I’m still hibernating. The air felt cooler when I went to get the papers, but the weatherman says 84˚ so I might as well keep the AC running. Usually I never watch the television in the daytime, but I’ve been watching the Olympics: the women’s soccer and track and field as well as men’s water polo. I think I’m addicted.

We’re in Puno and we’re boarding the hydrofoil to go across the lake. My friend and I could have chosen a cheaper regular boat, but a hydrofoil was on my list of things I wanted to try. The sensation was neat when the boat rose in the air and then flew off across the water. We made three stops on Lake Titicaca; all were on the Bolivian side. The first two were the Islands of the Sun and the Moon, del Sol and De La Luna. Both have Incan ruins. The Sun is a large island and is believed to be the birthplace of the Sun God. We got off the boat there to see some of the ruins, but the only one I remember is the Sacred Rock. The shores of both of these islands were filled with rocks, and we only saw de la Luna from the boat as there was little to see on the island. Our last stop was Copacabana, Bolivia where we went into the town and visited the Cathedral. I remember the statue of Our Lady of Copacabana was in a niche and it was the first time I’d ever since one dressed in real clothes.

As we got closer to Bolivia we saw a few reed boats and men fishing off them. One of the boats was small and had room for only one. It looked a bit like an oversized kayak. Those reed boats made me feel as if I had been transported back in time as their method of construction has never changed. When our boat landed on the coast, the Altiplano of Bolivia, we boarded a bus to la Paz. The Altiplano almost defies description with all its beauty. Mountains ring along the side and the landscape is stark. It looked a bit like the moon must when you’re standing on it. I think I hurt my neck swiveling my head from side to side to look out the windows. We rode for four hours or so; I don’t really remember. I just know it was dark as we got close to la Paz, the highest capital in the world. We came in from the mountains, and the city was below us built in a canyon. Lit up, La Paz looked like some giant Christmas decoration with lights spread across the canyon. The sight was mouth dropping in its beauty.

We found a hotel close to the bus stop and fell asleep in a heartbeat. But by this time I had a cold, a winter cold, and that hotel was so damp I woke up shivering. We decided to go plush in La Paz and got a room in a really good hotel. It had a buffet breakfast which I enjoy every morning but only for a little while. We explored la Paz. The streets were windy and seem to go higher and higher. Many were cobbled. We wandered all over not at all bothered by the altitude as we had been in the mountains since Venezuela. We went to the witches’ market and just stared at all the weird stuff on the tables. We saw pouches with what I think were potions, dried stuff I didn’t want to know about except I think I saw a few mummified frogs, not so great for souvenirs. We saw parks filled with statues and sat in a few. The hats had changed again. The women wore brown bowlers. The clothing was still colorful. We visited the Iglesias de San Francisco. The outside of the church had all sorts of engravings. Inside, we took almost cave-like stairs to the roof. The view was well worth the trip. La Paz was my second favorite city after Quito.

We decided to fly from La Paz to Asunción, Paraguay as we thought an overland trip, correct that to an over-mountains trip, would take too long. The La Paz airport was high above the city, and we got the view in the daytime which had astonished us at night. La Paz looked tiny below us, like a kid’s toy, but it was no less jaw-dropping.

I’ll always remember waiting at that airport. We were standing there when a whistle blew. Afterwards I figured it must have been lunch time because all of a sudden armed soldiers appeared from everywhere. They must have been hiding along the runways in the tall grass or behind structures. I swear there were at least twenty of them all carrying machine guns, but that only made us chuckle. They all went to lunch at the same time leaving us to our own devices.

The plane was making only a stop at La Paz, and when we got on it, there were already people sitting there sucking on oxygen. That was the first time I’d ever seen anyone actually using the drop down oxygen masks. I thought it a bit over the top as they had never left the plane. I had been in La Paz for four days and once I’d thrown up each morning I never thought anything of the altitude. I sort of snickered, a bit of arrogance I guess.

We flew to Paraguay and left the Andes behind us. We had been in the mountains for over six weeks.