Our last post....

Pics from along the el choro trek (reverse order)















hey folks...
I´m writing from our hostel in Lima, Peru, the day before our flight home. Here´s a recap on our last week: After Dave and I left Sorata, we headed back to La Paz, and spent a few days exploring our favorite city for the 5th time. This time it wasn´t so much exploring as it was feeling comfortable for a few days; hitting up our favorite mamitas at San Franscisco chapel for saltañas, empanadas or jugos, buying some last minute gifts and running end of our trip errands. We were going back and forth about how we wanted to spend our last days in La Paz, and had decided that a trek would be quite apt, but there were so many treks out of La Paz, that we were having difficulty deciding on which one. Some ¨required¨ a guide, and some were over a week long, which we didn´t have the time for. We met up with Jacob, our Israeli friend for dinner at a local chabad, in hopes of joing him for a trek, but he explained that he was going to pay or a jeep tour instead...not really our style, or in our price range.
Luckily, the next day, at our hostel, we ran into a couple who had been in ruennebaque on the same tour that we were on, but with a different guide. They were interested in doing a trek too, and had come traveling with all the necessary equiptment. The four of us decided to team up and do the Choro trek together. Our guide book said that it could easily be done alone, although it was better to go with a group because there had been robberies on several parts of the trail in the past.
The trek was fantastic and Caz (from Australia) and Jess (from the states) were wonderful company! The trek is over an ancient inca cobblestone trade route, and it decents 7000 meteres in 3 days! We went from really really cold mountain air, to steamy sub tropical jungles in one day. There were a lot of steep downhills and we definately got some nice looking blisters to show for it. Our days were long....it was a really challenging hike! We spent the evenings goofing off with Jess and Caz and sleeping like rocks in our tents. There was one other guided group on the trail, but other than that, we were alone out there to enjoy the views for ourselves. Unfortunately, I didn´t take many pictures, as the days were long and Caz has an awesome camera and has offered to send me her photos! So those might be uploaded at a later date.
We finished the hike in a small town and waited for a taxi to take us to Corroico, where we were planning on spending a night or to exploring before we would return to La Paz. The corner store where we parked ourselves to buy a well deserved ice cold coke, had a family lounging out front with two little boys weilding a butterfly net. When we arrived they had just caught two huge, colorful butterflies and were holding them a bit too vigorously by their bodies and then by their wings. Not surprisingly, the butterflies were struggling to survive, and the boys seemed dissapointed when they put the insects down and they wouldn´t fly. ¨Lo no vuele!¨
They quickly got over it, because they found that with their new found incapacity, the butterflies could sit for minutes on end (near death) on Dave´s baseball hat. We played along, but felt really bad for the ill fated butterflies.
On our way to Corroico, our taxi driver pointed out tons of children carrying bookbags walking along the drit road returning from school. Apparently, the kids walk 2 hours one way to school everyday! The taxi driver sometimes picks them up on his way back from Corroico, but most of the time they have to make the 4 hour round trip walk. It´s a hard life for kids that live in these tiny villages in Bolivia.
We had our hopes up for corroico, but we arrived on a Tuesday, which was the town´s official ¨Sunday¨and nothing was open. We found a touristy place to have dinner... pricy, but amazing! And spent the next day wandering through town, drinking coffee, taking a hike to the town´s mirador and watching an impromptu flag parade that was taking place in the town square. Most of the bars and restaurants were closed for flag day on our second night, so we cooked at our hostel with Caz and Jess, playing card games and drinking wine until we got sleepy.
The next day was our last day in La Paz :( We got up early to take a bus from Corroico back to La Paz and spent the day running around buying bus tickets, food for our trip back to Peru, and donating some of our items that just weren´t going to make it onto the plane back to the states due to baggage restrictions (bye bye yoga mat and our guitar nemo) We spent our last night with Caz and Jess and a few too many pitchers of fruity cocktails at a hip little bar in the Sopacatchi district. Lets just say getting up the next moring at 6:30 to catch our 7:15 am bus was not in my top 10 moments on this trip.
The past two days have been filled with buses, getting off buses, crossing the boarder, getting on more buses, stopping in Arequipa for a day, and then taking our last overnight bus back to Lima where we find ourselves now. Between my last hurrah in La Paz and three days of buses, I seem to have caught a cold, which is a bummer. But, I will brave the cold, muggy Lima air with Dave tonight and celebrate properly!
We are feeling really excited, but also sad and a bit reminicent already. Lima is a modern city, and we haven´t seen the traditionally clothed ladies selling delicious treats in a whole two days and we already miss them terribly! I´m nervous to go back, and preparing for culture shock... but mostly just grateful that I have had this wonderful opportunity and that I have learned so much in the past 6 months. I´m excited to bring a fresh perspective back to the states and to see all those I love and have missed so much!

Ok, time to go before I get all sappy. (I kind of already did, but it could get worse) This will be our last blog entry... I´m so thankful to all of you who kept up with our travels and supported us along the way. See you all very soon!

much love,
Lilli:)