Potosi

Potosi is the highest city in the world, and was quite beautiful!  The area was one the richest in all of the new world, and it shows.  While the mines have mostly dried up and the city is no where near its prime, there are still signs of its former wealth.

I spent the day walking around with a group of Germans I met in Sucre, which were nice enough.  They were nice enough, but kind of clicky and I was looking for how to get out of there.  We just walked around, saw an old church (which is on their 50 bill), and went to the colonial mint museum.

Nice day, not great.  Today I am in Uyuni booking a tour to see the salt flats, which are supposed to be incredible.  Uyuni is a waste of a city, but the gateway to the salt flats, so here I am.

Sucre

Sucre was surprisingly nice.  I really enjoyed walking around and just seeing the very pretty colonial town.  I ran into an Israeli, which I always like, and was able to see a lot of very nice places.  Unfortunately it  is a small town, so I will be heading off tomorrow.  It is nice, just not expansive, and I am in a time crunch waiting for Michael, so I better keep moving.

Sucre is helping salvage Bolivia´s image in my mind.

La Paz

La Paz was quite frankly boring.  I find it to have very little as far as tourist attractions and even less in regards to pretty places to walk or sit.  There is an aroma of human waste in the air, and garbage as far as the eye can see.  About the only redeeming factor was that it is fairly cheap, but then so are lots of places that also are enjoyable to be in.  I leave tonight for Sucre after 3 days of disappointment.  My lasting memory of this place will be a bunt out city with nothing to offer e3xcept the first installment of The Hobbit with subtitles in stead of being dubbed.

Copacabana

Copacabana was a crazy tourist little beach town.  The first day I got there was the 21st, which is a festival in South America.  So, there were bands on the street, and a lot of people out.  It was a nice atmosphere.  The next day I took a tour of the Island of the Sun and enjoyed the beauty of the lake.  I walked with two Swedes, and an Argentinian who didn´t speak English. I was not overly impressed with the holey sights of the island, but it was just a nice walk along the mountain range that cuts the island down the center.  When I got back I had dinner with Theo (the dutch guy from the Inca Trail), and then a drink.

Today I got to La Paz, and am a little tiered and sick of being at the altitude.  I will kind of take it easy, as there are very few must see sights here. I want to kind of just walk around and have a quiet Christmas

Crossing into Bolivia

I had way more issues than I would have ever wanted in my crossing into Bolivia.  I entered Peru on the American Passport, which is fine, the issue was that I wanted to enter Bolivia on the Israeli one to save myself $135 in visa fees associated with the American Passport. At first they wouldn't allow for me to change which passport I was traveling on.  So I argued with the guys for about an hour in Bolivia.  They sent me to the Peruvian office, and it was more of the same. I went back to Bolivia and they told me to hold on while they talk to Peru  (realize the two offices are about 500 meters from each other, so it was a pain to walk back and forth with all my stuff).  Peru finally told me to come back there, and then stamped me in and out with the Israeli passport simultaneously.  The told me they would do this in exchange for a bribe of $30, but I only had $28 on me (I had much more, but the rest were in big bills and I wasn't asking for change for my bribe), so they took it and I left Peru.  When I got back to Bolivia, they demanded a bribe as well, but I said that since I had all the proper paperwork from Peru there was no reason to pay them anything, because at this point I was legally correct in the eyes of the Bolivian government.  Well, they didn't like this, and thus gave me only a 15 day visa instead of the typical 90.  I suppose it's ok.  I don't want more than 15 days in their shitty country anyways, but it was one hell of a morning.

Inca Trail and Machupicchu

So, I wok up silly early on the 16th, and headed off with a group of 10 to the famous Inca Trail.  There was a group of 3 Australians, 4 Argentinians, another separate Australian guy, and a Dutchman with me.  We also ate with a Peruvian man who was on a separate trip, but shared our meals.

We headed off after a stop in a place to buy walking sticks, and some water.  The first day was pretty easy. We saw a few Inca ruins, and got a little walking under our belts.  The food was actually kind of bad, but I guess that is to be expected.  I was only a little disappointed because I was told that the food on the trip is quite good, and this turned out not to be.

The second day was Brutal.  It was straight up hill for hours, and the whole time against gusting winds and heavy rains.  It was like something out of a fantasy movie.  It wasn´t even pretty because it was so dark and cloudy from the rain.  We also had no lunch stop, as it was decided that we would push through until we get to camp at about 4PM.  Simply Brutal!

Finally the third day was nice, while it continued to rain, the path was much easier, and we were able to come across some more ruins.  The path got very pretty and we were really walking the original stones left by the Incas 500 years ago.  We got a lunch break, and the day in general was the most enjoyable to that point.  The only thing that was weird was this little appreciation ceremony we did for the porters, where we were then pressured into giving them a tip.

The fourth day was kind of nuts.  We wok up at 3:30, just so the porters could go home earlier, which kind of sucks.  we had to wait almost an hour for the path to even open.  I was a little sick, and used this time in the bathroom, but still would have preferred not to have been up that early.  We finally made it to the sun gate at about 8am, and it was so cloudy that you couldn´t see anything.  We walked down to the platform above the site and again could hardly see anything.  SO, we headed to the park entrance put our bags in storage, and headed straight for the cafe and our 15 soles hot dogs, which were gross, but it was 10 am and we were starving having had breakfast at 4.  After that the sun came out, which was a miracle in it´s own right, and we had a nice tour of the site.  Machupicchu is nice, but not really so much nicer than any other archaeological site in the world.  It is beautiful in where it is, but the city its self is just cool, not really cool.  Additionally, they kept raving about how good of engineers they were, but it is funny, because the Romans were 1,500 years earlier, and were better engineers, so why am I supposed to be impressed with the Incas.  I shouldn´t be too critical, it was very pretty, and I am glad to have gone.  

