Bolivian Adventure

We slept in today, got up and had breakfast in our hotel in Trinidad. The jungle has been a great place to visit. It is very laid back, at night things come alive. After breakfast we walked to a place that specialized in Saltenas for our final taste of those wonderful little meat filled pastries from Bolivia. After that we walked back, relaxed in the room for an hour before boarding a taxi to the airport.
We again flew in a small twin prop plane to LaPaz. Again that was an adventure. You can watch the pilots, hear the flight alarms, and going over the andes you feel every gust of wind. We were mindful of the Chilean soccer team from the book Alive. Bolivia is beautiful from the sky. We passed over dense jungle and then the Andes mountain range. It was stormy and cold, we entered clouds over the Andes and it was nerve racking watching the pilots adjust. Probably the most exciting part was decending into El Alto Airport above La Paz. When we broke the clouds we could see the steep decent the pilot was on thru his window, the copilot seemed to be learning to land the plane. It seemed that the angle was way to steep, headed right in a dive for the end of the runway. And we were watching it. At what seemed 1 to 200 feet, the plane leveled and then the front went up for a somewhat squirly landing at the highest airport in the world, or close to it. La Paz is freezing. We watched as they broke ice off the airplanes wings as we disembarked.
We took a taxi to a new hotel close to the La Paz centro so that we could again shop and go have dinner. We chose the same restaurant we visited last time, great place at the Hotel Del Rosario. It is called Tambo Colonial. Hayden and I had the chefs special Lasagne with a Bolivian taste, Cam and Ty had chicken dishes. All had soup, corn, tomato, and spinich. We were too full for dessert.
After dinner we walked to the shopping zone, calle Linares. We got some stuff to take home and walked back to our hotel. Our plan is to upload the pics that we couldn´t the past few days. We have to be in the airport in La Paz at 6am, but we have a hot shower!!! So life is good. Hard to believe we will be stateside by tomorrow night. We have had a great trip. Wonderful opportunities for us to get to know La Paz, Lake Titicaca, Copacobana, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes, and of course the Beni region and Trinidad. And all the places and experiences in between. One final thought....never come to Bolivia and Peru with dollars that are not perfect! They won´t take em! lol

We arrived by air in a very small twin engine plane with 5 other passengers. Pretty cool experience to fly over the Andes Mountain Range. We arrived at night and taxiéd to our hotel. We dropped our packs in the room last night and set off to get to know Trinidad. The town plaza is alive at night with motorcycles going round and round the plaza. Some with one person, some with whole families. We had ice cream on the plaza at Kivin´s, that was a treat. Then back to the room to sleep. Hayden and I had a tough night sleeping as our window overlooked the street and motorcycles and partiers were going all night long. Tyson and Cam slept well but there electric shower heater didn´t work. So it was equal. This am we got up, had breakfast in the hotel, jugo, te, sandwiches, warm milk, then off we went to find a way to see the jungle. We didn´t realize that the travel agencies would all be closed because it was sunday. So we found a taxi driver and asked him to take us to see the closest river port and the surrounding attractions.
He took us to the Lomas in the jungle, a mountain that a rich man built in 1870 to allow a village to be built where the water couldn´t reach it. Now a Bolivian Naval training base is there. We then traveled to Port Suarez, where we saw the River Ibarre and met a family that keeps a family of Anacondas as pets. The big one is 21 feet long. They feed it live chickens. It comes out every day and lays in the sun, wanders around and then back to its box. They swear it won´t hurt anyone as long as they feed it, and that it is like a pet and comes home every night.
Then we traveled to Port Ballivian, same river. There we found a man with a small boat who was willing to take us down the river for an hour. We saw river, jungle, huts, lots of animals, including birds, turtles, alligators, and a fish with some nasty fang teeth jumped right into our little boat. Fun trip. We came back to Trinidad and ate at the Taxistas recommended place, a fish restaurant called Don Pedritos. We had Pacu. We still don´t know what kind of fish that is, but the locals say it is the most rico (tasty). There was live entertainment from a Beni band, food was good. We walked the mile or so back to our hotel, and were tired. Dad took a much needed siesta, the boys watched TV. We got up after a few hours and went walking around town. We found a great little place on a main drag with Chicken Saltenas, and jugo de banana. It was yummy! Then we walked to the plaza and had ice cream again before returning to our room. We have the morning here before we board a flight to La Paz at noon tomorrow. We are looking forward to the small plane flying over the andes again, but this time in daylight the whole flight. We got some great photos of the andes last night and the jungle today but won´t be able to upload them till tomorrow. All now in bed. Great day!

Got up this morning and had breakfast at the hotel before leaving. Did a little shopping in Copacabana before getting a taxi to the La Paz airport. The ride there was neat, we got to see a lot of little towns up by Lake Titicaca and we even drove onto a ferry to cross the lake at Taquina de San Pablo to get to Taquina de San Pedro. These little cities are beautiful. We met 3 funny locals on the ferry and also met a couple from Argentina that had been travelling on their motorcycle for four months all across South America. Arriving at the airport we discovered that the city Rurranesque that we wanted to head to in the jungle was not going to be possible. Due to bad weather all flights there had been cancelled. So we changed plans and are heading out to Trinidad which is the central hub of the jungle area called the Beni. We headed back into La Paz to get some salteñas to eat and to pass the time. The ride there was long. Our driver was way too cautious to be a taxi driver, he kept on allowing others to pass him, went way to slow on the bumps (overdoing it would be an understatement), and he kept ending up on streets with tons of traffic. Anyway, we arrived at the salteña store they say is the best in La Paz and we all now agree. Salteñas are kind of like empanadas but they are more crisp kind of like a pot pie, with beef or chicken and veggies inside. They were excellent. Made us forget about the long taxi drive. Lots of festivals are taking place in La Paz we discovered, so that is also why it is hard to get around. We made it quickly though to the airport and are about to head off to the jungle. Sorry about the lack of pictures yesterday, couldn´t get them to load. We are going to try here at the airport to upload some before we leave. Off we go!!!

