The Sun Island

We arrived in Cochabamba at about 3:30am this morning, we spent the last 24 hours traveling via ferry and bus, then ferry, then bus. It´s been a long day of traveling but we´re going to get a nice hotel here in Cochabamba since the exchange rate is about 8 Bolivianos to $1. We had a fantastic breakfast for less than $2 apiece. Crazy.

The 9 hour bus ride from LaPaz only cost us about $10 per person as well. We should be able to get a 3-star hotel here for about $10 or $15 per night. We´ll finally be spending more than 24 hours in the same city since April 4. It´s crazy to think about. But it will be so nice to have a nice bed with a toilet and shower that runs more than a few hours a day.

We ate ´Saltanias´¨ for breakfast, which are kind of like fresh hot pockets. And we had fresh papaya and passionfruit juices as well. We had them at the place behind Trav´s old mission office, and got to see the office as well. It´s fun for him to be in his old stomping grounds.

We spent 2 nights ago on the Isle de Sol (Island of the Sun) in the middle of Lake Titicacca. It takes a 2 hours ferry trip to get there, and once there we hiked another 3 hours to the far North side of the island. There were no tourists, and we spend the night in a tiny adobe hut in the middle of a corn and flower field on the beach of the lake. The stars were truely magical, and I had gotten Travis a star-chart for Christmas so we had fun identifying the new Southern constelations. They grew gladiolias on the island, so it was a beautiful sunrise with the reds and pinks just ablaze in the light. We hadn´t planned on visiting the island at all, but on a few recomendations from other travelers decided to take a detour. We´re very glad we did.

Cochabamba is only about 8,500 feet in elevation so it´s nice to be somewhere warm. Being in such high elevation had started to catch up with us, our heads and faces are sunburned and our hands and feet are starting to get very dark. I wore a skirt out to breakfast this morning, and everyone stares at my white legs. A boy even ran right into me he was staring so much. Travis said he´d wear his shorts later today to they have some whiter legs to stare at.

We´re starting to really feel like travelers. Last night, we had a 2 hour delay before our last bus came to the station so we went to eat dinner at a chicken place (chicken is their favorite here. they love it with rice and ´papa fritas´, which are big fries.) but upon leaving, we used their bathrooms and came out with our faces washed, teeth brushed, pajamas on and water bottles refilled.

You really find the full potential of a public bathroom when you´ve been on a bus for 24 hours.