu.   To describe this, it may be best to post a bunch of pics...otherwise this excerpt will sound like: "and then there were ruins."

First view of the ruins; Nat was like a kid in a candy store.

The amazing view from the top of Wayna Picchu looking down at MP.  The zig zag path in the left of the picture is the road that the buses take people to the front gate of MP if they decide not to hike. 

Nat chilling with our new friend we met at MP, Jonah.

Nat again trying to figure out where MP is.

These step are a great representation of the hike up Wayna Picchu.  At this point Bobby had to rest every 20-30 steps because  hislegs were blown from the earlier hike at 5am to the entrance of MP.

These guys were everywhere and were not scared about grazing in the middle of a nice picnic.

The high mountain in the background is Wayna Picchu that we hiked once in the park to get the best views of MP.  Even though that hike sucked we would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling to MP.