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Hey everyone! Funny how I start doing this more as I get closer to the end of my trip. And it really is pretty close--in a little bit more than a week I´ll be back in Santiago, and in two weeks I´ll be on the plane back to Alaska. Somewhat strange to think about, but I´m ready to stop moving around for a bit, as my stay at Rueben´s house told me.
Well, I am now in the medium-sized Bolivian town of Oruro right now, waiting for a train that will take me to the even further south town of Uyuni. I´m excited about going by rail--it´s the only mode of transportation that I´ve been lacking on this trip (done foot, air, water, and bus--god, too many buses) and it´s supposed to be a nice ride too.
Well, the last few days were quite fun, but also quite solo--I had some good books to read so that wasn´t too bad. I took the bus to the small town of Copacabana on the edge of Lake Titicaca--highest and biggest lake in South America. Absolutely beautiful, too...stayed there a night, and decided to do some walking the day after. My destination was the Isla del Sol, a biggish island close to Copacabana that was sacred to the Incas. The options to get there were to take a boat directly from Copacabana, or walk along the peninsula reaching out to the island and take a boat from one of the tiny towns along the way. I elected the latter.
So I walked. It was a four hour trek to the end of the peninsula, to a town called Yampupata. Along the way, I encountered great views, a very steep Incan road, some rather strange people arriving by taxi to pay their respects to la Virgen de Copacabana in a strange shrine along the way, and some kids. With the kids, they would run up to me dragging their tiny siblings behind, and ask me to take a picture of them. When I did (the children here are adorable) they would ask for money. Not wanting to encourage this kind of behavior, and more because I had no small bills, I gave them some cookies that I had. They looked a little down, but having something that they could enjoy right away made up for it.
Okay, coolest thing of that day though: the crossing over to the island. At Yampupata, I was the only tourist (I think it´s the beginning of the season there) and thus there were no motor boats. An old man approached me and asked if I wanted to row over. Obviously I said yes. So, I made my way over to the island on oar power. It must have been about 150 meters over--but el viejo and I made pretty good time with two pairs of oars. I got off at a rocky point and made my way over to the small town on the south end of the island. I ate dinner here and chilled a little bit, and then found a deserted hilltop to pitch my tent.
Despite a rather cold night (I need a new sleeping bag) I enjoyed the next day walking around, and seeing the sights (and a lot of tourists). I walked to the north part of the island, getting some good views of Peru across the lake, and saw the "titicaca stone" where the Incas believe the world was created. Rather tired (I am going to be glad to get rid of this backpack) I took the motor boat back to Copacabana.
After a couple of bus trips, here I am! Excited for Uyuni...the salt flats await, and I´m going to be passing back into Chile (which is just better, obvio-po). After a few days doing some mountain biking in San Pedro de Atacama, it´s back to Santiago.
Keep in touch, and much love.
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