The Infamous Lake

Biking in La Paz = another awesome time! We biked from the world´s highest ski slope (yes with lots of snow) to the humid depths of the jungle. It was lots of fun... and much easier than the previous ride, although I did still fall. No harm done though.

After a day of recovery and some more site seeing in La Paz (including the Jail San Pedro where the inmates run it themselves, have restaurants and stores, buy and furnish their own rooms, and can have their families live with them... strange), Alexa, Kelly, and I headed to the shores of Lake Titicaca and the relaxing town of Copacabana. Here there is pretty much just restaurants (mostly pizza and trout!!), gift shops, and tour companies, but it was wonderful to sit on the shores of the massive lake and sip tea!

The next day we took a boat out to the Isla del Sol where we had a massive hike from the north end to the south end, but got to see a set of labrinth ruins and the wonderful views from high above the lake. It was more like an ocean than a lake... very impressive!! However, the boat ride was so slow we felt like we were going backward more than forward.

The next morning we headed to Puno.... a crummy town, but we had fun visiting the "floating islands". These are man-made islands covered in reeds with reed houses, reed hotels, reed boats, and reeds for food. The people really depend on their reeds :) There was a nice presentation by some locals about how they build the islands and what life is like there and we took a ton of pictures!!

Yesterday I spent in Cusco... an amazing colonial city... with an Argentinian kid that I met on the bus. I also met up with one of the pervious volunteers and we had fun catching up, walking around, watching Spain win the European Soccer finals, and eating dinner with her family! This is definitly a town to visit again. Today I am in Aguas Calientes, which is a small town outside of Machu Picchu. I met a girl from Seattle (?!?!?!?) on the train ride up and we are headed up on the first bus tomorrow to see the ruins. I can´t wait to finally experience what I have heard so much about!
Then one more day in Cusco and back home again. This will probably be my last post before I get home, so thanks for reading!!!
Chao