My Life in Chile Thus Far

I have been in Chile for exactly two months today. What, huh!?! It feels as if I have been here for much longer than that. I have done so much living in two months.

My most recent excursion was to La Paz, Bolivia. I went with three other American guys which was all fine and dandy, but there were some definite gender differences. The bus ride to La Paz was 7 1/2 hours. The ride wasn't too bad considering I nodded on and off about the whole time, however the bus got pretty crowded because they just pick up random people on the side of the road on the way. Probably the only bad thing about the whole trip happened at the Bolivian border. We had been told we would need and had also been told we wouldn't need a visa to enter Bolivia. My host mom assured and reassured me that we wouldn't need one, but sure enough, we did. The kicker was that it was $100, in dollars too. We had to get money exchanged by this little old lady sitting on the side of the road who kept her change in her bra. That was interesting. We arrived in La Paz at about 8 on Thursday night, and we found a hostel, had something to eat and crashed for the night. The currency in Bolivia is Bolivianos and the exchange rate is definitely in the American favor. We spent a total of $20 for four nights in the hostel. The next day we got up and walked around the city the whole day. I have a Lonely Planet book, which for those of you who are not familiar with the Lonely Planet books, they are a series of travel books that are basically the travelers bible. They have them for about any place you could imagine and they have reviews and all kinds of information about anything and everything where you are. We went to some museums, churches and parks, all with amazing things. That night we went to a place in my book called the Black Market. It was this narrow, winding street filled with little shops that sell just about everything. There were 'witches' that would tell you your fortune, and all kinds of herbs and spices for every aliment. One very interesting item was dried baby alpacas fetuses. Yes, a little baby alpaca (like a llama) dried, for sale in a basket. They believe that if you bury one under your front porch when you build a new house you'll have good luck. By the looks of how many dried baby alpaca fetuses there were, not too much construction is happening in La Paz. Another interesting item for sale at many of the shops was dried and preserved frogs. The frogs had been completely gutted and then glazed with some chemical to harden them and sewn back up. I know you totally wanted one of those Ben, but I didn't think I could get it back through customs. Other things for sale were hats, gloves, socks, shawls, scarves, purses and just about anything else you could imagine made out of baby alpaca. There were typical trinkets and jewelry of the indigenous people, all claiming to be real, one stand had bottles of sparkley sand and shells. When I asked the lady what it was for she said it was for good luck, now I know they were just pulling my leg then, I think I made the same thing when I was eleven and mom got me a sand kit for my birthday. That night we went to the "Hard Rock Cafe" of La Paz. I put that in quotes because it wasn't real. We had many people tell us where it was and when we arrived we were like uhhhh where is it? In true South American style though, it was an imitation. The next day we took a city tour by double decker bus. We went to the Valley of the Moon which is called that because the rock there has weathered in such a way it looks as if you were on the moon. What a beautiful sight that was. Keep in mind La Paz is around 3000m above sea level and the city itself is set in a valley....so most of the city requires a lot of climbing up hill. At that altitude, it felt like I had been smoking for 30 years. The best part of the whole trip was on Sunday. We took an all inclusive tour to Lago Titicaca which is only about three hours out of La Paz. We ate at a delicious restaurant before taking a boat to la Isla del Sol on Lago Titicaca. Lago Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. The ancient Incans believed the island was the place where all Incans came from, kind of like the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve idea. The boat ride took us about an hour, but how beautiful! The water was incredibly blue and so clear, our guide told us there were only about seven species of fish in the lake as well. No catfish, snapping turtles or leeches? I should have gone swimming. I did manage to get a rock at least. On the island we explored an ancient Incan temple. That was absolutely amazing to use the same stairs of the ancient Incans and stand in the same rooms as them. We hiked up the island a bit (very tiring!) and the views of the lake was amazing. Snow capped mountains in the background and the intense blue of the lake as far as the eye could see. Absolutely wonderful. We continued walking along the island to a tiny village. I would hate to live there. Everything is so steep and they have to hike up and down the side of the island every day for water. Too much work if you ask me....wow, how American of me. The boat ride back to the shore was as equally beautiful, even more so with the setting sun. We left La Paz very early on Monday morning. I got stuck in the very back seat next to the bathroom. Not fun. What else is new here in Chile? This past weekend we celebrated my host sister's 27th birthday. A lot of family and friends were around. Saturday night was the actual party and there was a lot of merrymaking. Alright, time to eat some dinner. More later.