Jan. 20, 2003
On my last day in La Paz, I almost got pissed on, thrown up on, and stolen from. I rounded a corner and there was this guy standing right there in the middle of the sidewalk, peeing. I had to jump to avoid him. A few hours later, a man stumbled past me and threw up a few feet away. And soon after that, a girl came right up to me and tried to grab my bag. I had to shove her away. What, they don't teach thieves stealth anymore? I think about these events going another way and am super glad they didn't. It would have been a messy, unhappy day.
I loved meal times at La Paz. They always consisted of me walking through the outdoor market stalls trying anything and everything. And finishing off with a couple of glasses freshly made fruit juice. All for under a buck.
On Isla del Sol, I was wondering around with this Argentinian guy and we got lost. Who would have thought we could have gotten lost on an island only 15 km long and 2 or 3 km wide? But we managed it. We walked past our hotel and lost the trail. Before we knew it, we had reached the water at the other end of the island. Believe it or not, this actually falls under the best of category. It was so exciting. It got darker and darker and started pouring rain. By the end, we were clutching each other's hands to save our other flashlight. We were fully expecting to have to wander around all night. We inherited a dog along the way and the later it got, the closer to my leg it hovered. I thought at first that it was going to show us the way back. But it was a stupid dog. If we had walked into the water, it would have followed us. I was only truly nervous once though. At some point, we ran into a big cross. And for some reason I expected a dead person to jump out any minute. The dog started to growl. We found out later that it was the site they used for their llama sacrafices. So maybe it would have just been a dead llama jumping out at us. Eventually, we found our way back. And heard that the power had gone out on the island. That's why we had missed our hotel in the first place. We had been looking for the light and there had been none. Some nice women put us back on the right path (after several other well-meaning people put us on the wrong track).
The bus ride out to Cuzco is still my all time worst. It's the only one, after all, that involved vomit. But the ride out to Colca Canyon in southern Peru comes pretty damn close. It's 6 hrs of hell on a completely unpaved road. So you bounce along on gravel the whole way out. What's worse is that it leaves at 1:30 in the morning. At one point, we started sliding backwards because the bus couldn't make it up the mountain. That was freaky.
Colca Canyon itself however is beautiful. It's neck and neck for the world's deepest canyon contest (might be 100m less deep than the nearby Cotahuasi canyon). After climbing to the top of mountains, it seemed only fitting to go down. I'd have to say that one of the best mornings of my life might be the day we climbed out of the canyon (yesterday). We had to leave at 4 in the morning. It was raining. And dark. The trail is filled with loose rock. But it's so worth it. We had reached the top by 7. It was a beautiful morning. At some point, the sun started to come out. And a rainbow crossed the canyon. I saw a couple of huge condors (this place is known for them) flying really close overhead. I really felt like I could go back down and climb it all over again. My travel companion was this super awesome girl I met earlier in the week and ran into again after leaving the jungle. By the time you run into some one twice, we decided it was a sign that we should hang together for a while. We hired a guide to take us into the canyon, and hiked in there for 3 days. We fished along the bottom of the canyon and each night, we stayed in huts that were built for just this purpose, simple but step above tent camping in Machu Pichu. Crazy too, on the way down, we found an adorable puppy that had some how made it half way down a canyon with 2 broken legs!! We spent a part of the first night at the camp trying to splinter the puppy's legs, and I hope the guides kept an eye on the poor little sucker after.
My ankle is still the size of a baseball. I sprained it in the jungle and have been treating it like shit, so it looks like shit. Hopefully having a couple of days at home where I'm not hiking on uneven ground will help. My other ankle actually looks like crap, too. Swollen from bug bites. I don't think I've ever missed home so much as on my 3rd day in the jungle. Don't know why that day really. But all of a sudden, I was tired of the bugs and the heat and everything.
And god, the bug bites -- I'm covered in them. Its been a few days since I left the jungle now, and they seem to be healing. Except for this weird one on my upper right arm that seems to be almost getting worse. I guess I should get some better bug cream when I get home.
You know, I think I've had enough bus rides to last my entire life. The 16-hr one to Lima last night wasn't great either. Maybe because it closely followed the 6-hr hellish one back from Colca Canyon.
For each meal during our Machu Picchu trek, we always came into camp to be met with a bowl of hot soup. Suddenly, I was the biggest soup fan ever. You don't know how wonderful it tastes after a long day of trekking.
When I first came to La Paz on the bus, it didn't seem like anything special. As dirty as any other city. But that's actually not La Paz at all. It's inside a canyon, so the sides drop and all of a sudden, there's La Paz proper, all along the sides of the canyon. It's amazing. The mountains in the background. The first day there, I went walking. And all of a sudden ran into a bridge that we hadn't even known was there. It crossed the two sides. And the view below was awesome.
After coming back from Isla del Sol, I stayed in a nice hotel with GAS showers. So I had hot water for the first time in days. All the showers here are electric. In Isla del Sol, where the power kept going out, that meant no hot showers too. That first shower after coming back. . . omigosh.
Well, that's it for now, I have just a few days back in Lima before heading back home for a few days, then off to India for 2 months.
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