La Paz

From Lake Titicaca we headed straight over to Bolivia's capital city, La Paz. The bus ride in was intense, as the homes and buildings are built in the middle of a giant valley, with apartment buildings clinging to the sides of rocky cliffs!

We managed to make it in time for Easter, and were both pretty happy to find a few chocolate shops dedicated to the occasion. Along with giant easter eggs, there was an amazing chocolate bar with cocoa nibs and salt from the Salar de Uyuni, which I wish we could have brought home to share (but I ate it)!

We also managed to make it to La Paz in time for a week-long demonstration held by locals who were enraged by rising gas prices. Apparently Bolivia had subsidized gas prices for its residents, but due to illegal selling of gas to neighbouring countries to make a profit, the government stopped the subsidy. However, the government also froze utility costs and raised wages to counter this loss... So, basically the gas smugglers (and those with jobs requiring copious amounts of gas) were all protesting by setting up major road blocks and gathering in streets and squares to set off fire-crackers and dynamite until the wee hours of the morning. This caused some pretty interesting war dreams!

You can see the protesters heading toward us, below, as we were walking to the movie theatre.

Random horse statue... we didn't take many La Paz photos...

We stayed in the touristy area of town located next to the Witch Market. Ty found us a nice place for lunch over-looking the shoppers on the street below. A very popular item in the market that is carried at almost every stand is dried llama fetus, which, if buried under your new house, is to bring good luck... kinda gross. No, we didn't feel comfortable taking photos!

We were told, and later discovered for ourselves, that you will most likely get sick in Bolivia. With prior knowledge of this from friends who made the journey, we made careful food decisions, but still managed to get a nice bout of food poisoning in La Paz! Hence the lack of photos :) And Licky Skittles' impression of Lydia's face at the time... (blech!)

We still managed to find some nice wedding outfits, however, like this adorable dress for our little flower girl/God baby/neice, Elle-Belle!

And these are the two little Bolivian ladies who pieced together the wedding dress that Ty and I designed ourselves... pictures to come after the wedding!!

Although we found these two ladies to be quite friendly, the people of La Paz were generally quite rude towards us as foreigners. Shopkeepers don't really want to serve anyone but locals (even if you offered to pay more) and the taxi drivers really try to gyp you, too... But as long as you stay on your toes and try not to take things too personally, all is fine and dandy! Other parts of Bolivia are so amazingly beautiful (ie. the Salar de Uyuni, to come) that it makes up for the unfriendliness that is La Paz.

TITICACA!

After about 5 weeks in and around Cusco, we realized that we had nearly spent our total allotted 90 days in Peru. Thus, we had to get out of dodge and head south into Bolivia before our visas expired.

We took a 9 or so hour bus to Puno, Peru's bordering city with Bolivia, which also borders Lake Titicaca. After a late evening arrival, we spent the night in a cold and somewhat questionable hostel (a "sleeping bag" hostel, if you catch my drift). The next morning we awoke early for the border crossing and headed along the side of the stunningly gorgeous lake to the tiny town of Copa Cabana.

The drive was full of some of the most amazing views we had ever seen - the lake mirrored the sky, the farms were speckled with fall colours and scarecrows, and the farm animals grazed lazily in the sparkling sun.

When we arrived in Copa Cabana, we were greeted by many large resort-style hotels, all at very reasonable prices. We settled on a smaller hotel with the best private balcony over-looking the lake, which cost us a mere $15 a night!

Above our door-way was some pretty funky Bolivian style art!

There was some sort of festival going on when we first arrived... we never really found out what it was for certain, but were told it had something to do with good luck and hopes of fortune. So, people had their cars decorated with flowers and there were little booths set up in the streets all selling the same cheap champagne, flowers, ribbons, etc.

Lydia and Licky enjoying the sunset from their private balcony.

The next morning, we headed off to hike the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), a 12 km long island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. The Incas believed that this island is where their Sun God was born, hence the name. We took a very slow 2 hour boat ride across the giant blue lake to get to the south side of the island.

