Oruro

Now that I have finished language school I don't have much to do. Just hang out with Sally. Which isn't bad but I don't get a chance to practice what I've learned. So when Doug invited me to Oruro with him for a day I said yes! Oruro is a city South of LaPaz up in the altiplano. Flat, flat land. It is 3 hours from LaPaz by bus and the road is paved and actually pretty nice for Bolivia. It is much colder than LaPaz and 12,159ft altitude which is higher then where we live. Its about 11,000. We had to wake up at 5 to get to the bus station by 6 o'clock departure. So we got ready and got Sally up (and left her in her jammies) right before we left. I covered her head with a small blanket and Doug grabbed the clothes that I set out for her. We hailed a taxi at a very dark and cold 545am and 3 blocks up the hill Doug said, "Did you grab shoes for her". Fooey! Nope. When we got to the bus station it was still dark and really chilly. The bus we were going to buy a ticket for was still closed, there was a man opposite the counter we went to was calling out 'Oruro! Oruro!' So we went over and bought tickets $3 each! Crazy huh. Everything is so cheap here. The bus was cold and drafty, because we were in the second row. The driver like to take frequent passing opportunities around semis and slow old rusted out beaters...Scarry! He had the curtain pulled so we couldn't see out the front. I didn't like that. Sally was awake the whole time. Too cold and new. Half way we picked up a native woman who had a basket full of hot meat pies! They smelled so good but we didn't dare buy one, didn't want to be sick in a new town. We arrived to Oruro around 9:00. The entrance to the Departament (Province) Had a toll booth. The Province was also named Oruro. After the toll booth, we came to a round about with a GIANT steel miner's hat in the center. It had pictures bent into it. Very cool. We went completely around it and drove through some shanty homes and stone homes. Then came into the town center. There were some women serving hot soup for breakfast. I went in to use the bano publico (public bathroom) that you have to pay to use. 1 boliviano. When you pay, they hand you your very own wadd of toilet paper. FYI in South America you can't flush the toilet paper. In this particular bathroom there wasn't any heat, so it was drafy and freezing in there. The water didn't run in the sinks. For this reason I always have sanitizer... A co-worker of Doug's who lives there, picked us up. We took a taxi from the bus station to an out door market and bought Little miss Sal pal some shoes. The guys then left me at a hamburger place with a play area for kids. They had meetings to attend. After playing Sally and I walked down the main street and found a plaza. There was a woman selling corn for the pigeons. Sally had fun with that until Kate met us and we walked back to the hamburger place for lunch. We walked to the outside of town where the hill starts to climb. Up the hill there was a giant concrete slide alongside stairs. A lot of stairs. The kids were out of school for winter break so the slide was full of kids going down it on cardboard. So fun. We didn't try to climb it. There was a large white church nessled in the hill. It had a royal blue ceiling with bright yellow portruding stars. The dome in the center looking up had the apostles painted fullscale around. At the farend of the sanctuary there was a black gate that opened to a tunnel into a mine. Tours weren't open until 3. It looked cool though. Oruro used to be a thriving mining town. They mined tin mostly, but also silver and copper. We met up with the guys and walked to Save the Children's office there. Kate stayed at work and they took me and Sally to Fernando's house to put Sally down for a nap while they went for another meeting. She didn't sleep a lick. It was too exciting to be in a new place. Fernando's 13 year old son, Adrian, got home after a while and played with Sally. We spoke spanish and I taught him some english words. I felt like I knew so much Spanish! Yay. His mom and younger brother got home about a half an our before the guys did. And again, we conversed in spanish! It was so good for me. They offered us coffee and some (blah) cake (I needed the coffee!) and we accepted. Sally and Fabrizio played with plastic zoo animals while Doug talked and I zoned. Adrian offered his E.T. doll to Sally and we headed to the bus station around 545pm. The bus we took home was warm and comfortable and sally zonked the minute we pulled out of the 'terminal' and slept the whole way home. What an adventurous, tiring day.

On the Lake.

