Hola Everybody:

We made it safely to La Paz, no problem. Last time I wrote I forgot to say that we were in Arica, Chile which is where the Atacama desert ends. Arica was a lot livelier than Iquique. Our hotel room there was the worst yet but somehow they had a pool and it was actually pretty good so it made up for the shitty, little room. We only stayed two nights so it was relatively painless. The bus trip to La Paz took about 10 hours and although we had taken the pills we did experience some discomfort in the form of a headache and pins and needles sensations in your feet and hands. You couldn't put your hands down a lot and had to keep rubbing them together. It takes at least a good day to recover from such a trip. Nevertheless the scenery was spectacular although we couldn't take that many pictures because the bus windows were quite dirty. We saw similar scenery to what we had seen on our trip to San Pedro with an incredibly high snowcapped mountain towering above all the rest. There were lots of alpacas, vicunas and lamas but too far away to take good pictures.

We are staying in a really cool hotel in the old sector of La Paz. The room is nice and big, with cable T.V. etc.. and it's 25 U.S. a night so it doesn't break our budget. The shower is something else though. I'm too short to adjust the hot and cold flow output, it's super high so Stan and I have to take our showers together. We had not done that in a while! Secondly it's either boiling hot or cold so there's no real in between. It's a challenge but we are managing. La Paz is a real jumble, the streets are super narrow and steep with a cathedral, it seems, every second corner. It's hard to get a handle on initially because it seems so chaotic. I have never seen so many vans in my life. There are basically no private cars or very few. Transport is assured through a mix of combis, (vans big and small), collectivos whiich are taxis that take different passengers, buses and regular taxis. The traffic is horrendous. Crossing streets could be injurious to your health, they don't strop for anybody. The chollas, the women who wear numerous skirts and bowler hats, set up shops on the streets and sell all manner of items. Today we went to the Coca museum. Coca is a huge part of the indigenous culture. We sampled it in tea, no effect. You have to chew it to get something out of it but you have to stick a huge wad in your mouth, add some sort of soda bicarbonate, a little saliva and wait for the whole thing to liquefy before you feel any effect. We haven't gotten to that stage yet. La Paz is quite a surprise overall. I was expecting to be besieged by vendors and kids but there is none of that or very little. They don't insist at all if you don't want to buiy. There is very little bargaining to be had.

There are beautiful handicrafts but we have very little extra room left in our packs so we can't buy much. Today we had lunch for two for about $2.50 in a comedor ( a worker's restaurant).

We will be staying here another two nights and then we are off to Lake Titicaca and Copacabana. Our health is good. We seem to have gotten used to the altitude and are no longer feeling any ill effects. We wanted to go into the Yungas, a semi-tropical region but there has been lots of rain and there is a threat of dengue fever from mosquitoes. We don't want to risk it. Hope everybody is well.

Lots of love,

Josiane

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Hola everybody:

