Christmas and The New Year

This week I have been debating on writing about my recent excursion during Christmas break, partly because it felt weird to have a vacation that didn't involve my relatives. I almost decided to not go on vacation because I travel so much for my job, but I had to do something or I would regret it later.

I am not going to write very much about each location I went to; I will try to let the pictures explain the places. I spent Christmas with the family I live with, but before Christmas I had a little bit of time to travel. I decided to take a two day trip to explore the city of Sucre.

Sucre - The White City of Bolivia

Most of the streets in Sucre are narrow, and there are laws against painting your house a color other than white (especially in the city center). 

La Recoleta in Sucre

I spoke to a young man selling bracelets about the Recoleta, and he informed me that the government paints this area about five times a year. They always want it looking super white for the tourists! 

Lock of love that will forever be at the Recoleta.

The Franciscan monastery in at the other side of the Recoleta. 

 Inside the Catholic church Santa Ana. These chairs are made of cedar wood. The area around Sucre was once filled with cedar trees, but they have mostly been cut down.

Very Ornate!

Tiahuanco/Tiwanaku - a Pre-Incan civilization and now an extensive anthropological dig site, very cool!

A map of the main site. The map shows what the area looked like more than 1000 years ago. 

"Monolito Franz" with myself. The monolito is named after the guy who discovered it, Franz Tamayo. 

The famous "Puerta del Sol". The door was used to calculate the position of the sun, it has since been moved. It was moved by Spanish colonizers to stop the religious practices of the people of Tiahuanco. 

This is a thousand year old megaphone. The hole is said to have been ornately with gold, and this would have improved it's capacity to be megaphone. 

The entrance to the "Sun Temple". The shaman or priest figure was supposedly the only person who used this entrance. 

This was the entrance to the "Sun Temple" used by spectators, and also the entrance we used, ha!

 One part of the "La Cruz Andina" or the Chakana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakana ) that was used to gaze at the stars when filled with water. The majority of the cross has been destroyed.  Take a look at the first photo to orient yourself to the former design of the temple.

At one of the entrances to the "Sky Temple" that was used for star gazing. The site is currently going through lots of conservation and reconstruction. They cover the dig site with a thick layer of mud to prevent the erosion of the dig site during the rainy season. 

The Chakana, but it has an extra step. The cross has exactly 28 parts. It supposedly tracked the cycle of the moon, and also helped track the menstrual cycle, preventing unwanted pregnancy. The people of Tiwanaku didn't have lots of children like the current people of this area. The guide said that he has 10 brothers and sisters. 

The Temple Kalasasaya, the subterranean temple with more than 150 faces embedded in the walls. This is a reconstruction, but the heads are all original. The reconstruction is said to be less precise than the original. The people of  Tiwanaku were incredible builders, which leads to theories that extraterrestrials helped them. 

Among the faces is this one, which could be the face of an alien. Do you want to believe? 

The biggest stone in the picture is over 120 tons, and was moved over 5K to its current position. Again, do you want to believe? Haha!

I was able to spend a couple days in Copacabana and a night on the Island of Sun. 

At the Straight of Tiquina. You have to cross on a ferry to get to Copacabana. 

A view of Copacabana.

Lake Titicaca is the largest and highest navigable lake in the world. The surface of the lake rests at 12,507 ft.

There are several small islands on the the lake, and the Island of the Sun is the largest.

I had the opportunity to camp on the Island of the Sun. The weather is rainy the entire time I was there, so I didn't get much sun. Ha!

Horca del Inca, an ancient Incan observatory located above Copacabana on the hill Kesanani.

A view from the trail that runs across the Island of the Sun. There are about 2500 residents on the island.

The last part of my vacation was spent on a trail the Incas made for trading, El Choro. The trail starts high up in the Andes and then ends in a tropical mountainous area of Bolivia called the Yungas. 

The start of the trail was cloudy and a bit chilly.

The fog continued for most of the path, but pasture started to appear. Parts of the trail are flagstoned. At one time, the whole trail was flagstoned, but large parts of it have been eroded away.

Then trees started to appear. 

After another hour or two, everything around me was very wet jungle. I saw several different species of butterflies, but I couldn't capture many photos because I only have a small digital camera. Supposedly there are exotic birds, but it was difficult to see very much due to the density of the forest combined with the steep slopes of the mountains.

Los Yungas at their best! 

The days it takes to dry clothes in the Yungas, the amount I don't know. The one night I stayed in the Yungas, I slept hard on hard ground. I did try llama for the first time, which is quite unusual considering the location.

The trail would be impassable if it wasn't for this bridge and several others like it.

Flowers of the Yungas. 

There was a Japanese hermit that inhabited a small camping site in Sandillani along the Choro trail. His name was Tamiji Hanamura, and he fled Japan to escape serving in the army. He lived there for the majority of his life, and he never left his little area in the Yungas. I was hoping to meet him, but he died a couple years before I arrived. The Lonely Planet guide I borrowed from the library said otherwise, but it is the 2011 edition. Ha!

The best banana I have ever eaten. 

I swear there were waterfalls at every turn, but this one seemed to be the most impressive.

An iridescent beetle. 

 After the most painful three hours of downhill hiking I arrived at the end of  the trail. The first day of walking in the rain, and the second day of walking in wet boots turned my feet into two giant blisters. 

After a week and half of travel I was glad to return to the heart of Bolivia, Cochabamba. I look forward to my work in the new year, and the opportunities to learn and grow. Thank you to all who read my blog!