lake tagged posts

Chichicastenango and Atitlan Lake

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At the same time I thought Guatemala was very “Americanized”, I give a good compliment to Guatemalans on the way they respect the indigenous culture and traditions. A great example of that is Chichicastenango town, or Chichi as they say in Guatemala. So, I decided to go a tour to the market that takes place there every Thursday and Sunday.

The market is very colorful, it reminded me Otavalo (Ecuador) ou Tarabuco (Bolivia). They sell almost everything but handcraft is their main business. It is a good place to buy travel gifts; their clothes and souvenirs are beautiful.  The bargain is obligatory here, if you don’t bargain, there is no fun. On the tour, I met Claudio, a Chilean mountaineer, who was my company to the bargain afternoon. We formed a “team” do ask for better prices and late afternoon we were experts on that art.

Cláudio com a bolsa que comprou para sua irmã, depois de uma tarde de pechincha…

Another stop of the day was the Santo Tomás church, a mix of a Cathol...

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Gruta do Lago Azul and Bonito Aventura

After a 24h trip I got in Bonito really tired. I spent the afternoon in the pool sunbathing, something that becomes precious when you live in Europe.

On my second day I went to visit the “Gruta do Lago Azul”, 18km from town. I got Edson’s moto-taxi to get there. These taxi by motorcycle are very popular in Bonito. In the cave I met a group of students from Dourados, a city in Mato Grosso do Sul. I thought it was funny their curiosity towards me. I think all of them asked me where I came from. Some would get impressed.

The cave is beautiful. After going down about 400 meters we arrived at the “Blue Lake”. The clear water made possible to see the stones on the bottom. I liked to observe everybody wispering: “How beautiful!” or “It is really blue!”, “The water is so clear!”

The afternoon tour was Bonito Aventura, about 4 km from town. There I met the manager, Janaina, who explained me the tour. We tried on the wet suit and sandals...

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Travel through Bolivia 2001

Bolivia

See the posts on Bolivia


View Viagens Errante / Errante’s Travels in a larger map

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Copacabana and Lake Titicaca

After some weeks blocking the roads to Copacabana, farmers decided to open the roads for 10 days, as a negotiation period. I arrived in the city late afternoon; I left my backpack in the hotel and went to see the sunset in the Titicaca lake. Beutiful, relaxing…

Next day, I made a boat tour to the islands. First we visit the north part of Isla del Sol, it was two and a half hours by boat. We had only two hours to visit the place, it was not much time. One option would be  to walk quickly to the ruins or second, to enjoy the landscape photographing but not seeing everything. I opted for the second.

From there we went by boat to the central part of the island, where there is an etymologic museum. A complete waste of time. The museum had almost nothing and it took 45min to get there by boat. Then took us one more hour by boat to go to Isla la Luna. There we walked quickly to the ruins, we took photos and it was already time to go back...

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Puno and Titicaca Islands

I arrived in Puno early in the morning after a 12 hour bus trip from Arequipa. I went straight to look for transport to the Titicaca Islands. I had lunch and went back to the hotel wait for some Brazilian friends who were supposed to meet me there. It would be the first time that someone “from home” would meet me. They, Jeferson and Carol, arrived in that afternoon. They were late in their itinerary due to the farmer’s strikes in Bolivia. They decided not to visit the islands and go straight to Cuzco. We had diner, then they got the bus.

Next day I depart in a two-day tour to the islands. First we visited an Uro island. Casually the island was called Santa Maria, the same name of my hometown. It is very small and all made with reed. They first put the reed roots and then the dried reed. As the time goes by the roots are growing and gives resistance to the “ground”...

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Cuicocha

Again, I went to see the open market in Otavalo. From there I decided to visit the Cuicocha lake. I caught a bus up to a small town called Cotacachi; from there I got a taxi to Cuicocha. The name of the lake is due to the fact that in the region there is a lot of “cui”. Cui means guinea pig and cocha, lake in Quechua. At an altitude of 3070 meters and a depth of 180m, the lake was formed in the crater of a volcanic eruption. It stored water in its interior and has an island in the middle.

I did a boat tour to go around the island. It didn’t take long but it was worthwhile to see the wall of the volcano from inside. I could see water bubbles from gases that come up from the depths. The color of the water, sometimes dark blue, other dark green, makes the landscape to be a good excuse do go all the way there. It gives a great peaceful feeling.


 


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