Crillon tours own hydrofoils. They are boats with skiis under them in addition to a motor. It's crazy. They are beautiful boats with seats like you'd have on a bus. That morning there were 2 other groups going out with us, 2 friends from USA who worked for the US embassy in LaPaz and a man traveling alone from the USA but originally from sweden. Gustavo narrated our route we'd be taking through Lake titicaca. A normal 'boat' takes maybe 3-4 hours to get to Copacabana but on the hydrofoil it took only an hour and a half. It was a nice ride too. The sun was out and the wind wasn't too chilli out on the back of the boat where the small deck was to take pictures. Halfway through the ride we could see the mountain range really well. The pictures didn't turn out until the ride back when the sun was in a different place. We arrived at Copacabana mid morning and it was a sight! On this island the Aymara people are catholic. There was a Giant white church on the hill built by the Spanish. The inside was every color of the latin rainbow if ya know what I mean. Bright, fiesta colors. The front of the church was a tall wall completely covered in solid gold statues on a 180 degree rotation. The wall rotates to reveal this gold side only for days of worship and the other days of the week it is facing the lake revealing a blank wall to the sanctuary. While watching the service for a couple of minutes we sat down in a pew. Sally fell through the back pew and wacked the back of her hed on the kneeling bench behind her. So we left the service with a screeming child. It was a warm day, sun shining. We past outdoor kiosks bordering the plaza across from the church. Sally was still upset from hitting her head so we bought her more finger puppets. She cheered up after that. Walking through Copacabana was similar to LaPaz but WAY more layed back. The streets and allie ways were crowded with women selling vegetables, breads and nuts. The stores were all open with the same touristy Bolivian wear. I bought Doritos! . . . they were NOT like our Doritos. :( Made in Peru with powdery cheese. It was a good snack though. I got in some great photos from the pier while waiting for the rest of our crew to arrive back to the hydrofoil. When we reloaded the boat there were 2 new groups. The one we talked to a little was a couple from Germany, they loved Sally. The woman sang interactive German songs (in German) to Sal. She liked that. We took a 30 minute ride to the Island of the moon. There we had a front row veiw of the mountain range. All the pictures are on facebook. You really couldn't get a bad picture, they were just SO beautiful. We walked up steep wooden plank and rock stairs rounding up the hill. Halfway up were 3 small houses with a lookout deck. We kept walking up and saw some sheep owned by the local Aymara people who live on the island and saw a huge brown Llama wondering the hillside. At the top of the stairs there was an old incan temple in ruins. One wall had been reconstructed to show what it may have looked like. What used to be the floor of the rectangular structure was now weeds and grass covered. We walked around and basked in the sun. Sally just layed down right in the middle of the 'field'. She attracted the attention of 2 little girls from Peru who were traveling with their parents. After a while we took our boat again to a new island. Island of the sun. Here we walked up another steep stairway and came to a restaurant overlooking the lake. We had breaded wild trout and a warm zuccini salad following a bowl of potato and quinoa soup. Our guide told us that quinoa has so many nutrients in it that you could live on it with nothing else. The restaurant was built on a natural spring and it provides the restaurant and the hotel up the hill with water. As we walked back to our boat we took a small detour up the rocky beach to see the spring that flows into lake titicaca. From there you could tell why the lake was SO clear. It is constantly fed by this beautiful freezing cold water. This was our last stop before heading back to Huatajata to get our van again. When we boarded the hydrofoil we were surprised with a blessing of the Aymara in which we were sprinkled on the head with the national flower dipped in the 'pure' water from the spring. We repeated the 3 Aymaran rules: do not be lazy, do not lie, do not steal. Then we celebrated with a typical bolivian toast and recieved a ceritificate of blessing. We were able to capture unbelievable pictures on the way back and just bask in the beauty of the mountains and blue water. What an amazing adventure. Thanks for reading about it!

At the Lake

Crillon tours is all inclusive, meaning you pay for your ticket and nothing else! So amazing to go to restaurants, museums, ruins, boats and not have to hand over any money. So when we arrived to the hotel, like I said yesterday, we gave our lunch and dinner orders to Gustavo and while the lunch was being prepared we toured the outdoor reed boat museum. At lunch the others had Llama steaks and I had trout (by recommendation) with bacon and garlic. The fish was good but the Llama!! Was amazing. Sally even ate it. We sat and overlooked the lake and the outdoor bar. It was so nice. After lunch we had free time. I totally missed out on the SPA part of our hotel! I didn't realize it was really a spa. I just figured in Bolivia, a spa meant a hottub. It was like $3 for a massage. Stupid me, always taking pictures. Well, I got some alone time while sally and Doug napped. I got some great pics. We met up just after sunset for a 'surprise'. The guide took us into a theater off of the hotel lobby and showed us a video of the Kallawaya people in the mountains of Lake Titicaca. They are an elite group of healers, only men, who are chosen by their fathers to pass down all of the secrets of natural healing. It was wildly interesting. After the 15 minute video, we were given flash lights and lead out the back door into the dark. There were candles lining the walkway to a grass covered mud hut. As we walked in the old, tree bark door we saw that it was a museum of natural healing. There were very realistic manicans acting out the activities we had seen in the film, some life size, some miniatures. There was a real size native man squatting down sorting through coca leaves and frozen in the position of putting them in a colorful sack resembling a shoulder bag. The ground was dirt. The walls were wood and mud, ceiling of straw. There were candles and dim electric lights guiding our way and shining on important structures. Like one miniature of 2 young lovers happily running away from the parents. The Father was throwing a rock at the daughters boyfriend. Which apparently is a positive and good luck gesture in Aymara when the Father gives his blessing for marraige. The next miniature was a child getting his hair cut by his godfather. The Aymara believe that in this ceremony at the childs first birthday as the godfather cuts the childs hair that his character is transmitted to the child. Makes ya think twice about who you want as your kids godfather! As we made our way throught the 6 sections of the small house, we were shown all of the herbs and plants that are used for medicine and healing. Like for burns or open wounds...tobacco placed on the skin and wraped. It was just full of wonderful information and beautiful displays. Most recently they have proven placentas from birth have numerous healing properties when placed not only on the skin but eaten. The last section was about one of the many Aymaran superstitions, witchcraft. BLAH! It is so bizzar and so confusing. When land is perchased by someone, a box of 'goodies' must be placed in the ground for 'pachamama' or mother earth, thanking her for allowing them land. In this goodie bag included an aborted baby Llama! Why!? Don't aske me. It's rediculous. I just kept saying, that's wierd...hope I didn't offend Gustavo. We came into a small dark theater with curved benches facing a corner stage, lit only by a fireplace. There was a man sitting still in the center of the stage with the small fireplace to his right and a wall of herbs to his left. He was real. Scared me at first. We sat in the front since we were the only ones there. The man was a 16 year Kallawaya healer and he was dressed in native red clothes with bright colored stripes and a winter had that had earcovers and tassles, you know the type. He called out to all of the mountains by name(where they command their power from) and then asked if we had questions for him, like future stuff...we were like, um, no. But he did tell me that I'm going to have more children. A boy and a girl. Hmm. A little disturbing considering a native woman earlier that day had handed me a small replica of the fertility gods...hmm. This trip just got interesting! lol. We went and had dinner, smelling like bonfire. And listened to a live flute band. After dinner, Gustavo led us out in the dark to an elongated pole barn looking building near the lake. We sat on benches in the dark, and a movie began about the southern stars!! Now I was excited. I love the night sky. And out in this town there were no lights to hinder the beauty of the sky, plus the moon wasn't out that night, so I knew we'd see some amazing constelations. What I didn't know is that when the 10 minute movie about the constelations and the indian stories behind each one was done, the screen went black and the ceiling retracted and revealed the night sky! It was so shocking and amazing. Standing huge in front of us was a NASA telescope x1000 magnification to see the stars, constelations and planets. Unbelievable. The first one that the man found for us to be awed by was SATURN! The rings were amazing and so bright. It was so fun I couldn't stop stomping my feet and squealing. Which ofcourse made the telescope go shaky and out of focus. LOL. I was just so excited. We saw many constelations and a nebula. God is so good. Phew! Amazing. Then it was time for bed 10pm and an early breakfast was ready for us.

