Bolivia - Santa Cruz

We visited my friend Lorena in Santa Cruz. Lorena and I went to junior high school together in Kingston, Jamaica. We were both fourteen when I saw her last and now she is a mother of two! Lorena and her family graciously hosted us for five days. Thanks, Lorena! Call us the international freeloaders.

With Lorena at her parents´ beautiful house where we stayed:

Lorena`s youngest sister, Eliana, is dating a model, Junior. That´s him with the abs below:

Bill and the model:

At Lorena´s uncle´s lake resort, with her son, David:

At Lorena`s grandparents`:

Lunch! Majadito - rice with shredded beef jerky, eggs and plantains. That potato looking thing is yuca:

Bonus Item 1 - Jeeheon´s hot moves in 1991 (yes, I had big hair then.):

Bonus Item 2 - Video clip of Bill bowling (...badly):



(With us in the video are: Lorena, her husband Alvaro, Eliana, Junior, Lorena´s sister Vanesa and her boyfriend Mauricio)

Bolivia - La Paz

Our bus to La Paz crossed Lake Titicaca on a ferry. All passengers got off the bus and took a smaller boat across, meeting up with the bus on the other side of the lake:

In La Paz, we are staying in Hotel Europa, a top-end hotel. I knew it was time for a splurge when Bill, suffering from yet another stomache trouble, suggested Orlando, Florida as our next destination. Ah, the luxury:

Bolivia is a good place for a splurge, as even nice hotels and their services are pretty reasonable. No need for the drink-soda-out-of-the-mini-bar-at-night-and-replace-it-in-the-morning-before-the-cleaning-lady-comes here. (Does anyone else do this or am I the only one that is this cheap?)

La Paz, at 3600m above sea level, is the highest big city in the world. (Our hotel provides oxygen tanks upon request.) And the shoe shine boys here all wear ski masks and baseball hats, only their eyes visible. According to the Lonely Planet, this is because they are mostly students, ashamed of having to shine shoes for a living. Good thing we read about that before we got here - otherwise, we would have thrown them our wallets and ran for our lives:

Lunch! I was waiting for a nice restaurant to order ceviche, as it is raw fish like sushi, and finally ordered it in Bolivia, a LAND-LOCKED country:

Salteñas (filled with meat, vegetables and boiled egg - juicy!), empanadas, tamales (the ones wrapped in corn leaves) and other baked goods:

Bolivia - Copacabana

We took a bus to Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We had front seats on the bus - very good view:

We had to get off the bus for immigration processing at Peru-Bolivia border. Overland border crossings are always slightly unnerving since you hear so many bad stories. (And especially more so for me since I don´t have an American or European passport). Without fail, at Peru exit immigration, I got sent to another room (they wouldn´t let Bill in), where two military men went through and sniffed (yes, sniffed) all my stuff, including my money belt. One guy was even counting all my cash, and I do carry a bit of cash as we can´t always find a working ATM. I was flustered and annoyed, wondering if they were going to ´confiscate´my cash, and if so, how much I was going to let them take. Then one of them asked me if I was a student. I answered that I was an attorney in the US. Boom! Immediately, they were apologetically giving me all my stuff back, shooing me out of the room. Wow! Behold the power of esquiredom! I am taping the California bar registration card to my forehead at the next border crossing.

Bolivia is insanely cheap. You can get a room with private bathroom for less than $3 - which is probably why our $20 hotel room has this view of Lake Titicaca. This is Bolivia´s only public beach - Bolivia is land-locked since losing a territory war to Chile in the 1800´s:

This is at Isla del Sol, the birth place of the sun according to Inca legends:

Doorway to an Inca palace:

Boat back from Isla del Sol - note the backpackers passed out. Bolivia seems to attract more ´hardcore´ backpackers:

Bill in front of a store selling large sugared pop-corns (to the fellow Koreans: it´s exactly like kang-neang-yee! I didn´t know they had those outside Korea):

Updated Itinerary

By popular demand (okay, one person asked), here´s our updated itinerary -


July: Bolivia, Chile, Argentina.

August: Portugal, Spain, Croatia.

September: Greece, Turkey.

October: Egypt, Jordan, Israel.

November: Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia

December: We will probably be behind schedule, so we catch up this month.

January: India and Nepal.

February: Hong Kong, Korea

March: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand

April: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand

Peru - Lake Titicaca

At over 3000m above sea level, Lake Titicaca is the world´s largest high-altitude body of water. And its name makes Bill giggle like a little girl.

We visited the Temple of Fertility, thought to be an Inca construction. That is NOT a stone mushroom that I am pointing at.

We also visited the Uros floating islands. These islands are man-made from tortora reeds that grow in the lake. The existence of these islands date back to pre-Inca times. Each island lasts about 15 years and then they have to make a new one. (We had a guide for this one, can you tell?)

They have solar panels on the islands, so there is electricity. We passed one hut where a kid was watching Dragon Ball (Japanese cartoon, any one?) on TV.

Peru - Cuzco

Bill was taking above picture of me in the main plaza when the two little girls jumped in the picture (for a tip, of course). Savvy business women, these two, complete with the baby llama for maximum cuteness!

There are rainbow flags everywhere. I was very impressed with how gay-friendly Cuzco was until Bill told me that they are actually the official city flag:

June 24 is Inti Raymi (the Festival of the Sun) in Cuzco, and the week leading up to it is Cuzco week. There were parades and street parties every night:

Inti Raymi, recreation of Inca ceremony, was something of a let-down. If we hadn´t mistakenly gotten there three hours early, we probably would have liked it better. (Those orange chairs are $80 seats. We watched it from the surrounding hills along with other thousands of people.)

Koricancha temple in Cuzco - we could see where the Spanish built a church over the Inca structure:
Inca citadel and terrace farming in Pisaq (a town 30km from Cuzco):

Bonus Item: video clip of me trying to pat a llama.

Peru - Machu Picchu

The four day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu is booked solid until July. Yay! Now we can just take the comfortable train & bus all the way up to Machu Picchu, rather than walking it. (This is my sentiment only, not Bill´s).

This is our fifth archaeological ruins visited on this trip (three in Mexico and one in Honduras), so I had a snotty ¨I am sure it´s overrated¨ attitude before going up there. Nope, Machu Picchu is definitely one of the most breathtaking sights I have ever seen.

Since we didn´t get to hike the Inca Trail, Bill made me hike up this Wayna Picchu peak:

We had to crawl through a small cave on the hike - I was not happy.

Bill risking his life for a good picture:

Bill and a llama: