Making the most of civilization.

The problem with going to bed so early is that you get up way too early. This morning way too early was 4:30am. My body and brain decided I had had plenty of sleep but it was still dark enough that I could see the stars through the curtain. I tossed and turned for a few more hours until I could hear folks getting up and moving about. Not that I was in a hurry to get out of the warm toasty bed and out into the freezing morning air. The thought of a warm shower was a good thought but it was also a dream. The water heater had run out of gas. I’m glad we were leaving today.

After breakfast it was time to settle up. It took a good hour to figure out our bill even when Estancia showed it to me – she had the weirdest math I’d ever seen and I couldn’t figure out which of the thirty numbers on the sheet of paper was the total so I ended up writing it out myself and adding it up. 3 days for less than $100. Sure it was cheap but I was still glad to be heading back to the civilization of Copacabana. We grabbed our bags and headed into Yumani to conquer the dreaded 1000 Incan steps. We somehow managed to miss the turn off for the steps and instead found a dirt path that lead down and was much better on the knees than the 1000 steps would have been.

Siggy and Evelyn were already there as well as about 40 other gringos waiting for the boat. I could hear the dull murmur of discontent and when it came time to buy our tickets I understood why. The boat trip back was almost double the ride over – despite being a shorter trip. The discontent didn’t disappear when the boat showed up. This boat was small and the captain was trying to cram all of us and our luggage on it. 15 of us refused to get on and grudgingly they brought another boat over – although it was even smaller and soon filled to the brim. The smaller boats also meant smaller motors and the ride back took a full two hours. Not that I wanted the little boat to overexert itself and sink with all of us onboard. I was just grateful that we made it back to shore.

Back on shore we said goodbye to Siggy and Evelyn before heading to an internet café to get back in touch with the outside world. Then it was back to the hostel where the owner, Martin, welcomed us back like old friends. We were just as happy to see the comfy beds and warm showers and I almost hugged the room heater when I walked back into our room. We also decided to treat ourselves to some salad at the hostel restaurant – we were so vegetable deprived that the salads were gone in mere seconds. We didn’t care if they had been disinfected or not.

After no electricity for 3 days we made up for it by spending the rest of the day watching movies and spending time on our computer and PSP. And that night we treated ourselves to another pricey but oh-so-tasty meal once again. I had delicious stuffed trout in a creamy white wine and caper sauce with real mashed potatoes and more vegetables – I could even taste butter! And Adrian once again indulged in roast beef and gravy with potatoes and salad. (sorry Ayngelina no pictures we were too focused on eating) Dinner cost us more than our room (breaking my rule) but it was definitely worth it. Ah civilization - I will never take you for granted ever again. Although I’m sure I’ll soon find it funny that I considered Copacabana civilized.

The Great Adventures of Adrian.

Just as I thought despite waking up to another beautiful view, we were already a bit bored of the island. Plus the last two days of hiking had left me with aching jelly legs. Today I just wanted to enjoy the sun and read.

Jonas and the rest of the guests left after breakfast leaving Adrian and I alone with the manageress, her little boy, and her younger sister. Adrian soon got a little stir crazy but luckily for me, she was in the mood to entertain him. She had gathered up the donkeys and loaded them with empty plastic containers and invited Adrian to join her as she went down to the shore to fill up them up at the tap.

Adrian followed her down and I was amused to note that she was about twice as fast as him. I lost sight of them as they went down the hill and stuck my nose in the book wondering how Adrian was going to communicate with her with his non-existent Spanish. About two hours later I could hear them returning. Well, I could hear Adrian before I could see them. He was using his sh-sh-sh sound effect and 10 word Spanish vocabulary to interrogate the woman. As she left him to continue up the hill with the donkeys to empty the water containers into the big water tank, Adrian joined me to fill me in on his adventure.

I was impressed. He had managed to find out her name – Estancia, and her son’s name – Christian. Estancia’s boyfriend (not husband, shocking) was the actual owner but he was in La Paz working and came back to the island about once a month. Estancia was only 20, her son 2, and her sister 16. Wow, the women, I mean, girls looked older than that but at the same time looked ageless, if that makes any sense. Adrian was pretty pleased with his conversation and claimed that hanging out with just a regular local person was one of the highlights of the trip so far. It sounded like fun and I wish I had joined him but I needed to save my legs for the trek into town for lunch.

We headed down the path to Yumani and once again we were stopped at the entrance to the community but we flashed yesterday’s receipt and they let us pass. Last night Jonas had told us about a good restaurant in town he’d eaten lunch at and we set off to find it. With no roads and directions that were – at the top of the hill in the woods, the restaurant wasn’t easy to find. But we eventually found it – closed that is. Oh well, it was back into town to try some of the other places we’d seen. The first place only had one piece of trout which Adrian quickly claimed for himself (always the gentleman), until I told him we’d try somewhere else. We found another place and they had two pieces of trout for us. I think they may have gone out to catch it because it took about an hour to get our lunch. But it was worth it. It was tasty and filling and not the same eggs and chicken that we’d had for the last two days.

