Written Images of La Paz

While I was sick in bed for those 3 solid days in La Paz, I had plenty of time to think about the outside world. It made me realize that we haven`t really described La Paz to all of you. So here are a few mental pictures I`ve taken, and I`ll try to bring them to life for you to imagine...

· Outside of the Plaza de San Francisco, at the bottom of Calle Sagarnaga where all the touristic shoping is, one will come across the fruit juice ladies. There must be at least 20 of them around the plaza - some men, but mainly plump, round, cheery, gossipy women. They sell fresh squeezed mandarin, orange and grapefruit juice (increasing in acidity respectively). One cup of the grapefruit juice and all the pores across your nose would open up and your face would involuntarily pucker. This was a common face seen around the plaza as the orange and grapefruit juices were popular. Some of the women use plastic cups, but save them to clean for the next day; some use glass and wash them there in front of you. Their juicers are large metal handles: they cut the citrus circle in half, plop in half by half, and squeeze every last drop out of them. Brian, of course, found his own juice lady - as he does with all his favorite street food.

· Everything is for sale. There are stores on the narrow streets, but the stuff doesn`t seem to stay in them. The colors, the fabrics, the little knit finger puppets and pachamama figurines flow out of the stores like blooming flowers. Going inside to shop is like passing through a tunnel into a cave. Amazing. And that`s just the stores: the streets also transform into markets. You have your fruits and vegetables street, your blankets street, your skirt-making-fabric street - everything is clumped together and looks confusingly similar. I`m pretty sure that every morning, the women and men haul their merchandise to the corner (their own slice of sidewalk) and every night they back it up and take it back home. They carry everything wrapped up in colorful blankets and strapped to their backs. Again, amazing.

· Traffic, traffic, traffic. Taxi rides are terrifying. Not only do you have to worry about pedestrians (who typically know to watch out for you), but dogs as well. The streets are narrow and steep and cars don`t seem to understand that when a car is coming your way on the other side of the street, you should not pass! There maybe isn`t much honking as there was in Trujillo, but the squeaking of brakes can be heard from miles away. The brakes work, they just like to be heard. The pollution rising from La Paz can be seen from the Huayna Potosi base camp: out in the middle of the mountains.

· Some restaurant has people dress up like animals and dance around on the streets. Strange.

Okay - we`re off for our last Peruvian dinner: pollo a la brasa (chicken), papas fritas (fries), and Inka Cola (this Mountain Dew looking, cream soda tasting pop). Delicious. Then, tomorrow morning, we`ll see the floating islands outside of Puno and then head home to see all of you!!!

Paz y amor.

The Finale in the Altiplano

For our final few days of our trip we took off on a 3 day trek in the altiplano. Here are the highlights:

It was cold! Our first night at Condoriri base camp there was ice on the inside of our tent. Our 35 degree F sleeping bags didn´t keep us too warm, and we were really happy for the sun to rise in the morning. Very little sleep was had. The next night we set up our tent inside an adobe house and were luckily much warmer.

It was high! We started at an altitude of 4,500 meters (about 14,850 feet) and we never went lower. Only higher to passes around 5,000 meters. It made it difficult to breath, it was impossible to drink enough water, and headaches were pretty common.

It was beautiful! The landscape was incredible. Big, glacier filled peaks that rise up above 6,000 meters contrasting with the brown, dry altiplano. We saw gorgeous mountain lakes, small mining communities, and llamas grazing everywhere.

We didn´t carry our gear! We payed about $10 a day to get our gear carried from camp to camp for us because we knew it would be difficult with the altitude. Our packs were first on a donkey, then a motorcycle, and finally with two porters on the final day. The porters were a 20 year old local and his 10 year old nephew. The 10 year carried Kim´s pack and was our guide. He was small for a 10 year old and there was still no way we could keep up with him. Luckily he was a great guide and constantly waited for us. It was unbelievable. The people that live in the altiplano are TOUGH. And they were also incredibly kind and fun to talk and hike with for the day.

Brian climbed Huayna Potosi! On the first day we hiked up to the Condoriri base camp with a guided group because we got transportation from the company. After speaking with one of the guides I found out that I had just enough time to summit Huayna Potosi. We were ending our trek at the base of the trail up the mountain. We arrived at the trailhead and a refugio in the afternoon of the third day. Kim stayed at the refugio, and myself and the guide hiked up to a higher refugio at 5200 meters. We woke up at 2:00 am and started hiking up the glacier. By 7:00 am I was at the top. There were incredible views of Lake Titicaca, La Paz, the fog above the Amazon Basin, and the Cordillera Real. It was amazing to be 6,008 meters (19,974 ft) above sea level. I got back to the refugio where Kim was waiting by 10:30 am, and we were off to La Paz.

I´ll try to post some pictures along with this some time soon. So our trip is coming to an end. We are in Puno right now, and fly home tomorrow night. We´re both looking forward to seeing a lot of you soon.