A day trip to Tiahuanaco

We did a day trip to Tiahuanaco -the remains of a Pre-Incan civilization.

It is believed to have been built by the Aymara, the native South Americans who inhabited Lake Titicaca) Again, we were 13,000 feet above sea level (The hat was supposed to help prevent a recurrence of altitude sickness—limiting exposure to the sun).

The massive, solid blocks of a stone not indigenous to the flat plateau gave rise to the site's nickname, "the Stonehenge of the Americas".

Altitude sickness in La Paz

When we finally made it to La Paz (13,313 feet above sea level), I felt that I was at death’s door. John got me into bed and started a search through the city for Excedrin (Travel Lesson: Don’t count on finding your favorite pain meds –bring them with you!). The hotel brought an oxygen tank into the room- one of the ways to counter altitude sickness. John spent the next day watching me sleep and watching movies (wouldn’t you know that the hotel would be playing the movie about the soccer players who crashed in the Andes and had to eat each other to stay alive-not the best movie to watch when you’re nauseous).

The next day, we decided to try a bit of exploring. The city appears to be set in a huge bowl with a shantytown at the top. As you descend into the “bowl”, the entire complexion of the city changes from shanty to exclusive residences. We made a stop at the Witches Market (Mercado de las Brujas) – on Calle Linares where the stores offer things like llama fetuses and dried frogs.

Traveling across Lake Titicaca

Our trip across Lake Titicaca was less than fun for me. Altitude sickness (probably brought on by our wine festival the night before) left me splattered across John’s lap the entire trip. My head felt like it was going to explode.
Road dog--feeling a bit like me....


The boat took us to the "Floating Islands" of the Uros. These ancient inhabitants of the Lake, known as the Water Tribe, have built their own "Islands" by periodically adding new layers of reeds unique to the area called "Totora". . Their homes and boats are also made from these reeds.

Thanksgiving Day in Sillustani

On Thanksgiving Day, we took a ride through the altiplano to Sillustani. We met an Indian family. And gave the woman and her young child the food we had with us—it felt like a real “Thanksgiving”.

Sillustani is a pre-Incan burial ground on the shores of Lake Umayo near Puno. The tombs, which are built above ground in tower-like structures called chillpas, are the vestiges of the Aymara people who were conquered by the Inca in the 1400s. The structures housed the remains of complete family groups.

Ancestor worship and kinship were integral parts of Aymara culture, and the chullpas were built to emphasize the connection between life and death. The insides of the tombs were shaped like a woman's uterus, and corpses were mummified in a fetal position to recreate their birth. Some of the tombs also had lizards carved into the stone. Because they could re-grow their tails, lizards were considered a symbol of life. The only openings to the buildings face east, where it was believed the sun was reborn by Mother Earth each day

From Cusco to Lake Titicaca

Taking the train from Cusco to Puno The trip travels through the Andean mountains and the valleys of the Huatanay River, through the Andean Plains.

We stayed in Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca on the alitplano of Peru.

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world (3,810 miles above sea level)

Machu Picchu

A 3 ½ hour train trip and a 30 minute bus trip took us to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was only rediscovered in 1911 by the American archaeologist Hiram Bingham. The ruins lie 1000 ft above the Urubamba river. Current researchers tend to believe that Machu Picchu was a country resort for elite Incans. At any given time, there were no more than 750 people living at Machu Picchu. It was a remarkably well hidden and well protected place. Located far up in the mountains, visitors had to travel up long valleys littered with Inca check points and watch towers. Remarkably, the Spanish conquistadors missed the site, and Bingham only located the site by chance. On a wet day in 1911, he traveled up the slopes with a few companions from his expedition. On meeting local peasants, they told him about ancient ruins that covered the area. To Bingham's amazement, he had found the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.

Exploring Cusco

One of the most amazing things you notice in Cusco are the Inca walls; enormous granite blocks carved to fit together perfectly without the aid of mortar. When the Spanish arrived, they simply built upon these walls when constructing their cites. While the Spanish colonial architecture has been rebuilt several times following a wave of earthquakes that have hit the city, the Inca walls have survived.