The holidays are over for some of you and for some there never really was much of a holiday and that's just wrong but such is life and your turn will come. As for us the Christmas holidays were fairly uneventful in that it didn't feel like Christmas or New Year at all but merely an extension of what we were doing already which is basically relaxing and doing what we feel like doing. I know....it's really painful sometimes to not have much of a plan but one gets used to it fairly quickly.
We have moved to a really nice hotel in La Paz from la Ventana. Garth was a gracious host but it was time to move on. If you don't kite board or wind surf there really isn't that much to do in La Ventana. It's a very small community. There is another community next door but it's only slightly bigger and caters mostly to the same clientele.
Our hotel is very close to the centro. It is new and our room has a cupola ceiling which is pretty cool. I also have internet access which means I don't have to carry my laptop to a cafe in order to check on my emails. Stan gets pretty impatient when I do that and I don't really blame him. This is so much better.
La Paz would be a hard city to negotiate without a car. There is very little public transport as most people seem to drive. It is reputed to be the richest city in Mexico and it shows. There is a general level of affluence here which isn't found in the other Mexican cities we know. A surprising thing about the driving is that drivers are generally less aggressive here than on the mainland. Surprisingly they mostly obey the posted signs and aren't as crazy about speeding as the drivers on the mainland. Another interesting fact is that many cars on the roads don't have any license plates, neither in the front nor on the back. This is something new and it's very puzzling to us. Having a license plate appears to be completely optional. Weird!
On Christmas Day we were invited to a party that a neighbour of Garth's was throwing so we went back to La Ventana. It was wonderful to have turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. The deserts were really good as well. It's difficult finding food that we can truly enjoy unless you want to pay a bundle. We can't do that because we're traveling for a long time so we have to make some choices when it comes to the food we eat. Cooking was sometimes a drag but now we're eating every meal out and that can be a pain too. Oh the joys of traveling.
The party was cool with mostly Americans and Canadians. There was a couple there, in their fifties, who had already biked from Washington State. They were going to bike all the way to Tierra Del Fuego, wow that's quite the distance on a tandem bike. Some people really know how to live their dreams. Interestingly we also met a Polish couple from Cleveland, Ohio. Stan was able to speak Polish and that was a treat for him.
We had a great time with them.
The rest of the week went by fairly fast. We've been visiting some nearby beaches although I have to say that none of them compare to the ones that can be found on the mainland. The Sea of Cortez does resemble the Caribbean in its color but at this time of the year it's rather cold or at least colder than the Pacific on the mainland which is what we were used to. The beaches are also rather small. Tecolote is the biggest beach close to La Paz and although it's very pretty it's not a long beach and there are hardly any waves. Strangely enough the Sea of Cortez appears to have no tides at least none that are readily discernible to the naked eye. The shoreline always appears the same. When the wind blows there are waves but although there are whitecaps they are never very big. However because it's not quite as hot as on the mainland it's easier to enjoy leisurely walks on the beach without getting burned and the sand is a pretty white colour.
On Monday our friend Kaiulani picked us up at 8:00 and we were off to Cabo San Lucas. Stan was able to enjoy the scenery for a change without having to worry about his driving.
We drove through the town of Todo Santos which is very posh and quaint with lots of pricey boutiques and restaurants. Quite cute actually but small and the beaches nearby are all too dangerous for swimming. There have been quite a few drownings in that area. The beaches are mostly for surfers but right now the waves are not as gigantic. It's the riptide you have to worry about. It's incredibly strong. We didn't want to risk it.
Cabo San Lucas is apparently one of the hottest tourist destination in the world. Only 15 years ago or so it was a quiet, sleepy fishing village and now it's home to mega resorts. It's got beautiful hotels, a malecon, a big, relatively empty, mall, a marina filled with imposing yachts and it's got the ARCH. You've probably seen it in a few pictures of Cabo, it's the iconic signature of the town. We didn't take the boat to the arch because I had an appointment to swim with dolphins. Yes I finally got to realize one of my dreams.
It started at twelve. I was one of two without a wetsuit although the water was cold initially you forgot all about it fairly quickly. I thought our time interacting with the dolphins would be limited but it was almost for the whole hour. There were 5 groups of 10 and each group had its own dolphin. the pool is very big.
My dolphin's name was Richo and he was 28 years old. Dolphins can live up to 40 years in the wild and probably longer in captivity. He was very smart, eager and playful.
We were in the water almost right away and he was swimming right beside us. We were allowed to touch him everywhere except near where his blow hole was. The skin of the dolphin feels like silk. There are absolutely no asperities, he is completely smooth. We could touch him as much as we wanted and he didn't seem to mind one bit. He gave me a kiss on the face and the mouth (not yucky, same texture), he took me for a ride while I held on to his dorsal fin, we did a dance and then a hug. There was a girl taking pictures but they went for $25 U.S. a pop so I'll just have to keep the pictures in my head. I had already paid in american dollars to do the activity. Our dolphin also performed some acrobatic stunts, riding the pool on his back tail while balancing a ball and jumping to incredible heights. It was a truly magical experience.
I know they are exploiting them but they do seem happy although it's hard to tell since they always have that smile on their face. I want to believe ours was happy. He was incredibly willing and giving.
New Year's eve was not that exciting. We went to a restaurant, walked on the malecon and then watched it on T.V. while drinking some beer, no champagne to be had. Today was the first real cloudy day but tomorrow is going to be beautiful so we will probably go exploring another beach.
We want to stay here as long as we can because the weather is too miserable back home and the thought of driving north is not that inspiring. Bundle up wherever you are and try and keep warm. I've posted some pictures of our trip on Facebook if you have a facebook account.

Hasta luego, Feliz Ano Nuevo,

Josiane

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