We had been advised by a local to hike from the south side of the island to the north, since there are beaches on the north side. They neglected to tell us, however, that the north side of the island has terribly slim picking of hostels.... and the south side is full of beautiful hostels and hotels with gorgeous panoramic views! So, if you go, make sure to take our advice and go from north to south... We ended up walking the 12km across and 12km back just to stay on the south side, pictured below.

It was gruelling work getting up the hill to this point, but sooo very worth it! Lake Titicaca sits at 3,800m above sea level (12,500ft), and Isla Del Sol is a few hundred metres higher! We had panoramic views of the whole lake and the Peru and Bolivian sides of it. So did these two cute little donkies :)

On our walk heading north, we came across this B&B with its gorgeous gardens and views... which we would later return to just as dark set in that night!

We met a lot of farmers leading their livestock around the hills on the island, as that is one of the main industries of the Titicacan (?) people, next to fishing and tourism. We had to be quick and sly with the photos, as most locals who catch you snapping a picture will say "dame moneda!", which exactly translates to "give me money".

Every corner of our walk had views even more gorgeous than the last - we can't stress enough just how beautiful and magical the lake is!!

We met up with an Aussie traveller who wanted a little company, as his wife opted to stay in a hotel sipping cocktails on the south side of the island!

Tyrone admiring the views.

After a few hours, we made it to the north side of the island and the Chicana ruins (birthplace of the Incan Sun God). There was even an ancient picnic table set up for us ;)

The view from what I have deduced to be the Sun God's bedroom.

We snapped a photo of another sheep herder whilst she wasn't looking! (Don't worry, it isn't believed that cameras steal souls or anything like that in most places in South America... It's just that we didn't have any change on us!)

We came across the friendliest little piggie on the north side of the island - the hostels may have been terrible, but Mr. or Ms. Piggle and the ruins made the extra hike worth the effort!

Tyrone also spotted a strange bird up in a tree.

The views got even better when the clouds cleared to reveal some very high, snow-capped mountains on the Bolivian side of the lake.

So, after our 24km walk, we just barely beat the rain as we finally returned to the gorgeous B&B I mentioned earlier. After hot showers and gulping down a litre of water each (we ran out of water at km 14 or so), we were seated for dinner by this cuddly little spider...

As soon as dinner was served, we had a nice lightning storm outside as part of the evening's entertainment! Tyrone proved me wrong when I said he couldn't catch a flash on film :)

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to sunshine and made our way back to Copa Cabana.

Canucks Review

After a few deep breaths, here's my six cents:

1- Even though we came up one short, I'm still really proud of my team! The Canucks proved that they are a Stanley cup contending team, and next year, with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths, they will bring home the hockey Grail (ala 2009 Pittsburgh penguins).  Give the bruins credit this year. They were the better team in the series. In the first few games, the refs allowed them to do as they pleased (even though I really didn't agree with it), and the bruins exploited this opportunity to physically break down the Canucks. What resulted in games 6 and 7 was a decimated Canuck team with nothing left to give.

2- the turning point in the series was the Hamhuis hit/injury.  Dan is our strongest and most reliable defender. He was sorely missed out there against the huge bruins team. His absence also completely threw off our back end chemistry, which severely limited their offensive punch (one of our biggest weapons)

3- We need a better winger on the second line with Kes. When a man-bear (i.e. Chara, Weber, etc) shuts down the twins, we need the second line to step up. More often than not, our second liners (other than kes) were absent. This is on Gillis's to do list for the offseason.

4- what the hell happened to our special teams in round 4?

5- Thomas outplayed luongo..... BADLY! This could get interesting given the fact that we have Schneider. One of these two has to go (maybe for that second line winger that was needed). Is Schneider ready? Would anyone want Luongo? Would we want to trade Luongo? A bit of a conundrum.