After we left Machupicchu we went to Agus Caliente (the town below the site), and had an expensive lunch and walked around this stupid tourist city for a while until we left in the evening.

I headed out today to Lake Titicaca and am going to cross into Bolivia in the morning.....

Cuzco

Simply put, Cuzco is incredible!!!!  It is this spectacular city with both Incan and Spanish colonial architecture.  Everything about it was so cool.  The little alleyways and all of the colonial buildings and streets are really just incredibly photogenic.  I spent the first day checking out the sites of the cities, which were super cool.  There were half Inca buildings and half Spanish all sort of built on top of each other.  There is also an incredible cathedral, that even after the thousands of other cathedrals this one stood out as an impressive one.  I then the next day went to the ruins that sound the city, and the following day went to Inca ruins even further from the city.  The tour was a bit bulky and annoying, but worth it to see some cool sites.  I spent today kind of just bumming around and making calls to some people via Skype.

I absolutely loved the city.  While I may have spent a little too much on food in Cuzco, I couldn´t have had a better time in the city.  It was absolutely stunning!  This is such a spectacular place I am renergized to continue traveling.

I leave tomorrow for the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Pichu.  I am super excited fr the trail.  I know it will be hard, but it is going to be one of the highlights of the trip.  

Arequipa

Arequipa is a nice city.  The plaza is one of the countries prettiest, and there is a nice feel to the whole town. 

Monday I got in, and kind of walked around.  I saw a museum which housed a mummy from the Inca empire that is in very good condition, and that was cool.  I then spent the rest of the day shopping for a bag to send to Jake for helping me.  I was incredibly tiered, as I did not sleep Sunday night on the bus from Lima.  I really hate night buses, but they are just so convenient, that it is hard not to do them.

Today I saw the Monastery of Saint Catalina, which was spectacular!!!!  I think besides Kuelap this was the most impressive single sight I have seen.  It was a giant city!  It housed hundreds of nuns in its day, and was clearly the crown jewel of the city during the Spanish rule.   No more needs to be said about this spectacular world gem.

I head off tonight on an overnight bus to Cuzco, which will be awful, but I am doing it anyways.  Cuzco should be good, so I am planning more time there than other stops.

Lima

I arrived in Lima and met with Adam in his hotel.  We got an incredible dinner, and had a nice walk.  The next day I went to the Israeli embassy to do some paperwork, and got terribly ill.  I spent the rest of the day puking and pooping liquid.  I even threw up on the floor and had to get the maid to clean it.

The following day we headed to another hostel, where we left our bags, and went to the center to tour the catacombs.  Again, nice but I have seen cooler.  The center was pretty, as was the rest of the city.  That night we had dinner at an american sports bar and watched some NBA.  It was pretty bad food, and Adam demanded to leave to get a better meal elsewhere.  So, we walked got him a meal and ended the evening by walking along the beach.

Then Saturday we went with some people from the hostel to an organic market, and hung out.  Then we went to lunch and spent much of the afternoon at the hostel with these people.  That night we we not to chabad to light the cancels for the first night of Hanuka, and had an incredibly overpriced meal at a sushi place.  It was good, bit Adam is bankrupting me.

We then hung out Sunday morning before he caught his flight home and I am now looking to board my bus to ariquipa.  Overall Lima was much nicer than expected!

Huanchaco

Soon leaving Kevin I headed to a small beach/surf town.  From there I didn't do too much.  I kind of just bummed around one day, and the next I went to see some ruins.  The temple of the moon was actually really cool, but nothing cooler than I have seen before.

The real thing was the people at the hostel.  It was one of the coolest places I have stayed.  It was filthy, and loud and uncomfortable, but the owner was so chill, and he had two south Africans running it for him in exchange for free accommodations.  There was also a huge amount of French people, so that was both cool, and weird.  Overall it was a cheap and unexciting place, but a well deserved rest.

I then headed to Lima to meet Adam.....

Chachapoyas Celendin and Cajamarca

Kevin and I had a nice time in all of these cities.  Although it became very obvious we were incredibly different people, as he constantly wanted to go out and pick up girls, and I preferred subdued evenings in quiet places.

The highlights of Chachapoyas were the waterfall (3rd highest in the world), and kuelap, which was a pretty Colombian city in tact with 500 houses and temple.  We also met some nice people including a Scottish guy I met in Iquitos, and an Israeli British man who I am certain I will run into again.  We also sat through an earthquake, which was bazaar.

In Celendin there was absolutely nothing, but Kevin heard it was an all white city and wanted to see.  It turned out not to be and was really just a waste of a day, but whatever.

Cajamarca was cool, but we didn't do much site seeing.  We went out late both nights.  The first night started at a bar filled with high school kids on a field trip and saw us ending in a Peruvian whore house, where I left pretty quickly as I didn't feel comfortable.  The next night we went out with a Peruvian man who had met Kevin previously.  He introduced us to some girls and we went out dancing.  I tried to make a move on some of them and was shot down, which in hind sight isn't surprising. 

The next day I got up early didn't say goodbye or leave my contact info and headed t Huanchaco.  I had a nice time with Kevin, but am not looking for more friends.  I'll stay here for a few days and head to live,a to hang with Adam for a few days.