So we got on the night bus last night. It arrived about an hour late because we were actually placed on a bus that was going to La Paz that was not full yet, something changed with regard to the original bus. We met a nice couple from Belgium who were heading to Copacabana as well. All in all the bus was actually quite impressive. It had full reclining chairs and a fold down pad for your legs. They brought everyone warm blankets and even had a movie playing. Only Hayden stayed awake for the whole movie, the rest of us fell asleep pretty quickly. My dad and I were really warm, Cameron and Hayden did not feel the same way, but it seemed like everyone sleeped ok. All of a sudden we were awakened with people shouting out that all passengers heading to Copacabana had to depart the bus. So out we went and piled into what they call here a mini. Basically a very small van that you have to get very comfortable with everyone in. The mini took us just outside the border of Peru and Bolivia, a small town called Kasani. There we had to get out and cross on foot through immigration. This time it went a lot smoother because we already had our visas. On the other side we met up with another mini driver and headed off 8km to Copacabana. Copacabana is a small town on the coast of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. One thing we have noticed being here is that it is a lot more tranquilo or tranquil (quiet). Not as many people out and about in the evening compared to the other cities we have been visiting. Anyway, after arriving and finding rooms at the Hotel Utama we headed out to eat and to change some of our money. We ate at the Hotel del Rosario in their restaurant. It was so good and at great prices. We all had Trucha (Trout) with lemon butter. I for one thought the trout was excellent. Then we raced over to the docks to get on a 1:30pm boat ride out to Isla del Sol. Isla del Sol is an island out on Lake Titicaca that the Incan Empire used to habitate. Not to be negative just completely honest, the boat ride out there was the most miserable boat ride I can remember being on. They drove super slow, the seats had no cushioning, and it was crowded. Us brothers were inside, while my dad somehow ended up on top outside. His experience was not much better due to the fact that it was very cold today. On the bright side, the island was very interesting. We only had about 50 min. to spend there, but we went to see these amazing woven boats that look like ancient Incan vessels. Of course we had to pay to see it, but it was worth it. We ate a quick snack and got back on the boat to leave. This time we all sat up top. It was cold, but the sun had come out so it was not bad at least in the beginning. We stopped at an Incan temple on the other side of the island to pick up more passengers before leaving the island and enjoyed watching a lady having a hard time trying to drive her sheep somewhere. Then we headed off back to Copacabana. The ride was fine for a bit, but then some heavy clouds rolled in and blocked out the warm sunlight. It was freezing, all of us trying to huddle together to keep warm, and the driver still driving slow as ever. Gratefully the boat made it back a little quicker and we raced back to our hotel rooms to warm up. The Lake is beautiful and it is one of the natural wonders of the world. We are up at our highest elevation right now, about 13,000 ft. above sea level and there is this great big lake here. Wow! Tomorrow the plan right now is to head back to La Paz, about two hours away as early as possible and hopefully catch a flight out to the jungle for the last leg of our adventure. Hope to have a good night sleep and keep warm!

We slept in. Had a nice breakfast at our hostel in Aguas Calientes before leaving on the train to Ollantaytambo. The train ride back was full of surprises, a guy in a peruvian costume performed a traditional Peruvian dance and then they had an Alpaca Apparrel Fashion Show on the train. We met Franklin(Our friend, the guide from Cusco) at the train station. Once again Franklin took us touring through all the little towns between the train station and Cusco 90 km. away. Agriculture is the focus of each of these little towns and each grows a different crop. All towns have remnants of Incan civilizations on the mountain sides. Franklin was able to narrate about all of them. We visited a traditional marketplace in Pitac where he took us to a man who specializes in making empanadas (bread pockets with cheese inside). He uses an ancient oven made of brick and clay, his son assists him. They were delicious. We also stopped at an animal preserve and entered a cage with three condors. They are pretty big birds. They also had 2 pumas and we got to take pictures with a parrot on our arm. It was fun. Franklin dropped us off back at the Plaza de Armas in Cusco and we went on a search to find someone who would change some of our money. Finally successful we went to eat at a restaurant with a window balcony called El Emperador. It was neat to watch all the people in the plaza and chat. Us three brothers tried our first helping of Alpaca meat and Dad had a pizza. Alpaca tastes really good. Once we do our upload tonight we are going to wander around the Plaza de Armas, go to mass in the cathedral and find a restaurant with dessert. We have to get on a night bus tonight that will take us to Copacabana, Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca. A bus is the only way to get to Lake Titicaca unless we flew to another city and took a bus a shorter distance back. We decided a night bus was a must do experience. We hope to get a good night sleep on the bus though we think it unlikely. We look forward to a peaceful day tomorrow on the lake shore.