Bolivia to Peru

Hi It´s been a while, so there is quite a bit to remark on. I was sure glad to get out of La Paz. I tried to get out the night before I did, but I missed the last bus to Copacabana that left from the cemitary. When I was there, an old lady told me leave or I would be asulted. I didn´t feel unsafe, but took her advise, and jumped in a cab. I had a few drinks with some people I had met earlier which may not have been the smartest thing to do as I felt a cold comming on. Aperntly the new school thought in pshycology is that people´s actions are largely irrational.

The air in La Paz isn{t just polluted from only a few smokey cars(Hey driver, get a piston ring), but there isn{t much of it. It is the worlds highest capitol city at about 12000 feet. It{s Noisey too. There are very few private cars (about 1 in 30). Most of the cars are Toyota minivans that hold 9-15 people. The driver honks his horn about every 30 seconds ina vain attemt to keep things moving. The person who collects the money yells the route out the window. All you hear, day and night is honking and yelling. The only real bonus is that it only costs between $0.13 and $0.17 for a ride and you should have to wait more than a minute to find the van you want. It should be noted as well that nearly everyone turns off the motor while going down hill - you either go up or down, no streets are flat.

I woke up at around 8:30am to firecarckers. I was feeling pretty sick, the cold had fully set in, and I decided that if I was to recover, the first thing I needed was cleaner air. I went to catch a minivan, and had to walk quite a ways because downtown was closed to traffic for national police day. The firecrackers and music were too much. I wanted out now. My prayers were answered at the cemitary. The bus to Copacabana was just leaving as I got there, and I flagged it down.

The bus went along the beautiful, clean, enormous, Lake Titicaca. This is the highest Lake of its size at 14500ft. It appear very much like Lake Okanogan, with the rolling hills around it, spase vegtation with some trees. It is far more devepoed in area, but you really have to look to see that it is being farmed by hand and the small huts are made from bricks that are the exact same colour as the earth around them.

There was a short ferry ride that was a little scarey. The Bus took quite a while to ease on to a wooden boat that was just big enough for one bus. It kind of looked like it was made by a 12 year old kid out of drift wood. The enigine looked to be about a 30hp outboard. I was surprised to see the first part of the trip was powered by a man with a pole, pushing us along. Once we gotinto the deep, it felt like the hole thing would tip as the busses suspension made us sway twice as much as one would expect. It was obvious that there were no lifejackets.

Finally, the bus got me to Copacabana. It´s a really nice town by Lake Ticakaca, near the Peruvian border. There was a lot of pale skin there, which was probably why it was the only town in Bolivia where I felt people were trying to rip me off. The pace was a slow as the sleepiest Mexican town and even the cars that would pass about one every half hour drove slow.

It was in Copacabana that I was able to heal. Clean air, beautiful surroundings and great food. I only ate trout while I was there, and it was prepared but doing the standard ass to thought cut, but then it was opened right up, kind of like a butterly chicken breast. The only juice you get in bolivia is freshy squeezed, and I drank lots of it. The coca tea would numb my sore throught - kink of like cloraseptic, only not as powerful and a heluva lot more natural. I´ve really come to like coca tea but the stuff in the tea bag is no good. You need fresh whole leaves. It doesn´t give you as much of a buzz as coffee or conventional tea, but it is much healthier.

I tried chewing coca leaves, and it did have some effect, but it was kind of a gross thing to do. Many Bolivians have one cheek as full like a chipmunk all the time. 1/3 Bolivians are employed in the coca industry. Much is sold domesticly for chewing, religous rituals and tea. I suspect that the majority is for cocaine. I´ve been told that it takes 3 pounds of Bolivian leaves to make one gram of cocaine and 4 pounds of Peruvian or Colunbian leaves to do the same. It´s too bad that the leaves are illegal in Canada, but I suppose anyone could make cocaine then, seriously cutting into the enourmous profits the CIA makes from it and severly crippling the drug dependant American economy.

I only spent one night in Copacabana, then I was off the Peru. I got ripped off by the office that sold me my bus ticket. It was supposed to be 1st class to Cusco, but was at best economy and went only to Juliaca. This turned out to be a blessing because I ended up having 5 hours to kill in a town I never planned to visit, but the timming couldn´t have been better. I took a strange taxi that was a motor trike that could do at best 15km/h. He took me downtown, and the streets were lined with people, waiting for a parade.

Now comparing a Peruvian Parade with a Canadian parade really exemplifies the difference in culture. In canada we decorate cars, in Peru, people where costumes and dance. There must have been about 40 differnt groups, each representing indigonous tribes, trade unions and schools. They all had dancers, most of whom were in their early teens and the costumes were very unique and brightly coloured. Folowing the dancers, each group had its own marching band. The parade went on for about 3.5 hours. The end was amazing as many of the bands played together and there must have bee over a dozen bass drums, pounding out a beat that was so powerful, I swear my heart had to beat with it just to funtion.

Now I am in Cusco, the oldest city in the Americas. It used to be the capitol city of the Inca. The arcitecture is really nice, and the streets are geared towards people more than cars. Apperantly it is quite dangerous here as far as theft goes. There are hords of grinkos like myself looking to go to Machu Pichu. I might not go it if costs too much. I will see if I can take the train and stay at one of the smaller towns closer to the site. I almost decided to Venezueala through the amazon with a Japanise guy I met on the bus, but he wans´t even sure if he would be able to. It involed taking boats that he wasn´t sure exsisted.

Please excuse the mistakes in this email, the keyboard really sucks, and some keys are in differnt places.
Chris