Week 4 - La Paz & Copacabana, Bolivia and Cuzco, Peru

On Monday my last day in La Paz was spent visiting Chacaltaya mountain and Moon Valley.  Chacaltaya is a mountain in the Cordilleras, a range of the Bolivian Andes.  It has an altitude of 5,401 meters and used to serve as a major ski resort in Bolivia before the glacier melted in 2009.  The bus drove us all the way to 5,300 meters thus skipping a lot of the hard work (!) and we then walked the last 100 meters which was pretty tough, especially in the hail storm that started as soon as we stepped out of the bus!  It was freezing and most of the climb up was trudging through snow and ice but it only took about 40 minutes and took the photo for evidence before making a hasty return to the bus!

Chacaltaya Mountain

We then visited Valle de La Luna (Moon Valley) in the afternoon just 10 kilometers outside of La Paz.  It is an amazing rocky landscape with all different and unusual rock formations which have been formed through thousands of years of erosion.  We walked a 45 minute trail through the valley and saw a lot of rock formations that are named after what they resemble such as Madre Luna (Mother Moon) and El Sombrero de la Dama (The Woman´s Hat).  The surrounding scenery was beautiful and the fact that the sun was shining meant I could recover from the morning´s cold spell!

Moon Valley

On Tuesday I travelled to Copacabana by Lake Titicaca, north of La Paz.  The journey took about 5 hours by bus and also involved crossing part of the lake by boat for 20 minutes - this amounted to as little as 4 pounds, bargain!  Copacabana is a small town sitting right by Lake Titicaca with a altitude of 3,800 meters.  It is a tranquil and relaxed place where a lot of hippies seem to set up camp, however it did feel a tad on the touristy side.  Its main significance is it provides the gateway to Isla del Sol, an island in the middle of Lake Tititcaca.  On arriving to Copacabana I wondered around the town which took all of an hour, and then commenced a small hike up Cerro Calvario, a hill just north of the town.  I have to admit I did have a few pitt stops to catch my breath on the way up as it was pretty steep!  The views at the top were amazing so it was well worth the climb!

Copacabana

One very famous and slighlty bizarre ritual in Copacabana is the blessing of the cars, ´Benedicion de Movildades´, which occurs daily at 10am and 2.30pm outside the cathedral in the main square.  The owners decorate the cars (in this case mostly mini vans as this seems to be the most common form of transport) with flowers, coloured ribbons and flags.  During the ritual alcohol is poured over the vehicles and a blessing is performed by the priest asking for protection and safe journeys on the roads. 

Blessing of the cars!

On Thursday I went on a day trip to visit Isla del Sol.  Several boats leave every morning at 8.30am and it was easy to just buy your ticket from the port for 2 pounds.  The journey lasts 2.5 hours to get to the north of the island in a pretty uncomfortable boat so was relieved when we finally approached shore at 11am.  As soon as I stepped foot on the island the weather which has previously been windy and rainy suddenly changed to clear blue skies and bright sun - I could then fully appreciate why it´s called island of the sun!  There were hundreds of tourists doing the day trip like me, and we all trekked about an hour to the tip of the north part of the island to see some ancient inca ruins and the site of the sacred rock where the Inca creation legend began.  After this, I commenced the supposedly 3 hour walk to the south of the island where I had to catch the last boat back to Copacabana at 4pm.  What I didn´t encounter was getting lost several times and also climbing up a large amount of steep hills - I managed to make the 4pm boat just, however turned up looking a complete wreck with scrapes all down my legs and a bloody elbow from falling over in my rush to make the last boat!




Isla del Sol




Ruins on Isla del Sol

 On Friday I sadly left Bolivia and excitedly made my way to Cuzco, Peru.  However my excitement soon evaporated on discovering that the bus journey would take 12 hours - and I managed to miss out on booking a ´cama´seat which means you can fully recline your seat so you can actually have a nice comfortable sleep during the journey.  Needless to say the journey was not a pleasant experience and was never so relieved to finally arrive in Cuzco at 9pm.  I have now learned the valuable lesson to book my bus journeys in advance!

Cuzco is a great city and thousands of tourists every year make a beeline for it during their travels in Peru - I was informed on average 10,000 tourists visit Cuzco every day.  After just spending a couple of hours walking around I fell in love with it.  It is such a charming and beautiful city, rich with so much inca history and Andean culture.  To the north of the city around Plaza San Blas there are narrow cobblestone streets with huge inca built walls which are so impressive to see.  It is Peru´s oldest city and is where the Inca Empire developed thus making it the most important archaelogical site in South America - not withstanding the fact that it is of course the home of the very famous Machu Picchu.  The people are all very friendly though I have never been asked to have a massage so many times in my life - literally every corner you turn I get pounced on!

Plaza de Armas

On Sunday I went a day trip to the Sacred Valley where former Inca pueblos reside and thus some amazing ruins.  I first visited Pisac, a small colonial village 33 kilometers northeast of Cuzco.   There I saw some spectacular ruins on the top of the hill which are rated second to Machu Picchu.  The terraces which sweep through the mountains are simply breathtaking.  The main purpose of these terraces was to prevent erosion for agricultural preservation.  I spent about 45 minutes hiking up the hill and taking in the beautiful scenery.  I then went to Ollantaytambo, where a massive Inca fortress resides, another yet amazing piece of Inca history that has managed to remain so well preserved.  The fortress is shaped like a llama with terraces that are larger than anywhere else in the valley.  I hiked up the left side, the front of the llama, walked along the top and then climbed down the right side - seeing stones fitted with such precision is truly amazing, and a complete mystery as to how they managed to move the large stones all the way from the quarry hight up on the oppsoite side of the Urubanba river - leaves you in complete awe.  All I can say is I eagerly await my 4 day cycling and trekking trip to Machu Picchu next week!

Ruins at Pisac

Pisac

Ruins at Ollantaytambo

Ruins at Ollantaytambo