buenos aires en Buenos Aires and no - I WASN´T ON THAT TRAIN !

 fotos buenos aires

I have been there for 6 days, and at the beginning I thought it would be too long,

( nice "european" port city)

but on second day I realized how wrong was the statement...I discovered San Telmo district...with all its all-about-tango places, spontaneous tango dancing on a street, a lot of music ( not tango only) and the best empanadas !

than there was also calle Caminito - painted with the leftovers from the shipyard ( btw the most beautiful leftovers ever I think)

and one day kayaking trip on the Delta, where my camera died...
but it was nice

 jungle trail bis 

and more tango !

I also had my very sexy argentinian teacher, who was not born in the 80's,  but definitely had sth in common with this number :)

Buenos was muy bueno, but I will be home...soon...very soon  ;)

Argentina with no mobile

Iam in Argentina where I rushed in order to  spent very short, but intense time with my spanish girlfriends Carmen y Ester - it was great !

now I am heading from the north of Argentina to Buenos Aires, but with no rush - enjoying what I get on a way ( e.g. after finishing interneting in this cyber cafe I will rent a bike and have a wine trip nearby as I am in Cafayate - argentininan wine region....jejej :) )

I don´t have any mobile here, and internet access is suprisingly similar to the bolivian one ( e.g. yesterday there was no internet due to the storm - not that big in my opinion )

It is a real summer over here ! 25-30C and warm nights...mmmm.....:)

big kiss
Maya 
 

Cochabamba - without any intentions to be here

last week was not the very luckiest one...it started with a sad good-bye to my hard drive, than followed with a very  promising Sorata excursion ( green mix of tropics and mountains) which ended up with a severe mosquito bites, necesity to apply strong antialergic pills, lots of suffering and putting myself in a difficult trial of the "strong will" - how not to scratch  when it f**** hurts so much ? 
I have never ever had bites like that - OFFrepellent helps...just a little bit !! ... so , despite all beauty of Sorata, we were gone after two ichy nights...and the first night after arival everybody had to drug himself strongly in order to fall asleep...that was a long long night...and than I decided to split with my Chilean companions with whom I spent last two weeks and find my way down to Argentina ( as I was supposed to be there a week ago) so...I bought a ticket for the night bus from La Paz ( my 5th time in this city) to Potosi  ( to see some mines ) , I arrive at the bus station, and... f**** déjà vu !
"No buses will leave today - strikes and road barricades"
" ! when will they leave ? "
" Can't tell, tomorrow, in two -three days, it used to be a week last time"
With all the love I have to Bolivia I do really hate their way to do politics !
quick decision - and I took the last minute bus to Cochabamba ( a place a don't like at all ) to take  another Bus to Sucre, and another one to Potosi ( all together - instead of 10h sth around 22h plus time in between the buses  - which in the present case is 6h between Cocha and Sucre)  anyways... I am trying to stay positive  - using this time to update my internet accounts and I hope to get to Potosi at some point this week from there to Tarija , and than all the way down to Argentina...

Puno-Copacabana-Tiwanaku and finally La paz...again

PUNO - COPACABANA PICS

After Machu Picchu I did a traditional Titi Kaka route  through Puno, Copacabana, Isla del Sol a La Paz.
Puno ( still Peru) is known for the floating islands, which were very beautiful but too touristy...there are 44 artificial islands made of floating reeds, where  300 families live, suffering from rheumatism, lack of higene and lack of life choices. We spoke with one guy who at the beginning welcomed us with a warm smile in his colorful uniform and started a chat " how proud I am to be Uros living in this beautiful island", but when profoundly interviewed by a curious guy from Madrid and me he admitted that this life is not a life at all , he doesn´t want it to his children and he would love to settle down on a firm land, but he can not afford it.....as sad as that is the reality of one of the main attractions of Peru.

I didn´t spend much time in Puno, I went to Copacabana where I was lucky to be exactly  when there was some kinf of Mother Virgin Celebration and city was filled with dancing cholitas, people dressed as dragons, music bands and beer ....

 I was very tired...but I couldn´t miss it ! there is a video when I (with all my gringoness ) am dancing together with 50 or so traditionaly dressed cholitas. One of them became my official master and was showing me steps, speaking sth in quechua which I couldn´t understand and finally afterwards gave me a sip of the "artist´s beer" .... it was fun !

I also visited   Isla del Sol, and I am actually thinking of comming back , as it is a paradise ! I went there alone, which was a little bit sad - no people with whom to share its beauty - but I took my music with me and it was an awesome idea! for the first time, since I don´t know when, I was listening to my jazzy - funky instead of cumbia, reggaeton, salsa or other south american stuff...really nice feeling...

All of the above sounds very good....axcept of the fact that in beautiful Copacabana I lost most of my digital personality ...my photo memorries from my trip...as my hard drive was stolen ! because of the f**** quality of internet connection in Bolivia I didn´t upload much ...basically just the stuff that is on a blog...so I found lack of my hardrive in mu bag as a total disaster, and was really sad about it, but than I remembered some buddist statements and words of the shaman from La Paz , who after loosing one of the feathers he was supposed to use in his mountain cerremony didn´t start to complain or worry, but  said calmly " If I lost it it means it was ment to be "...remembering this attitude I felt really much better and started taking new pics.
There are fortunately some people who have coppy of some of my pics I asked them to send me what they have and with their help I hope to be able to prepare you a slide show when I come back....keep your fingers crossed.
Right now I am in La Paz...again :)
I visited Tiwanaku which I wanted to visit for a long time - great dissapointment, and Valle de la Luna - which was much better than I thought it would be.