Hello friends and family, I hope you are all well and enjoying your last days of summer. On the 31st of July I left for Puno, Peru on the border of Bolivia and Peru in order to try and get a different visa so that I could stay longer here in Bolivia. It took me 2 days of basically non-stop traveling but I arrived in Puno on the morning of Aug. 2nd. I went to the Bolivian Consulate in Puno and asked for a specific purpose visa so that I would be able to stay up to one year more in Bolivia. They took all of my paperwork on the 3rd of Aug. and said they had to send it to La Paz back in Bolivia and that they would have an answer in about a week and for me to come back then. So with a week to do nothing but sit in my hotel room I decided to go sight-seeing around Puno. Puno is over 12,500ft, two days earlier I left Yapacani which is about 1,500ft, so for the first couple of days I had a mild headache from the huge swing in altitude. I decided to do a tour of some of the islands on Lake Titicaca. I found a tour group that visited 3 islands in two days and decided to go with them. We left early in the morning on the first day and stopped at the Floating Islands of Los Uros. I had gone to these islands about 11 years ago but so much has changed since then. Before they were scattered and true to their traditional way of life, not the commercialized mess that it has become today. I was really disappointed, but luckily we only stopped for an hour. The next island, Isla Amantaní was another 2.5hr boat ride from Los Uros and we arrived there around lunch time. Amantaní is the largest island on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca it is known as the "Island of the Kantuta", after the national flower of Peru, which grows on the island. It has two mountain peaks, Pachatata (Father Earth) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), with ancient Inca and Tiwanaku ruins on top of both. The hillsides are terraced and mostly worked by hand and planted with wheat, quinoa, potatoes, and other vegetables. After lunch of quinoa soup and bread our group hiked up to the Inca ruins in order to see the sunset over Lake Titicaca. Views from the top of the island were spectacular and you could even see the snow-capped peaks of the highest Bolivian mountains in the distance. That night we stayed with host families and went to a local celebration of Andean music and dancing. After breakfast with the family the following day we all got back into the boat and headed to the last island on our tour, Isla Taquile. After another 1hr boat ride we arrived on Taquile and walked up the steep paths to the center of town where the main plaza is located. We were lucky to be there on the last day of the Festival de Artesania, where all of the islanders congregate to play music, dance and sell their hand woven textiles. After about 2hrs we had a delicious lunch of Lake Titicaca trout and then made our way back down the hillside to our awaiting boat. From Isla Taquile back to Puno was another 3hrs and we arrived in Puno around 5pm. The next day I found out about another tour that went through a canyon near Arequipa so I left that night from Puno to Arequipa. The Colca Canyon tour was also only 2 days so I decided to sign up and do that the following day from Arequipa. Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world. The name Colca refers to small holes in the cliffs in the valley and canyon. These holes were used in Inca and pre-Inca times to store food, such as potatoes and other Andean crops. They were also used as tombs for important people. The canyon is home to the Andean Condor and you can see these larger than life majestic birds soaring around the Cruz del Condor where the rising thermals are the greatest as the air warms from the canyon below. The first day we left Arequipa in the morning and had many stops along the way to our destination of Chivay. We stopped at the Nature Reserve of Salinas and Aguada Blanca, which is the natural habitat for the wild vicuñas, part of the llama and alpaca family. We also stopped at the Mirador de los volcanes, at over 15,000ft this lookout point afforded amazing views of the Peruvian volcanoes and snow-capped peaks leading up to the Colca Canyon. We finally arrived in Chivay around lunch time and I was able to sample one of their local delicacies, alpaca. I had tried llama once while in Bolivia and really didn´t like it but I decided to give alpaca a chance and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it so much that a few days later I tried it again. In the late afternoon we went to the natural hot springs of Chivay to take a dip in the 95 + degree water. Some of the pools were outside and others were covered. I mainly stayed in the pools outdoors because the cool canyon air helped balance the extreme heat from the water. After we left the hot springs and got cleaned up back at the hotel the group was taken to a restaurant where there was typical Andean music and dancing. After an enjoyable couple of hours of entertainment we retired for our early departure the next morning to see the Andean Condor. We left at about 6:30 a.m. for the 2 hour drive up to the lookout point of Cruz del Condor. Along the way we stopped a couple of times in