It´s about time...

Finally, some photos from Peru! Some pictures from our Santa Cruz trek, for now...

Mother Whale

One of the most amazing things I did on this trip was to go whale watching. By far the best whale watching experience I've had. The humpback whales were beautiful and I even saw a couple jump out of the water! Breath-taking.

Here's a photo from that day in Ecuador (I know it's been awhile since I've been in Ecuador but I'm a bit slow with the whole photo thing...). Beautiful.

What´s the capital of Bolivia?

Um...Sucre? No, La Paz? No, Sucre?

So, Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia, but only the judicial buildings are here. Pretty much all of the government buildings are in La Paz. And that´s where Evo is too. So, I guess La Paz is the de facto capital? But 10 points if you said Sucre.

Anyway, I made it to Sucre. I was told it was a great place to just relax for a bit, and it is. Finally getting around to taking Spanish lessons (two months into the trip...about time?). And found the best salteñas around - I could see it being a daily ritual. Maybe in a little while I will actually be able to hablar espanol...

Jungle cold

Am back in La Paz! Made it to Rurrenabaque where I went on a great pampas tour. Saw tons of animals: caimans (little crocodiles), alligators, capyburas (world´s largest rodent?), howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, toucans, and tons of birds! Sadly, we weren´t lucky and didn´t see an anaconda. But that´s okay. We got to swim with dolphins!

On the not so bright side, I managed to catch a cold. Having a cold in the Amazon isn´t so fun, nor are the mosquitoes and sand flies...So, am back in La Paz for a bit for a little rest and recovery!

Into the wild

Off to the jungle! Heading north to Rurrennabaque and into the jungle...Hoping to see anacondas and crocodiles and giant rodents, oh my!

La Paz La Paz

La Paz. It´s high.

La Paz

Finally left Copacabana, despite a conspiracy by the banks to ensure we never left! (The banks happened to be closed pretty much the entire time we were there, and we had no money - some sad meals were had...) Lake Titicaca was great. The floating islands were super-touristy. And the little island they stopped off at on the Bolivian side was even more so. But the Isla del Sol was beautiful. We saw the old Inca ruins, and the rock were the Sun God was apparently born? It looked like a big rock, but it was pretty? It seems like everything entails a lot of hiking and a lot of hills...we hiked the length of the island (told it would be "tranquilo" but there were hills...lots of them).

Now in La Paz, which is also high and also has a lot of hills...

Copa...Copacabana

We made it into Bolivia. One of the easiest border crossings yet. And we´re still at Lake Titicaca, which apparently means grey (or stone) puma in Quechua (not what we know ´caca´means in Spanish...though it´s still funny...and apparently there´s a Lake Poopo as well? Maybe I am 5 years old. ).

I´ve had the song Copacabana in my head, all the way to Copacabana. Sadly I know but two lines of the song, which doesn´t make for interesting singing. For anyone. We´re off to Isla del Sol tomorrow, apprently where the Sun God was born? Then to La Paz, a dizzying 4000+m above sea level (the de facto capital of Bolivia - Sucre is the constitutional capital). And we also happened to catch the last vestiges of Independence Day partying (6 August), which we also managed to catch in Peru too (27-28 July)! Lots of firecrackers. And music. And random parades!

And as I´m lazy and haven´t uploaded photos, here´s some photos that Adam, who was on the same trek as we, posted: http://adamlawler.blogspot.com/2009/08/inca-trail-lotsa-pics.html! And a photo shamelessly lifted from Adam´s blog above...

Made it!

Survived the Inca Trail and made it to Machu Picchu! It was amazing. And I´m tired. All this trekking is too much for me :). Took lots of pictures (as usual) which I´ll try to post later - though I looked like I had a black eye at Machu Picchu as I managed to get bitten by something which gave me a lovely swollen eye (sigh)...But it was still incredible, reaching the Sun Gate and watching the sun rise over Machu Picchu.

Off to Lake Titicaca next!