We toured Sacsayhuaman: (sounds like “sexy woman”) , a walled complex near the old city of Cusco. It was the site of the 1536 battle in which dozens of Pizarro's men charged uphill to battle the forces of the Inca.

Then it was on to Ollantaytambo (called by locals Ollanta), a town in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where the Incas retreated after the Spanish took Cuzco and Pisac. Pisac, another Inca fortress, has a strategic position overlooking the Rio Urubamba and two deep gorges and a mountain peak behind it.

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Flying over the Nazca Lines

We took a flight to Ica where we boarded a single engine plane to fly over the Nazca Lines. Nazca is located in the Nazca Desert- a high plateau between the towns of Nazca and Palpa. Known for the “Nazca Lines” –large depictions of animals and other designs etched into the surface by an ancient civilization (which reached its peak about 700 AD). The images included outlines of a monkey, a spider, something looking very much like a “spaceman” and an albatross. These images can only be viewed from the air.

The lines were not discovered until they were spotted from a plane in 1939. A German mathematician, Maria Reiche, spent most of her life studying the area and concluded that the Nazca lines formed part of a giant astronomical calendar. Another researcher, John Reinhard, concluded that they were sacred paths. Another researcher attributed them to “aliens”. Current thought is that, since many of the lines are oriented towards water sources, they are most likely routes to be walked upon as part of the ritual worship of water.

The flight over the lines was amusing. John was in the co-pilot seat of the plane and started talking to the pilot. In broken English/Spanish, he told the pilot that he, too, was a pilot. At that point, the pilot asked John if he’d like to fly the plane! As he turned around to look at me- with a huge grin- he saw that all of the other passengers in the plane were pulling out their barf bags! (Not because John was taking over the controls, but feeling nauseous from the banking of the plane. When we finally landed, one of the women was laid out on the picnic table- she was feeling very ill. We spent some time talking with an older man who was traveling Central and South America. He spoke no Spanish- but said that he never had a problem communicating—he would say the English word, add an “a” at the end, and pronounce it with a Spanish accent… We called him “Vam-ous Boose” for his story about catching a bus and telling the driver to go by saying “Vamous boose”.

Peru - Bolivia Route

From Boston to Lima

We landed in Lima, crashed for the evening and started the next day with a tour of the city.

We saw the Cathedral, the Plaza San Martin and the Plaza Mayor

(and John had his shoes polished by one of the local shoe shine boys).

The West Coast of Ireland

Scenery, scenery and more scenery
We saw the Ring of Kerry- one of the most visited tourist site in Ireland –and the tour buses abound- all traveling counter-clockwise.
The 650 foot high Cliffs of Moher

The Aran Islands

Time for the group experience. We headed to Galway where we were staying at a huge hotel and golf complex in Galway, Glenlo Abbey.

Our first day, we made a trip to the Aran Islands. A ferry took us to the Aran Island of Inis Mor (one of the 3 Aran Islands). There are only 2 roads on the island and not many tourists. We saw Dun Aengus, a prehistoric fortress dating back to 1000 BC, which is perched on the edge of a cliff plunging straight into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Peat Bogs of Shannonbridge

We had heard of the Clonmacnoise and West Offaly Railway Bog Tour in Shannonbridge. So, we made a detour and took the tour. A train takes you 6 miles through an active peat bog, where they are millling peat for the Shannonbridge Power Station. They singled John out to try his hand at cutting turf.

Our encounter with an Irish cow...

From Dublin to the Southern Coast

On our way to the southern coast, we had to make a pilgrimage to the replica of the Lourdes Shrine at Inchicore. A Catholic priest built the shrine in 1924 for those who couldn’t make the pilgrimage to Lourdes in France.

Waterford -- We took a tour of the Waterford factory- amazing to see the skill and complexity of creating this gorgeous glassware.

