BOLIVIA'S (AND PERU'S) GREAT OUTDOORS

As some of my posts from Bolivia have shown, this country has pretty spectacular scenery and geologic diversity.  Wine country, colonial towns, salt flats, craggy canyons.  Some of the most amazing geology is right in our backyard here in La Paz. 

We ventured out on a Saturday in January for a hike in Valle de las Ánimas (Valley of the Souls), a protected area just outside La Paz.  A 20-minute-ish cab ride brought us to the “trailhead” – basically a river bed leading into the craggy valley carved by the river.  It hadn’t rained recently, so the river bed was dry.  But the steep canyons turn the river into a raging flood when it rains, so we had to keep an eye on the weather. 

Ready to head up the valley.

There are two possible explanations for the name: the first is that wind passing through the formations creates haunting sounds, and the second refers is that the formations look like silhouettes of spirits.

We hiked up the river bed and then up onto the surrounding mountains, looping back around through a narrow valley, back to the entrance.  

The total distance was about 5 miles... but at 13,000 feet, it was a slow-going 5 miles.

That hike served as good training ground for our next hikes… in Peru.  In February, we headed out of Bolivia to do a little tour around Peru.  First stop, Cusco. 

The city was originally founded in the 12th century as the capital of the Inca Empire.  The region was conquered in the 16th century by the Spanish, who constructed their city over monuments left from the Incas (of course they did).  But remnants of ancient Incan walls are throughout the city, and an Incan site is walking distance from the town center.  The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is absolutely beautiful with many buildings, squares and streets immaculately preserved.  We spent a few days checking out the town, including some historic museums, beautiful squares, and fantastic food.

Strolling through Cusco's cobblestone walkways.

A view of Cusco's main square, Plaza de Armas, from a hike above the city.

Plaza de Armas at night.  I walked on the grass to take this photo - and was immediately informed by locals that walking on the grass is not allowed.  Oops.

Enjoying a pisco sour at a little spot next to the Plaza de Armas.

The plaza was always a hub of activity.

The restaurant we chose for dinner one night included cultural music and dances.  They of course chose Andrew to join one of the numbers.

Our trip to Peru coincided with the Carnival holiday.  Before Spanish colonization, Andean communities celebrated the rainy season and agricultural fertility with music, dance, and communal rituals.  Over time, these traditions merged with Catholic Carnival celebrations introduced by the Spanish, creating a unique hybrid festival in Cusco.  In Cusco, Carnival was celebrated with water balloons and spray foam.  Locals warned us we would need to don ponchos if we wanted to stand a chance of staying remotely dry during a walking tour of the city that we had planned.

Carnival revelers in Cusco's city center.

It seemed like the entire city turned out to toss water balloons and spray foam on each other.

We were not immune.  The ponchos were definitely needed!

The outskirts of Cusco - walking distance from the city center - included some ruins to explore.  The pre-Incan Killke culture built the walled complex of Sacsayhuamán about 1100, later expanded by the Incas in the 1200s.

Apparently alpaca like to play hide and seek.

Incan walls are like giant jigsaw puzzles - somehow pieced together centuries ago without heavy machinery or mortar.  Spectacular works of engineering!

The ponchos proved handy for spending a slightly drizzly afternoon walking amongst the ruins.

The ruins sat above Cusco's city center (in the background) and were a great destination for a hike out of the city.

We took a day trip through the Sacred Valley of the Inca along the Urubamba River.  In addition to its proximity to Cusco, the valley is lower in elevation and therefore warmer and allowed cultivation of corn – a main Inca staple.  The valley is dotted with ancient agricultural terraces and ruins of the ancient Incan empire.

One of our stops on our tour of the Sacred Valley - the Maras salt mines, a terraced network of over 3,000 evaporation ponds fed by a natural underground saltwater spring that has been continuously hand-harvested by local families since pre-Inca times.

The ruins at Moray - an amphitheater-like terrace that historians think served as an agricultural laboratory, where the distinct microclimates created by the varying depths allowed the Incas to experiment with and domesticate different crops.

Close up of the jigsaw puzzle appearance of Inca walls.

Another stop in the Sacred Valley - the ruins at Pisac, complete with alpaca.

The day trip trough the Sacred Valley brought to Ollantaytambo, a small town with an expansive Incan archaeological site about 50 miles northwest of the Cusco.  At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru, it served as a stronghold the Inca resistance.  It is now a starting point for the Inca Trail, a multi-day hike that leads to Machu Picchu.  We didn’t make it to Machu Picchu on this trip, but we did spend a few days hiking around Ollantaytambo.

Hard to pick just a few photos from Ollantaytambo - the town tucked into the Andes at about 10,000 feet and its namesake Incan ruins were truly incredible.

