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