6- the F-tards that rioted in Vancouver after the game were not true Canucks fans. They were drunk, immature idiots who just wanted an excuse to break shit downtown. Examples of true Canuck fans showed up the next day for voluntary city cleanup. I'm also a little surprised that the city allowed this to happen, given the 94 precedent. The city should have been better prepared. Regardless, handout lifetime game bans for those convicted in riot activities. 

Is October here yet?

Go Canucks Go!

Machu Picchu

The first thing that comes to anyone´s mind when someone mentions "Peru" is of course the most famous of all Inca ruins, the beautiful Machu Picchu. The site is located 2,340m above sea level (in fact lower than Cusco, and too low to likely cause altitude sickness), and is about 80km from Cusco. Nobody really knows the origins of Machu Picchu, or exactly what the site was used for, but the popular theory is that it was created for the Inca emperor Pachacuti sometime between 1438 to 1472. The Incas abandoned Machu Picchu about 100 years after settling there, during the time of the Spanish conquests. The site was "discovered" again in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham, and by discovered, I of course mean that he was the first white person who came to the site who, instead of looting the place as his predecessors did, he actually decided to document it in history books. Bingham did still take a number of artifacts from the site and brought them to Yale for studying (with the intention of bringing them back to Peru after a couple of years), but those items are still at Yale today, and the Peruvians are more than a little peeved about this. Enough of the history lesson, Machu Picchu is also a badass travel destination that will always have a special place in mine and Lydia´s hearts, but more to come of that later.





So off we were on the Hiram Bingham train to the gateway town of Aguas Calientes. We decided not to do the Inca trail, as I had already managed to destroy Lydia with the Lost City hike, so we had no need to go through that again. The train ended up being an enjoyable hour and a half ride that weaves through gorgeous mountains, following the Inca trail and some raging rapids.




The town of Aguas Calientes has a bad rap of being a tourist trap, necessary for those heading to Machu Picchu. We found, to the contrary, that the town was actually quite the beautiful place, full of friendly people and cute dogs practicing their MMA skills (see below video)!








Picture from the Aguas Calientes hot springs.


The downside to Aguas Calientes, however, is its namesake, the hot springs. Although situated in a beautiful setting (see above), we found the Aguas Calientes hot springs to be far from desirable. People go to hot springs to relax and soak up the medicinal minerals of the thermal pools. The hot springs in Aguas Calientes, however, are so full of people (quite literally shoulder to shoulder in every pool) that it is impossible to relax. As far as the medicinal minerals in the hot springs, the only thing that Lydia and I could detect was the pungent aroma of urine wafting up through the masses. I´m no doctor, but I´m pretty sure that aside from killing foot fungus, bathing in other people´s urine can´t be too healthy :(

The goal of this trip was not to go to Aguas Calientes, however, it was to reach Machu Picchu, and so on our second day there, we woke up freakishly early (around 3am) and started trudging through the rainstorm to make it to the bus to take us to the entrance of the ruins.

*Travel tip - if you are planning to go to Machu Picchu, you will have the option of either walking to the ruin´s entrance or to take the over priced bus to the entrance. TAKE THE BUS! Everyone we know that walked to the entrance said that it was nothing special, and that they were totally exhausted by the time they got to the ruins. Believe me that you will have more than enough walking to do once you get there, so spring for the extra $15 and take the bus!

When we first arrived at Machu Picchu, it was cloudy and pouring down with rain. This gave the ruins a rather mystical look, as the fog rolled over the ancient temples. Luckily, the rain stopped after about an hour of walking around the ruins, which made for some better hiking weather.

10 points if you can spot the llama in the above photo.



Most people who go to Machu Picchu know about Wanu Picchu, the high peak beside the ruins in all the photos of Machu Picchu. It is a steep 45+ minute hike straight up that only the first 400 people get to do. The hike is done in two shifts of 200 hikers, so it can get pretty busy from what we have heard. An often neglected peak, that not too many people know about, however, is the peak of Machu Picchu itself, which actually towers over Wanu Picchu (it's about twice as high). Lydia and I got to Machu Picchu early enough to get tickets to Wanu, however, we decided to take the road less travelled, and go to the top of the top by doing Machu Picchu..... also, I thought it would be good to get some privacy for the coming couple of hours...