Looking out over the town from a high point in the ruins.

No ruins are complete without resident alpacas.

The Incas built several storehouses on the hills surrounding Ollantaytambo.  Their location at high altitudes, where more wind and lower temperatures occur, defended their contents against decay.  They are thought to have been used to store the production of the agricultural terraces built around the site.

The Temple of the Sun - a massive stone structure within the ruins at Ollantaytambo.

It is thought that the agricultural terraces allowed farming on otherwise unusable terrain and allowed the Incas to take advantage of different ecological zones created by variations in altitude.

Looking out over the ruins.

Another day, another hike.  This one on the opposite side of the Urubamba River that flows through Ollantaytambo.  The trail was part of the Inca Trail that ultimately leads to Machu Picchu.

Not all ruins that we came upon were Incan - there was also this old homestead along the trail.

Carnival celebrations were also underway in Ollantaytambo.  Like Cusco, they also involved water balloons and spray foam.  Unlike Cusco, they also included a giant tug of war contest and a parade town the main street, complete with full band.

The parade led to the town square, where the two tug-of-war teams danced around a tree that had been put up and decorated the day before - think Christmas tree, but with decorations like toys, clothes, and other objects.  The teams took turns swinging an axe at the tree until it eventually fell.  Some of the crowd swarmed the tree to collect the treasures that had been fastened to it - and the rest of the crowd pelted them with water balloons.  Happy Carnival!

The main method of transportation in Ollantaytambo town.

After about a week at about 10,000 feet in Cusco and Ollantaytambo, we were ready to take a break at lower elevation for a few days before heading back into La Paz’s thin air.  So we headed to sea level to see what Lima had to offer.  While we did get to see the ocean, tour some impressive old museums and government buildings, and eat some delicious steak and ceviche, we also found a lot of traffic, smog, oppressive heat and humidity, and crowds… all the things we’d hoped we’d left behind in Jakarta. 

Ahhhh... sea level!

Government Palace on one of Peru's main squares.

Touring Convento Santo Domingo and its lovely old tiled walls.

After a few days to get our fill of oxygen, it was back to La Paz.  We’ll return to Cusco and Ollantaytambo in August, and we’ll continue on to Machu Picchu on that trip.  So fair warning that there will be more photos of Incan ruins in a future post. 

Alas, for the moment, some of our exploring is on hold.  Bolivia has a protest culture, and we’re currently in the midst of a wave of nationwide road blockades and marches calling for the president’s resignation.  The blockades have pretty much cut off over-land routes to La Paz, making it harder for supplies to get in.  Long lines for gas, shortages of medicines and oxygen in hospitals, empty grocery store shelves.  We’re doing just fine – occasional shipments of meat, vegetables, and other products make it through – they’re just more expensive than usual.  I’ve been going in to work as usual since most of the protests are taking place several kilometers from the embassy (and even farther away from the residential areas where we all live).  But it has definitely made our already busy work days even busier.  Time to start planning our next escape to the great outdoors!

VENTURING FARTHER AFIELD

I’m woefully behind with updates on what the migrants have been up to.  This edition will cover our visit to Sucre and Tarija – two destinations in southern Bolivia that we’d heard were must-sees.  We took a week off just before Christmas to see what awaits there.

First up, Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia.  It is the judicial center of the country with lots of well-preserved Hispanic colonial buildings, for which it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Getting there wasn’t without its challenges when the airline canceled our flight and automatically booked us on another flight, the day before which wasn’t going to work because of work commitments, and the next available flight wouldn’t have been until the next day.  Not wanting to lose a day of precious vacation, and ever the intrepid travelers, we opted for an overnight bus from La Paz. 

Our bus digs for the next 12 hours. Roomy... but not much sleep.

View from the bus the next morning.  That swervy road is to blame for the poor sleep.

Sucre is a lovely city.  The architecture with its tiled roofs and white exteriors has earned Sucre the moniker, “The White City.”  The Christmas decorations were also in their full glory, which added to the charm.

Our view across the White City from the rooftop of our hotel.

The town square was all decked out for Christmas.

So were the colonial government buildings around the town square.

The architecture on the colonial buildings, some dating back to the 16th century, was spectacular.

This building and its lovely courtyard were part of a university.

The second morning we were there, as we were strolling around, we noticed some streets were closed and people were gathering along the sides.  Apparently, a soap box derby of sorts was about to begin, so we stuck around to see what the fuss was about.  Like La Paz, Sucre is at elevation (about 9,000 feet) with lots of hills that make it hard to find much level ground in the city.  Made for a challenging course for the entrants – and a challenging town to walk around without getting winded.

Geronimo!

Miss that curve?  No worries - there's a mattress strapped to a building to protect you.

