An internet place, Illampu Street, La Paz

Arrived in La Paz around midday, after a 3h ride from Copacabana. Got a cheap hotel room (50 Bs) right in the center of what seems to be the famous Witches' Market, where people sell dried llama foetuses for good luck. The carneval is going on everywhere: dressed up dance groups, brass bands, children shooting each other from water guns. Had a delicious lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. In 30 minutes will meet Jorge, a friend from Zurich.

Another internet place, Copacabana

Internet in Bolivia has so far been horrible. There is no wireless, the internet cafes don't allow you to connect your own laptop to the network, or if they do then their network does not support DHCP, and manual configuration fails for some reason. Monitors are tiny and the only available browser is Internet Explorer which often informs you in Spanish that it's going to remember your GMail password now.

Spent today on Isla del Sol, hiking 13km from the North port to the South port along an old Inca trail. There were some Inca ruins but nothing special. The island itself has an interesting shape and is hilly with the highest point some 300m from the level of the lake (3812m). Otherwise the hike is boring: wild nature has been completely removed from the island: just terraced fields (potato, corn, beans), a few eucalyptus trees, donkeys, pigs and cows. The local people are money-hungry, every village has introduced a law that foreign tourists who walk through the village have to pay 5-10 boliviano (approx 1 USD). On our way we walked through 3 villages.

To get on the island one takes a boat which moves 9 km/h, i.e. even slower than an Amazonian river boat going upriver. It takes more than 2h to reach the island.

Tomorrow will take an early bus to La Paz.

Some internet place, Copacabana, Bolivia

Reached Copacabana (Bolivia) midday. It's a nice laid-back town by lake Titicaca with many Argentinian hippies and trout-selling restaurants.

Tomorrow, at 8.30 will take a boat to Isla de Sol, the largest island in the lake and the birth place of the Sun and the Inca civilization. Will hike there a few hours, visit some Inca ruins, and then back to mainland.

Yesterday's highlight was a trip to two different cultures living on lake Titicaca:

• the descendents of the Uros people (who speak Aymara now) who build floating reed islands on which they then build their houses. The people are very commercialized, seem to be living entirely on tourists.
• the Quechua people on the Taquile island, who are famous for their textile skills, e.g. all men know how to knit.

Kusillos Posada, Puno

Puno is situated at 3800m by the lake Titicaca. Days can be hot with a fierce sun, nights are freezing cold. This time of year it is raining often, the evenings resemble a northern European autumn.

Today will visit the local tourist attractions: the floating reed islands of the Uros people (20 minutes away by boat) and the (non-floating) island of Taquile (3h away).

Hostal Like Home, Arequipa (again)

Back from El Misti (5822m). Csilla summited this morning, in 6h from the base camp. Congratulations! I decided to give up after a nightful of freezing in tiny, damp and thin tour company provided sleeping bag (my own sleeping bag has a broken zipper). Also got diarrhea right after dinner. This kept me up all night as well. In the morning (1am) felt weak and knew that I wouldn't manage more than 100m up.


Our group had 8 people (plus two guides), 4 of them made it to the top, 4 stayed in the base camp (4600m) feeling sick. This makes the success rate 50% (the same as for a group that went up the day before, whom we met on the way to the base camp). All tour companies in Arequipa claim that the rate is almost 100%. They are liers... :(

Hostal Like Home, Arequipa (again)

Successfully completed the Colca canyon hike, or actually a set of 3 hikes each less than three hours, e.g. today started at 5am and climbed 1000m in 2 hours from Sangalle to Cabanaconde.

Will sleep now. Tomorrow will go on a 2-days/1-night El Misti climb.

Cosñirhua, Colca canyon

Short break, then on to the Sangalle oasis. Tomorrow will climb out of the canyon again. No llamas here.

Hostal Like Home, Arequipa

Arrived in Arequipa at 7 o'clock in the morning. It's a nice city with white houses, beautiful Plaza de Armas, and surrounded by several snow-capped volcanoes.

Tomorrow will explore the city some more (today spent most of the time sleeping as couldn't properly rest in the overnight Cruz del Sur from Nazca to Arequipa). Then will probably go on a 3-days/2-nights Colca canyon trip. Besides offering views to condors, colonial churches, llamas, and a deep canyon, it also serves as acclimatization, as afterwards we plan to do some volcano climbing.

The local tour companies offer 2-days/1-night trips to both El Misti (5822m; hike starts at 3400m, camp at 4800m) and Chachani (6075m; hike starts at 5000m, camp at 5400m). Both are supposed to be technically easy, i.e. crampons are not needed, ice axe maybe. After talking to several tour companies it stayed unclear which hike would make more sense for us and how much acclimatization we need to do beforehand, sleeping at 5000m should not be taken lightly. (No tour company seems to offer trips that would contain acclimatization days.)