We stopped in Cork, (third largest city in Ireland) and had to see Beamish and Crawford brewery.

Dublin!

Dublin was wonderful—what an amazing city!

Dublin Castle

Church of the Holy Trinity

And the Pubs!

The Boyne Valley and Newgrange

The Boyne Valley has been described as "the largest and most important expression of prehistoric megalithic art in Europe". These sites were built over 5000 years ago between 3800 and 3200 BC, built before both Stonehenge in England and the pyramids in Egypt. Neolithic communities built these sites over earlier sacred spots and it is suspected that they were used for burial tombs, sacred temples and astronomical observatories.

The 5000 year old megalithic tomb (a passage-tomb) at Newgrange is the most impressive. Every winter solstice, the sun climbs over the horizon and illuminates the inner chamber for 17 minutes. The tomb was built with 200,000 tons of material with the top surface of the roof stones grooved to keep the passage water proof.

Derry (Londonderry)

We found the most amazing guide to show us the town of Derry. He gave us the history of Derry (also known as Londonderrry). It’s the second largest city in Northern Ireland and its history dates back over 1,450 years.

The city is split into two main areas by the River Foyle - The east side of the river -Waterside and west side of the Foyle- The City Side. The east side is traditionally the home of the unionist (read Protestant) population. The west side the home of the nationalist (read Catholic). The city walls were built in the reign of King James I and have been a major part of the turbulent history of the city. In 1668, the city was attacked by the Earl of Antrim and the forces of the Catholic, James II (who had been deposed in favor the William of Orange (a Protestant). The citizens of Londonderry- Protestants – barricaded themselves inside the walls, starting the Great Siege of Derry. The siege lasted 105 days and a third of the population died from disease and starvation. In recent years, British soldiers shot 14 Catholics in the Bogside area on a day known as Bloody Sunday.

The Giant's Causeway

We drove to the coast to the Antrim Coast to see The Giants Causeway, 40,000 basalt columns formed by volcanic action rising out of the sea.

The story goes that the Causeway was created by an Irish giant named Finn MacCoul. He and his rival, Benandonner, who lived in Scotland, would shout across the sea to each other. To prove his superior strength, Finn decided to fight his rival. He built a pathway of stepping stones from Ireland to Scotland, but was so exhausted by the work that he fell asleep on the causeway. When Benadonner came over to fight, his wife saw how large he was and placed a blanket over her sleeping husband. When Benadonner demanded to see Finn, she pointed to Finn sleeping under the blanket and said, “Be quiet or you’ll wake my baby”. Seeing how large Finn’s “baby” was, he had second thoughts about meeting his giant father and fled back to Scotland tearing up the causeway as he fled.

Boston to Belfast

We decided to leave a bit early for Ireland and explore the country on our own before John’s Club Trip. We landed at Shannon Airport, got our rental car and headed to Northern Ireland. The border check was a bit stressful, but not as difficult as we expected. We made our way into Belfast and found a gorgeous B&B in a row of brick row houses.

We had a wonderful walking tour of the city with a lovely Protestant woman who assured us that “The Troubles” were over. There was something nagging at us, so we took a drive to Belfast Castle.

The gardens were so lovely and as we enjoyed a glass of wine, we talked about what we had seen and heard that day. On one hand, this middle aged woman had given us the most wonderful view of her city- but we had been told that we needed to retrieve our car from the car park before 6 PM and saw a number of armored vehicles driving through the downtown streets. Asking a few more questions of the locals, we were directed to the Black Taxi parking area where we were told we might be able to get a tour of the Catholic part of town. (After experiencing our “white walking tour” in Charleston, SC – and then taking the “black bus” tour – we knew that this could be enlightening).
We found a charming taxi driver who gladly offered his services and we began our drive through the Catholic section of town on Falls Road.

The buildings were covered in murals with slogans like “Irish Soldiers of Freedom”. As we drove on, we saw the burnt remnants of a city bus—still smoldering. And, we heard the other side of the Belfast story.