Trip to the Lake.

So almost 10 years ago my husband (boyfriend then) went to Argentina for 10 months. During that time he took a trip to bolivia and visited Lake Titicaca and took pictures and mailed them to me. But even though the picture was gorgeous...it was nothing compared to the beauty we saw when we went there in person! Friday morning our 15 passanger van (just for the 5 of us) arrived in front of our apartment building with our private tour guide, Gustavo. He was with us for the entire tour. First we drove out of the valley (LaPaz) and up to the plateau of El Alto. The city there is almost all Aymara Indians. It is a busy, crowded, poor town. Most of the buildings were brick and half the walls were as if a war had happened, tearing them to the ground. But no such war...just ran out of money to build. So people just live in drafty buildings with a couple of walls. The further out we drove, the more scarce the building became. We drove through the altiplano which is a very FLAT piece of land between the mountain ranges. The sun was behind us on the way out so it was tough to get pictures with the haze of the sunrise but to the eye it was amazing. It took us about an hour to drive to Tiwanaku Indian Ruins. There was a museum at the ruin site with the history of the mysterious Tiwanaku with artifacts that have been found on site. We were able to walk on the actual dig site! Walk up the stairs that have yet to be brushed clean and walk on the mound that will someday be the temple uncovered. It was amazing. It felt so ancient. The archeologists were digging and brushing away the dust in one area of the site. Local indigenous people were working, carrying the dirt away in wheelbarrels. There were 3 temples in 3 levels. The highest is a tribute to the Gods or heaven so it is above the ground on a built up teared mound. The second is a ground level temple celebrating life on earth and the third was below the ground, a tribute to mother earth (Pachamama). You'll have to see facebook for all of the amazing pictures. So far in the dig, the 2nd temple has been dug up (over the past 30 years) with all of the walls perfectly intact. Not one stone missing! It's incredible the detail and advances in their civilization. At one section of the wall there is a hole that when whispered into magnifies your voice to be booming loud. Like a stone age P.A. system. Amazing. The ground of the temple is angled so rain water would run into sisterns and collect for irrigation of the plant life and other needs. We walked around the dusty ruins for over an hour and the last stop was near the exit, the most recent discovery, just 6 months ago they were leveling the ground for the rocky walkway and they hit something. It was an ingraved stone, maybe 8 ft long lying on it's side. Cool huh. It's now stading upright. We had to drive from there all the way back to El Alto to get the road going North to the lake. Back through the vastness of the altiplano we relaxed and had some snacks. 1 hour and 30 minutes and we started to see a patch of bright blue! This lake is fresh water, crystal clear beauty! We arrived in Huatajata around lunch time. A man took our bags to our room, our tour guide took our orders while we lounged for a couple of minutes in the lobby of this beautiful hotel and then we went to an outdoor museum learning about the making of reed boats and their history. You'll have to google the Limachi Brothers. While sally was facinated by the spool of thread being spun as a toy by an Aymara woman the others learned about the Limachi brothers in the shed. So I can't tell you much. After that we ate in the beautiful lakeside dining room and then had free time to roam about and photograph. Here are some of my faves. I'll catch you up on the rest of the trip tomorrow.