With full tummies we walked slowly back to the hostel – after all we had plenty of time to kill. Once there we took our seats on the hostel patio and watched the day’s boatload come over the hill. Today, Estancia managed to tempt Siggy and Evelyn from Alsace to stay the night which provided us with new dining partners. Unfortunately for them, the weather was not as clear as the night before so the sunset wasn’t as dramatic and the stars were hidden behind clouds. But today hadn’t been about the amazing sights; it had been about Adrian hanging out with amazing people.

Southern Exposure

Waking up was hard, not the actual being awake part – that was easy thanks to our very full bladders. But the getting out of bed part. The temperature under the blankets it was toasty warm but just outside, it was frigid. Eventually, our bladders won and we jumped out of bed for the trip to the loo down the stairs and across the path in the other building. The good nights sleep had helped improve our opinion of the Palla Kasa hostel as did the view when we stepped outside. As we stepped out the door we could see the deep blue of Titicaca and a perfect sky. Last night we’d suffered through the cold, the dark and bad food. But this made up for it. However we were here for another three nights and as nice as it was to just stop and take in the view after motoring through Peru, a view wasn’t going to keep us amused for two more days.

We decided to walk into town. It was a 10 minute walk along the west side of the mountain that made up the island and when we got to the top of the hill we were surprised that it was much bigger than we had expected. Yumani ran all the way down the east side of the hill and most of that was small hostels. All the guidebooks talk about watching the sunset from Yumani, very few overnight visitors actually get to see it from their hostels. We passed through the town in search of the path that would take us to the southern ruins of Pilko Kaina we had seen from the boat on our way in. It wasn’t easy. The path we found took clambering over the terraced fields and when we passed more than a couple of donkeys and sheep, it became apart that this foot path was more of a hoof path. The altitude didn’t make it any easier today either. But the donkey path eventual led us to the actual footpath although there were just as many donkeys there. We followed the foot path passing the faux reed sail boat doing its tourist loop of the island and arrived at the ruins. They were small and as we went to enter them, Adrian remarked that it smelt like shit inside. Once I stuck my head in, the cause of the smell became obvious; some goon of a tourist had left a turd and toilet paper there (no I did not take a picture although Adrian thought it would be a good one). I was shocked and disgusted not just because it was gross but because these are sacred ruins. Plus there was a small guesthouse just below that a truly desperate person could have used. We hurried out of the ruins and paid our entrance fee to the attendants who had now turned up. I considered telling them about the turd in the ruins but with my poor Spanish (especially when it comes to bodily functions) I didn’t want to risk a miscommunication and ending up getting the blame for it.

We smiled and walked away quickly putting as much distance and blame between us and the offending deposit as possible. Although Adrian appeared to be heading in the wrong direction. He was walking towards the tip of the island rather than back to the hostel. As I tried to motion him back, he motioned more vigorously in his direction. Eventually he won and I followed him as we walked to the end of the island and the footpath. The path took us all the way down to the shoreline. Adrian attempted to forge his way back to the hostel on the west side. I sat down refusing to rock climb. This time I won and after a few minutes of fumbling and tripping on rocks he came stumbling back.

The walk back to town (and the hostel) was a bit daunting at first because we had to walk up. That’s right back up the same mountain that we cursed the first time. Rather than scramble up the donkey path again we continued on the footpath. That was almost a mistake as it led us to the mid point of the 1000 Incan stairs which meant we had to walk up 500 of them. Oh boy. When we had huffed and puffed our way up to the top, we decided that we wouldn’t be making our way back down them willingly again.

We explored a bit more of Yumani finding the small church and a couple of girls willing to pose for a photo (for a fee) with their pet llama. Sidestepping the numerous stalls selling colourful crafts to the tourists we found our way back out of town – not that easy without street signs or even um streets. Two women were sitting at the entrance, erm exit gate collecting the community entrance/exit fee. I guess we had been up rather early. So we handed over our nominal fee and were allowed to pass. We made it back to the hostel just as the today’s boat load of tourists were coming around the bend. Today the tiny little manageress and her sister were able to convince a French man and his guide as well as a young German guy to stay the night. We invited the young guy to join us for dinner. Jonas was on his way through South America before heading to the west coast of Canada to work and be close to his girlfriend who was in Portland, Oregon. We were able to warn him about the food, lights and cold. And in return we got to enjoy his company until the sun went down and we were distracted by the beautiful sunset (photo above) that we had read about.

But the show wasn’t over once the sunset was finished we were treated to the most amazing stars I’d ever seen. The sky was so clear and we were so high that we felt in the midst of the bazillions of stars. We could even clearly see the Milky Way that we first mistook for a glowing cloud. Now I was finally glad that we were staying here for three nights.