There are lots of paleontological sites around southern Bolivia, so we decided to check out the Cal Orck’o fossil bed just a few minutes outside Sucre.  About 5,000 dinosaur tracks were discovered on an almost vertical surface when the adjacent concrete plant was blasting away limestone in the mid-1990s.  It’s now a protected reserve.

Those little dots are dinosaur tracks from 68 million years ago that were once a lakebed, now raised almost vertically through tectonic activity.

We wrapped up our stay in Sucre by meeting up with some friends from the embassy who were also visiting Sucre for a few days.  We joined them for a guided walking tour around the city center.  We love doing walking tours in any new city – a great way to learn a bit of the history and culture, and get your bearings.

Looking over Sucre from a hike up to Recoleta Monastery.

And a stop for a roadside choripan (sausage in a bun) on the way back - $1.

A final sunset from our hotel.

And a stroll through the city on our last night.

From Sucre, it was on to Tarija, which is about as far south as you can get in Bolivia and is Bolivia’s wine country.  Believe it or not, Bolivia makes some pretty tasty – and cheap – wines, so we figured we would go to the source to learn more about the area, and do some wine drinking, ahem, research, to see which ones we really liked.  We balanced all that, um, research with some other activities too. 

Lots of pretty, green town squares in Tarija.

Colorful murals in downtown.

We walked by this church a couple of evenings, and both times there were groups dancing around this may pole (for lack of a better term).  Christmas festivity action shot.

Foosball is big in Bolivia.  We've seen entire foosball halls in La Paz too.  

We hired an outstanding guide who showed us around for a few days.  The plan was to have some morning activities, and then to balance out all that activity with afternoon wine tastings.  The morning activities, included a walking tour of the city center (of course), and a picturesque hike to a waterfall (and some birdwatching for me).  

Our walking tour included a stop at the local market.  Look at all that amazing fresh fruit!

And potatoes!  Bolivia has over 4,000 varieties of them.

And breads!  I am a bread snob.  Not gonna lie - the breads here are not my favorite.  It's hard to bake at altitude - I get it.  But they still look great.

We hiked along this lush valley to see a waterfall at the end - and to earn our wine that afternoon.

And our afternoon wine tastings brought us to some superb wineries.  The buildings were modern, and the wines were tasty (mostly reds - think malbecs, cabernets, and the very Bolivian tannat) - and cheap.  A bottle of very drinkable red wine will set you back about $15.

This was our favorite winery - Magnus.  We had a fabulous visit.  The wineries aren't set up like California or Oregon - you don't just roll up and have a tasting.  Reservations are required, and we figured we'd be there with other groups.  But we had the place to ourselves, with a private lunch to boot.  A super memorable place.

Magnus also had on display dinosaur bones that had been unearthed during construction.  Because, of course.

Our private lunch set-up in the cellar.  Delicious!

Harvest was in full speed.

The tasting room at Campos de Solana... and another lunch to accompany.

Last but not least, Casa Solum Winery - a small, family-run  winery.  The winemaker/owner showed us around.

Our last day took a bit of a detour after the Bolivian government reduced its long-standing subsidies on gas and diesel* and the country’s bus drivers went on strike by blockading the streets all over the country.  That kept us from getting to our last scheduled winery.  But undeterred, we found another winery within walking distance from our hotel, so we visited there as a Plan B.  We capped it all off with a paella feast at one of the wineries we had visited early on and really enjoyed.  An altogether successful trip – airline cancelations and blockades can’t keep us down!

This is what a Bolivian blockade looks like.

And this is what Plan B looks like.  Aranjuez Winery - walking distance from our hotel.  One of Bolivia's oldest wineries with a very pretty setting.  The wine... not so much.

A paella feast at Magnus with our guide to celebrate our final night in Tarija.

*Bolivia’s former government had subsidized the price of gasoline for over 20 years.  When we arrived, a liter of gas cost about 30 cents.  The new government that came in right after we arrived in Bolivia is trying to make changes to bring Bolivia into the 21^st century.  The changes are coming at a price – like lifting the subsidies to try to build up their abysmal cash reserves.  Of course, that means gas costs more now (still less than neighboring countries are paying), but people weren’t happy about it, and blockades are their preferred method of protest.

Back in La Paz, Christmas – and the arrival of our stuff from Indonesia – awaited.  Our delivery came just a couple days before Christmas, so our house was decidedly unadorned this year.  But we had some fabulous holiday celebrations with friends, so we didn’t miss the lights and tinsel at all.

The checkout staff at the local market was definitely feeling the holiday spirit.

Our stuff arrives!  With help from a local street dog.  (Don't worry.  The street dogs here are very well cared for, complete with dog houses and coats.)

As I’m writing this, we have just returned from Cusco and Lima, Peru.  The tales from those adventures further afield will wait for another time.To be continued...