Bo-livin´ it up

After several days in La Paz partying and eating delicious ethnic foods (every ethnic group but Bolivian), we hit the dusty, bumpy, rocky road in a crowded bus to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It was pretty similar to most bus rides in Bolivia or Peru: cramped, old bus that smelled funny and took way longer than the map (and the tour bus agency) would indicate. The one surprise came when they made us all get on a boat (!) and cross a lake without any of our belongings. We figured out what was going on when we saw our bus on a tiny raft crossing next to our boat. What a goofy sight...a bus on a pallet with water up to its wheels slowing motoring across a sacred lake.

Copacabana is a quaint little lake side town high (12,500 ft) in the Andes with a gorgeous basilica. The main industries appear to be hat selling, yelling about hats for sale, hat making, and tourism. There is also good Bolivian food (a thousand types of trout for each of your hats) and very inexpensive hotels. Like most people, we spent little time in Copacabana and got on the first ferry out to Isla del Sol (Sun Island).

Isla del Sol is, according to the Incan creation myth, the place where the sun god gave birth to the first Incan people. As such, the island is sacred and there are many Incan temples across the rocky, terraced mountainous island. In some nooks, there are beautiful white sand beaches and shallow turquoise waters for swimming. Given the altitude, we suspect the water is quite frigid most of the year. We had a big hike planned from one end of the island to the other, and thus had little time for turning our toes into icicles.

The main businesses on Isla del Sol are subsistence farming and tourism, but the tourism aspect can be particularly annoying. As you hike across the island, you are stopped by one person selling a ticket to get on to the trail and four people who subsequently check the ticket. No wonder it costs 8 bolivianos! Later, more people try to sell you tickets and then check them. Some of them are valid (and you have to pay or incur the wrath of the non-existent police force) but others are simply fakes sold by opportunists. Seriously annoying.

We had to come back to La Paz after only two days in Copacabana in order to keep on our now hastened schedule. We´re finally running out of time after 8 months on the trail and still have so much to see! Thus, we came back to La Paz and got on a plane to Rurrenabaque in the jungles of Beni, Bolivia´s largest department. We arrived in Rurre (as anyone in a hurry calls it), grabbed a hostel, and relaxed by a pool drinking piña coladas. The next morning, our tour through the flooded grasslands (Pampas) started at 9 a.m. We chose to go on a Pampas tour over the actual rainforest tour because we´ve both already been twice to various parts of the Amazon and in the Pampas there is a much better chance of seeing wildlife. Specifically, we were on the hunt for anacondas (Tori wants to wrestle one) and pink dolphins (Stew wants to cuddle one). From Rurre, we sat in the back of a sketchy white van for three hours (oh, how we reminisced about college) before we got to a river. We then took a canoe with an outboard motor for two hours and saw lots of wildlife. There are many alligators, black caimans, stinky turkeys, herons, eagles, hummingbirds, tucans, squirrel monkeys, turtles, red howler monkeys, capybaras, and the uber spectacular pink dolphin. We even got to swim with pink dolphins. Apparently, dolphins do not like to play with alligators or caimans and will kill them if they try to chill by their pool (much like the surfers in Point Break) which means it is safe to swim wherever the dolphins are.

The lodge was budget and we experienced some of the worst beds of our trip, but after the exhausting tours, they seemed amazing nonetheless. The only bad part was the rat poop over our mosquito nets, which appeared to have been dropped by a capybara (the largest rodent in the world, after Dick Cheney). The food was great and more or less plentiful, the bathroom worked and had a seat, so there were no real complaints. Except, of course, for the rowdy Brits hollering until all hours of the night with the MIA fueled parties. Wish we´d been in that tour group...

The main activities were anaconda hunting, dolphin swimming, and piraña fishing. They were all fun and increasingly succesful. This is easy when compared to the utter failure that anaconda hunting was. The day we went was cloudy and the anacondas (particularly lazy creatures) were chilling on their couches in a much warmer place. Still we battled the thigh, or for Tori, eye brow high grasses. We waded quietly through the swampy waters searching under every bush and copse for anacondas, but found only frogs, eggs, giant snails, and baby birds. I suppose it wasn´t a complete failure, but it was far from a success. We came back muddy and disappointed.

That afternoon, we went swimming with dolphins. Dolphins are known for being playful (especially with themselves) and they seemed to be having a good time with us. They would come up to the surface invitingly and play around with each other. As soon as we jumped in the water they´d swim a little ways down the river and then disappear. We´d follow, only to see them surface a hundred meters in the opposite direction. We all got pretty tired trying to keep up with them but Stew thinks dolphin cuddling only occurs on their terms. Nonetheless, we got very close to them and saw lots of their tiny little pink bodies. They rule.

Piraña hunting went well: we all caught lots of pirañas, electric stinging cat fish (fo´real, they exist, and are no joke. Also, what a great name for a band), and sardines. We couldn´t eat them because we were in a protected part of the river. They were all very little and it´s better for the environment to leave them in the river anyway.

We took the boat back, then the van, relaxed in Rurre for a day with our Finnish friends, and then waited 5 hours for our delayed plane. This happens frequently because the airport has a grass landing strip, so any rain throws a wrench in the works. This despite the incredible reputation of the Fairchild aircraft we were flying on. Due to our delay, we missed our bus to Uyuni and spent another night in La Paz. Today we´re going to the rest of the museums and taking the night bus to the salt flats. W00t!