Lago Pachamama

        After Cusco we headed to Puno, Peru which is a town right outside of Lake Titicaca. We took a 2 day tour around some of the islands and learned that Lake Titicaca was formerly named Lago Pachamama which means Mother Earth Lake in Quechua. Rolls off the tongue so much smoother than titicaca so I´ve decided to veer from my usual food inspired blog post titles and dedicate this one to Pachamama. We went to the Uros Islands, also known as the floating islands. The islands are built out of dirt and reeds and then anchored down. The houses are made of reeds and so are the boats. It was really cool, it did seem pretty touristy and Im a little unsure of how authentic it was but still good to see. From there we went to Isla Amantani which was absolutely gorgeous. This was my favorite of the islands that we went to and ít seemed a little more legit than the floating islands because people actually lived there. The four of us stayed the night with a host mom named Gloria that dressed us up in traditional clothing and took us dancing. During the day we went on a hike to the top of the mountain on Amantani. Okay so Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world so it´s already at a very high altitude and hard to breathe, then we decided to hike to the top of a mountain on top of the highest lake. It was tough, but like most things that are tough it was worth it and felt really good at the top. The guide told us about some herb to pick that you rub in your hands and sniff it and it helps open up your lungs, even if it was just the placebo effect it seemed to help. After the hike was the aforementioned dress up the gringos in traditional clothes and dance with them party.
           After our island tour it was time to deal with crossing the border into Bolivia. It was a bit of a pain to try and get a visa at the border while a busload of non American citizens whose lovely governments dont make them pay for a visa wait for us, but we got in!! We went to the copa-copacabana (literally). It´s on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca and enjoyed our first run in with the sweet cheap lifestyle that is Bolivia. We can be happy and healthy on about 10 to 15 US dollars a day including hostel and food. From Copacabana we bused to La Paz to obtain Brazilian visas. After 4 trips to the embassy we all have successfully received our visas and were so happy we took a victory picture outside of the embassy. A guard with a gun promptly told us we were not allowed to take pictures of the embassy, woops! La Paz has been a pretty fun place to hang out for 5 days. It´s HUGE! It´s the capital but I didn´t expect it to be quite so big. It´s noisy and crowded, but also has its charms. There are parks dispersed throughout as well as jugo ladies that squeeze fresh orange juice.  La Paz is famous for a bike trail called death road, we opted not to do this activity, your welcome Mom. The other highlight of La Paz for me was the street food, aka people that sell food from a cart. You can get a freshly cooked empanada for the equivalent of 50 cents. We continue to meet wonderful friendly interesting people that are slowly shaping our trip. We´ve recently decided to go to Bonito Brazil after a very convincing recommendation. This will probably be my last blog post for about 3 weeks. Tonight we are headed to Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) and then to volunteer at a wildlife conservation center outside of Trinidad Bolivia for 2 weeks.  http://www.boliviabella.com/chuchini.html

Boats made out of reeds on Uros in Lake Titicaca. (Im not in this picture because you had to pay extra to get on the boat)

sheep wearing earrings on Uros

At the top of Isla Amantani in Lake Titicaca. Striking some warrior poses



Mama Gloria helping me get dressed



On top of Isla Taquile in Lake Titicaca

Sandboarding and Guinea Pig Croquettes

            After Lima we headed south to Ika and took a cab to a small town called Huacachina. It´s a little town in the middle of the desert that has a small lagoon. There´s all this life that´s sprouted out around the water. Plants palm trees and of course hostels and restaurants. The main attraction is sandboarding. We rented sandboards from an old man who told us to call him Señor Lengua (Mr Tongue) because in addition to the sandboards he told us old Peruvian legends about Huacachina and Cusco. The sandboarding turned into sand sledding due to fear of a broken appendage at the beginning of the trip. Still very fun.
             After 3 days of lounging around Huacachina we took our first overnight bus to Cusco. The bus was very classy complete with movies pillow blanket and meals. The scenery was unbelievable. Our main mission in Cusco was to book our Machu Pichu trek in June which we accomplished. After we did that we wandered around the city. We wandered very slowly due to the altitude, which took about 3 days to get used to. I didnt mind an excuse to relax and walk slowly around a city. I loved the vibe of Cusco, people have a lot of pride in their city, when you ask someone if they´re from Peru they would say Soy Cusceña (I am  a Cuscan). Kind of like when if you asked a Texan if she was from the United States.
            As far as food goes Peru is famous for guinea pig and alpaca meat. Well we wanted to try guinea pig so we ate it the woosy yet delicious way- at a fancy restaurant in the form of a cheesy potato croquette. It was delicious, might be brave enough to try it on a stick on my next go around in Cusco. Another one of my favorite things about Cusco are the jugo ladies (juice ladies). At markets there are rows of jugo ladies with all sorts of fresh fruit that you choose what you want and they blend it fresh right there. 
          Currently in La Paz Bolivia will do another post soon about touring islands of Lake Titicaca which we did last week. Next up for us are the salt flats in bolivia. Thanks for all the warm emails and messages sure do miss all of yall but am still loving this travel lifestyle. It is so fun to wake up and not have any plans and live in the present and soak up whatever the day has to offer.

Diane and I hiking up the hill pre sandsledding

Sunset over the lagoon in Huacachina, yea it really is this pretty

Katrina, Brigid, Diane and I in Cusco

Baby Alpaca in Cusco!

Ceviche is delicious

Well since my mom and brother had both written the only posts on my blog I decided it was time to compose one myself. We got into Lima on the 30th and it felt so good to see a driver from our hostel holding up a sign with our names on it. We stayed 5 nights at a hostel in Barranco, a suburb of Lima and have quickly adjusted to our new lifestlyes of being ¨funemployed.¨ We´ve done a lot of eating delicious ceviche of all different types of ocean animals. I dont discriminate, fish clams shrimp squid its all good when you cut it up and add spicy lime sauce. Theres also been a lot of relaxing, either in hammocks at the hostel or the ocean is across the street. On New Years we went to a bbq at the hostel and then out dancing. It´s challenging being thrown back into the spanish speaking world but I´ve been loving it and my spanish is slowly getting better. We explored the city a little bit without much of an agenda. Luckily my friends dont mind wandering around new places at a leisurely pace like I do. Theres a cheezy quote posted on our hostel wall that says ¨When you don´t know where you´re going any road will get you there¨ I thought it was appropriate for the beginning of our trip. We´re just soaking it all in right now and talking to other travelers to figure out where all we want to go. This afternoon we are headed to Ika where we´ll take a cab to huacachina. Its a super small town but its supposed to be beautiful sand dunes with a lagoon. Will keep you posted on how sandboarding goes.