different towns to see the Spanish style churches and also to get better views of the canyon itself. We passed through a tunnel carved out of the mountain and were also able to see the colcas or small holes in the cliff sides where they used to bury extra grain or produce and in some cases the more important Inca leaders. At last we arrived at the Cruz del Condor lookout point and waited about half an hour when all of a sudden 5 or 6 Andean condors came out of nowhere from the canyon below rising up on the thermals of warmer air. They made some passes overhead which gave me a better perspective on just how big these birds are. Everyone just watched in awe, for 25 minutes or so, these amazing creatures soaring back and forth and overhead with a gorgeous Andean canyon as their backdrop. When the condors had gone back to their nests in the cliffsides our tour group started the long haul back to Arequipa arriving around 5:00 p.m. I saw some absolutely incredible creatures along with the amazing scenery of the canyon and the volcanoes which made the trip worth the price of admission and more. The following day I traveled back to Puno to find out if news from La Paz had arrived about my visa. I was told by the Bolivian Consulate that I still needed more paperwork from the Salesians in Bolivia and with that I would probably be granted my request. After contacting the powers that be I was sent a letter from the Bishop of Cochabamba requesting help with my visa process but all of this took another 10 days so in the meantime I went back to sight-seeing. About 30 minutes outside of Puno is the town of Chucuito where there is an Incan fertility temple called Inka Uyu. It was basically a square with dozens of stone phalluses scattered inside of it. Nearer the main plaza there was La Puerta de la Figura Tallada, a stone door with intricately carved designs of different creatures and beasts. I then left Chucuito for Juli which was another hour´s ride farther down the road. Juli, Peru is known as the Rome of Peru because of its 4 churches from the 16th to 18th centuries which the Spanish Dominicans and Jesuits had constructed in hopes of converting the huge indigenous population to Catholicism. Today only the Cathedral, San Pedro is still used for worship. Santa Cruz Church was destroyed and burned out by lightning and is currently under restoration. The other two churches: Asunción and San Juan de Lateran have been converted into museums displaying paintings from the era. I took another short bus ride from Juli to Pomata in order to see another Spanish Church that sits upon a hill and overlooks the clear waters of Lake Titicaca. Santiago El Apóstol was started by the Jesuits and finished by the Dominicans in the 18th century. Alongside the church were ruins, but I was only able to take photos because of the rottweiler running loose inside the fence that surrounded the ruins. The views of the Lake however were amazing from the backside of the church. The next few days I stayed in Puno and walked up to the different lookout points around the city. The first was Kuntur Wasi or Condor Hill, an arduous climb of 618 steps reaching a height of 13,250ft. At the top of the hill is a giant metal condor perched on a monument that you can climb up into to get views of Lake Titicaca and all of Puno. If climbing the 618 steps didn´t leave you breathless the views most certainly would have. It was an awesome place that I went to a couple of times to just relax and take in the beauty of Lake Titicaca and the Andes Mountains surrounding it. Cerrito Huajsapata was another lookout point on the other side of the Cathedral in Puno. It had a statue of the First Inca, Manco Capac, who is said to have sprung up from the depths of Lake Titicaca. The next couple of days I visited churches in nearby towns. In Lampa I went to the Santiago El Apostól Church which had tunnels and catacombs underneath which are said to run all the way to Cusco and Arequipa. I also went to Pucará, Peru to see the church of Santiago de Pupuja and the Inca ruins that were behind the church. Pucará is famous for its ceramic production, a tradition dating back at least 2500 years. The most famous of its ceramic figurines are the Pucará bulls or toritos; which can be found throughout the Altiplano on the roofs of houses to bring luck and fertility. The last mini trip that I took was to Ayaviri and the Tinajani Canyon. Tinajani, at 12,900ft. is a canyon and a petrified forest about nine miles from Ayaviri. Some of the rocks have been eroded into interesting shapes. I saw some of the locals taking their sheep and cows into the abundant grasses of the canyon to graze. Back in Puno I went to check on my visa and this time was granted a stay of 3 months again, so I traveled back to Yapacani and will be here until about mid November teaching catechism and visiting the outstation communities as before. We are in the midst of helping all of the children in the sponsorship program make their annual Christmas cards that they send to their Godparents. So with about 600 Christmas cards to make we have had our hands full. Please continue to pray for all of us here as you all are in our daily prayers.
God bless!!
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