December Travel

  

The Floating Islands at Lake Titicaca

          December was a busy month, but full of fun. I spent the first couple of weeks doing dental clinics and getting my financial work squared away for the following weeks I would be gone. I was really busy, and when the 16^th of December came, I was ready for a break.  You may be wondering what I am talking about as far as a break goes. All of the SM’s can only get a visa into Peru for 180 days max. Sometimes it is hard to even get that, and you are at the grace of the immigration official. All of us needed to get a new visa at some point around the middle of the year. So around Christmas time we all had to leave the country. They encourage us to travel a little bit to help deal with being away from home and loved ones over the holidays. So for this reason I did a little traveling over the holidays.

         I chose to go to Bolivia with a couple of the other SM’s. We also had the dentist that has been teaching and supervising us come as well. We started by flying to Lima, where we had a one night layover where we met up with Dr. Juan Carlos. The next morning we flew to Cusco, Peru where we spent the day planning out and arranging the last minute details of our trip. It is surprising as much tourism as Peru has; it is really hard to do some of the stuff online. That night we got on an overnight bus to Puno, Peru. Early the next morning we took a tour out to the floating Islands on Lake Titicaca. These are extremely impressive man made islands that the locals have created out of the reeds. They live on them and there are whole communities of these islands.

Mountain Biking the World's Most Dangerous Road in La Paz, Bolivia

After returning from the island tour, we continued on our way. We crossed the border into Bolivia and continued on our way. We made it to La Paz, Bolivia at 10:30 that evening. We then took the next day to relax and recover from the trip. Along with the long traveling, the altitude made us feel even more tired as La Paz is almost 12,000 ft in elevation. As you could guess, the climate was much cooler than that of the Jungle. It was a welcomed change, but I was equipped for the hot jungle, not the cold mountains. However, by layering up a hoody and my rain jacket, I was able to stay sufficiently warm.

         While in La Paz we ventured out and walked around the city. We went shopping for alpaca sweaters, which are really cheap in Bolivia. There are currently seven bolivianos to one dollar, so your dollars really stretch. We also went mountain biking down the world’s most dangerous road, appropriately named the death road. It has the most deaths on it annually by percentage that use it. However, there is a new road that allows most traffic to go around now, so I do not think that it still has the most deaths annually. Still, I would not want to be on a bus driving on that road, but on a mountain bike it was a lot of fun, and the views were pristine.

Dr. Juan Carlos and Myself in a shop in Cusco

        From La Paz, we went to the little lakeside town of Copacabana to spend Christmas. It was very cold at night. Dropping down to freezing at night, but warming up into the sixties during the day. This was my favorite place as a whole of the trip. It was so peaceful and beautiful. While there we took a tour of the Isle del Sol, the island of the sun, which was absolutely beautiful. We also rented motorcycles for a couple hours one day (for $12) and headed into the countryside to see what almost no tourist sees, little villages of farmers. We passed a number of shepherds out watching their sheep and others taking the cows out to graze; all living a very different life than the one that you and I know. It was really nice to see this and just take some time to relax in this little town.

          After our time in Capacabana, we took another overnight bus to Cusco. In Cusco there was so much to see. Cusco was the center of the Incan empire and has so much history within its limits and in the surrounding area. We were also very happy to get back to Peruvian food. I didn´t realize how much Peru had begun to feel like home until I left and came back again. During our time in Cusco we went to a number of historic Incan sites and temples. The grand finale being, Maccu Piccu. To Maccu Piccu we took the cheaper student route. This also included a lot of walking if you really wanted it to be cheaper. We walked so much over those couple days. I’ve never seen so many steps in my life. It took me three days to be able to go down steps again without pain. We climbed and descended 3,000 ft. elevation that day. Almost all of the way was steps. However, it was all totally worth it, and I felt much more appreciative of the location after walking all the way up there. It really was an experience and I was so lucky to be able to see these places.

          Now I am back at Amor Projects and have begun to catch up on my work here. I am happy to be back and to be working again. I really am happy to be a part of Amor Projects and the work that that is going on here. Thank you so much for you continued prays.