To see a photo in detail, just click on it !

The geography of La Paz makes the capital of Bolivia a very interesting city. La Paz is located in a basin cut into a plateau. As a consequence when you are standing in the center the city sores upwards on all sides, which is very beautiful at night. The city is very densely populated and most of the houses are made of bare bricks and exposed concrete structure which still have the reinforcement jutting up in the hope of adding additional floors. This makes the city look unfinished and even more bizarre with American style skyscrapers sticking up here and there. We spent about ten days in La Paz, enjoying the facilities that a capital city has to offer, in particular the yogurt and museli, and putting together our first web page.
Miles took a bicycle tour from the plateau into the jungle. Usually this is along the Road of Death, but unfortunately only the week before the route had lived up to its name, and we had to take an alternative road. We were brought by van to an altitude of 4500 meters and then took off down the valley descending 3.3 km vertically. We did not do much pedaling and the guide informed us that after every trip the brake blocks have to be changed.

While in La Paz we visited Valley of the Moon, about half an hour down river from the center. This area has a very particular and characteristic geological formation. It looks as if it is made of enormous sand castles. You can walk over the formations but have to be careful not to fall into the deep holes between the pinnacles.

On route from La Paz to Copacabana the busses take barges across to the peninsular. All the passengers must take a public transport boats and then follow on their journey with their original bus- once it has reached the other side. We got to Copacabana on Easter Friday.... which is the busiest and most expensive day of the year.. but also the most colourful and fun of the year. Prices for rooms were increasing by the minute.. and it is not a joke... as soon as the host noticed your interest they would rise the price. They were asking between four and six time the price that any other day. We waited until 10 O’clock and then a kind landlord had the compassion to offer us a floor in a future garage/shop for a very modest price. We slept on a totora (straw) mattress which we thought would be OK for two young people...... it was the hardest surface that both of us had ever tested.... our backs were in bits the next day, never mind the dust that was covering the whole room and the pollution that was getting in by the upper part of the sliding metal door every time a bus would pass in the street.
The procession with the virgin Mary and a statue of Christ was not that amusing ... but probably it is not meant to be fun. What was great were the little street stands selling Churros and fried blobs made of potatoes and meat. Excellent!

Isla del sol. Supposedly the sun which was the Incas´ main deity was born here next to the Isla de la Luna (from where the moon was born, wife of the sun). We got there after having walked for about four hours and took a row boat for another half hour. The islands landscape was really spectacular and it was very peaceful and had a good vibe…... ohhoo. On the first night we met Greg and Diego, who the day after became our friends. The next day, in fact it was Easter, and as tradition goes in these remote parts all the town was meant to meet up, play football and, what concerned us more, cook some typically peruvian food. Our two newly acquired friends were told this by some locals so we decided to join them for a relaxing Easter lunch. The festival was never to be found and the locals we met either were telling us that the catholic religion had been imposed against there true belief and that nobody was really celebrating or the believers who were too drunk to give us directions anyway.... what ever the case, they all said the same thing, we would find it over the next hill, but of course it was never there. Exhausted at the end we managed to find an open restaurant!! Finally !!!!! They had some left over soup, which I think they were planning to have them selves, but were happy to sell to us. This was not exactly what we had planned for an Easter lunch, but never mind, we were so hungry. After that we walked to the other end of the island, where we had to catch our boat the next morning. The village was small and had no electricity, only some hostals had showers; cold! Again, for the umpteen time, we made the mistake of asking a local where to go to see the sunset. The man kindly told us to follow the path and we would be there in just 10 minutes..... we walked for about an hour and as we would get to the top of one hill, the next would appear on the horizon. At the end we were too late and went back to try to find a restaurant in the dark unacquainted village....
We would have defiantly spent more time on the island if it was not that our visas were about to expire.