It takes a bit of work to get to the top of Machu Picchu (about 1 and a half hours straight up), but the amazing views, beautiful smells, and stunning flowers (see above and below) help to keep the spirits high during the slog:

This one looks like a crying lizard!

After a hard 1.5 hours of steep hiking, we finally made it to the very top of Machu Picchu (the top of the top is pictured above). Much to our surprise and to my benefit, we quickly found that we were the only people there. We timed it so perfectly that we remained the only ones there for the next two hours! This gave me ample time to take care of some much overdue business.

Looking down on Machu Picchu and sitting on top of the world was how I had envisioned proposing to Lydia for the past 2 years. Ever since we planned this trip, I knew that this would be the place, so by the time we finally reached the top, the ring was burning a hole through my pocket!

The view from the top (pictured above) is really quite intimidating. Looking over the edge, one realizes that in this spot, they are floating above the clouds. This was a bit much for Lydia, when we first arrived, so as she sat down to get used to the height, I told her that I was going to go look around. I had previously purchased a stone case that resembled an Incan relic to house the ring, so once Lydia was ready, I called her over to the edge, exclaiming "I think I've found something!" (having previously planted the seed that Machu Picchu is so big that people are still finding relics all over the place). When she came over to me, the ring case was by my knee, and the proposal was made.

She said yes!

and she seemed somewhat excited at the time, so as far as I could tell, everything went well;)

The first picture of Tyrone and Lydia (soon to both be) Austen!

I had a bit of a concern bringing a proper engagement ring with me on our year-long travels through South America.... call me crazy! Back in August, I had purchased Lydia's engagement ring, but I just couldn't risk taking it, so I had to store it at my parents house (unbeknownst to them) and come up with a way to improvise a bit on the ring. What you see above is a hand carved (by me of course;), Ecuadorian chocolate farm, palm nut engagement ring (how many good Canadian girls can show one of those bad boys off to their friends)! I carved it back in Puerto Quito as a makeshift engagement ring with the help of our host family. It ended up fitting perfectly if I do say so myself!

After the proposal was through, we were able take in the sights from the top of the world (with shaky legs mind you, both from the height and from the excitement of the proposal).

An angel posing in heaven.... cue the "aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees"!

Shown here is the peak of Wanu Picchu towering above the ruins of Machu Picchu, taken from the top of Machu Picchu.

We picnicked and took in the sights of the top of Machu Picchu for about 2 hours, and after, with a bit of extra skip in our step, we came back down the mountain to check out the ruins.

Not surprisingly, the ruins themselves are also breathtaking.

You have to pay close attention to the details and layout of the buildings, as often times they are aligned to represent greater objects like the man's head above. There's also crocodiles, condors, and other building/rock designs within the designs.

This ruined building looks just like me!

By the time we were finished walking up Machu Picchu and up and around the ruins (which is a feat within itself due to the steepness of the sight), both Lydia and I were completely drained. The previous night, we had stayed in an OK hostel, but what Lydia didn't know, was that while we were gone, I had hired someone to move our belongings over to a nice resort suite where we would be spending the next couple of days! This remained a surprise to Lydia right up to the point where I walked her through the door of our new hotel, as I continually kept saying to her to keep going a little further to get to our hostel, telling her that she was lost and didn't know where she was going!

Our upgraded room!

Also included in this surprise was an AMAZING room service dinner (pictured above), and a couple of fine ladies to massage us to sleep in our beds that night. It was a really rough day after all!

For so many reasons, our Machu Picchu experiece will forever be a lifetime hightlight! Not only was it a beautiful location drenched in history with magestic scenery, but it will forever be the place where I got to tie down my love FOREVER! That's right hun, NO ESCAPE! In all seriousness though, I couldn't be luckier, happier, or any more in love!