Well, we’re finally within sight of the end. We’re flying to San Francisco from Lima in a little more than a week. This will likely be our last post until we’re home (wherever that is) and have some photos from our Machu Pichu trek to share.
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Well, Elyse and I have finally made it to Cuzco, our last destination in Peru before our long journey home. We feel like travel weary pilgrims having finally reached our ultimate destination after months of travel. Cuzco is everything we hoped it would be (although compared to Bolivia it feels like Disneyworld with huge crowds of Japanese tourists, touts, overpriced everything…)
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According to Incan creation myths, Isla Del Sol is where the Sun and Moon were born. It sits in the middle of Lake Titicaca just north of Copacabana, and it´s possible to hike there from Copa. We decided to make a trek out of it, packed our hiking day-packs, and left our big packs in storage at the hotel.
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Copacabana is a beautiful little town that sits on the southern end of Lake Titicaca and right on the border with Peru. Elyse and I spent a week here, enjoying the dramatic change in scenery, and relaxing at the inviting Hotel Cupula (best showers in Bolivia!).
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We returned to La Paz after our jungle adventures and got a visit from an unwelcome guest – Jeff got a bad case of food poisoning and was laid up for a few days  (Don’t worry, he’s all better now).   We were lucky enough that our second stay in La Paz overlapped the biggest festival of the year in that city – El Gran Poder.
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Well, we’ve survived 10 days in the lowlands, both rainforest and pampas wetlands. The flight from La Paz was amazing. The small plane skipped over the peaks surrounding the city and descended ten thousand feet to Rurrenebaque, a tiny town with a dirt airstrip at the foot of the mountains.
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The flight into La Paz from the south is breathtaking. The plane skirts the white capped peak of Mt. Illimani and then the city comes into view below, a great bowl with the old city in the middle and newer development cascading down the sides. El Alto, the indigenous capital and the airport sit above on a plateau overlooking it all.
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This week we were up for some hiking and arranged for a 3 day tour of the Cordillera de los Frailes, an area near Sucre that is known for it’s colorful and rugged terrain as well as being the home of the Jalq’a, a Quechua speaking indigenous group known for it’s weaving.
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We’re in Sucre. The city is at a lower elevation and it feels and even looks almost Mediterranean. Sucre is Bolivia’s second capital (depending on who you talk to) and is graced with a ton of old classy colonial buildings. We saw the building where Bolivar signed the original constitution and the hall with portraits of all the presidents and dictators over the years.
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I am rich Potosi,
The treasure of the world
And the envy of Kings.
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