On the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca there are to be found floating islands (islands of the Uros). They are made of "totora" reeds which grow in the area in abundance and float when dried. The islands are dated from the Inca empire when a tribe decided to escape the Inca domination by building their islands and floating away. ..obviously they are not the same ones that you visit now. Unfortunately the islands are very touristy.... which makes us think they where not that authentic. But people do still live and work there and they even have a primary school. As the straw rots underneath the island it is replaced on top, so constant maintenance is necessary. One island is about 400 sq meters and has four or five houses, made out of straw too. They also make boats out of bundles of reeds, which last about six months before they rot. The only reed boats now are for the tourists, as they have mostly been replaced by timber models. What we found particularly fascinating was to see school girls in uniform (all students in Peru wear uniforms) rowing home from the mainland at lunch time. Walking on one of these island was quite an experience, it feels like walking on a water mattress... never stand too long on one spot as all the straw below your feet gets wet.

Cusco is famous as the capital city of the Inca Empire and the first capital of the Spanish colonies. It attracts many visitors as it is very beautiful and developed. We stayed in a Casa Familiar " El Balcon Colonial" and we where lucky enough to have “THE” colonial balcony with a great view on one of the old streets. The hosts were very helpful and nice people, Marie Elena and Dario. Dario at times is also a tour guide and took us to visit some Inca ruins that you will see further down. Cusco is surrounded by ruins...of which the most famous is Machu Picchu. Cusco has a very strong energy and along with Nasca, it is on of the most visited sites in the world...visited by extraterrestrials!! We saw none though. Only Shamans or people spiritually advanced do.

The ruins near the town of Pisac are very substantial. They are composed of various buildings and from typical Inca terraces that can be found in all major ruins, including Machu Picchu.
This picture is taken by one of the highest peaks, not much is left, but can you believe it that it is all terraced!! Some people say that the Inca counted on U.F.O.´s help to build their structures and the Nasca lines... and when you see terraces built on air you would start considering it a possibility.

The terraces are built to follow the mountain contours, and we have seen them on the face of cliffs too. They serve multiple functions: agriculture, defense, visual and stabilizing the ground against erosion (which at the top of the mountains is surely a problem). They are visually very beautiful, more so when they are cultivated. It kills you to go up the steps especially being at 3000 meters above see level.. so I guess they are a very effective defense device.

Market fair near Cusco with a woman weaving a belt. Domino bought a splendid Manta (blanket) here.

The photo shows amazing circular terraces from the Inca times at Moray. The terraces were once all cultivated, now just a few are. The adjacent hill has a similar structure. What is quite incredible is that the temperature rise by the time one goes down towards the centre (approximately one degree every three terraces) therefore a wider variety of crops would have been cultivated. This place is still used for rituals as it is said that the magnetic energy in the centre is particularly strong.

Domino is standing in the Salinas de Moras which are terraced down the side of a mountain in the proximity of Cusco. There is a small spring of very salted water which believe it or not fills all of the rectangular small basins (see the photo). The water is left to evaporate and the salt then is finally scraped off the surface and processed.

Tipon was one of the most pleasant ruins we visited. Not touristy at all. It still had an impressive functioning water system that irrigate its many terraces. Some new age groups use it for purification ceremonies.

Machu Picchu is the most remote of the ruins and for this reason it is also the one that has better survived the conquestors. The reason that it is so special is its location on a high peak that is surrounded by the meandering river 1000 meters below. It is the ruin that better gives the idea of how society and life was organized in the Inca times. However it is not the best one at all. We were a bit disappointed because we had heard so much before about it and the ticket price is considerably higher than all the other ruins. Twenty dollars per person. Some of the other sites have features that are truly more amazing but they are not as complete. The number of people in Machu Picchu it is also a problem as one can not enjoy the peace and quite like in the other sites.

Saqsayhuman is one of the old quarters of Cusco. The original Inca plan for the city was based on the figure of a Puma (Inca symbol of protection and power). Now the Puma is hardly visible. Saqsayhuman corresponded to the head of the animal. It was used for public ceremonies and parades as it took advantage of the natural geology to create a theatre and parading ground. Only about 20% survived the Spanish conquestors who took most of the stones and used them to construct their building. It is still possible to admire the Inca building technique where large boulders were put side by side and the joints perfectly coinciding without using mortar.