Lake Titicaca and a crazy storm
Lots to catch up on.
Sunday night I found a bar showing the Superbowl, which was cool. I remember the Bears winning 20 years ago, and was hoping for a repeat. Had a very surreal moment when a hush fell over the room for the national anthem...in La Paz. Stranger still was that there were five people there from Chicago! I never expected that. It was fun for a little while, until the Bears started losing badly. Ah well.
The next morning I headed out for Lake Titicaca. And yes, the inner six year old giggles every time I say that. Anyway, I was really excited to see it; the lake was half the reason I changed my flight to stay in Bolivia longer. I will sound like a hippie for a minute and say that all the books I have read describe the place as having a tangible energy..and really, it does.
It was so cool being there; Inca civilizations lived along the lake, and every mountain is full of terraces. I remember seeing pictures of terraced hills in National Geographic as a child, and the yesterday, I was walking along one. Pretty amazing.
I started out in Copacabana, a small sleepy hippie beach town, from which I caught a two hour boat ride to the Isle del Sol, Island of the Sun. When I was there, I visited some really old ruins; no one else was there, I had them all to myself, which was amazing. I sat in a stone seat that the old Inca kings used to sit in to receive the energy from the rising sun. Wow.
I went to bed pretty early, since the generator shut off at 10, and I was exhausted from walking up a mountain twice. However, I was woken up around 2am by the most intense thunderstorm I have ever experienced. Torrential rain on the corrugated roof, lightning purpling the curtains every minute. The storm got closer and closer until lightning and thunder were simultaneous, right out my window. Funny thing is, I never got out of bed; normally I would get up and at least look out the window, but something kept me in place, and it was not just the stream of water pouring in from under the door. I was frozen, something inside me saying do not move, as if getting up would carry me away on the storm. Sounds silly to say now, but Lake Titicaca is so intense, it made sense.
The next morning, this morning, the lake was almost eerily calm, flat and gray (Titicaca means something like puma gray, there were pumas on the island until about ten years ago). It changes colors depending on the light and time of day, and there are idols and more ruins at the bottom of the lake.
I left the island this morning and took a very long bus ride back to La Paz. It is good to be back in an amazing, beginning to be familiar but still esoteric city. On the bus I sat next to a cool Norwegian girl, and ended up giving tips to some Brits about hostels, markets, and other stuff about the city. Almost felt like a tour guide for a minute. I will miss this place, I was just starting to get comfortable here. Tomorrow I fly to Iquique, Chile, for the next section of my trip.