Happy Thanksgiving

-pobre pavo-

Mr. Bobby

Sometimes I dream about reality
Sometimes I feel so gone
Sometimes I dream about a wild wild world
Sometimes I feel so lonesome

Hey Bobby Marley
Sing something good to me
This world go crazy
It's an emergency

Tonight I dream about fraternity
TONIGHT I say: one day!
One day my dreams will be reality
Like Bobby said to me

Hey Bobby Marley
Sing something good to me
This world go crazy
It's an emergency

Hey Bobby Marley
Sing something good to me
This world go crazy
It's an emergency...

Tonight I watch through my window
And I can't see no lights
Tonight I watch through my window
And I can't see no rights

Tiwanaku

The ancient, ruined city of Tiwanaku is an hour away from La Paz.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works ye mighty and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

        -- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Stone Carvings
The wall of faces

A collection of faces, ancient and worn

An inca wall...

Pongo

They raise trout in Pongo and there are a number of stalls that fix up trout meals. I have only gone to stand 21 because I like the trout here very much. Alex, a road worker building the new Cumbre- Santa Barabara Highway confirmed that he has been to many of the different stalls but that the food in stall 21 is by far the best. After hikes in the Cotapata National Park, a meal of Trout, Rice and Potatoes with a Coca Tea is a fine lunch.


Stall 21


The mountains above Pongo

The CotaPata Cloud Forest

Behind the Cotapata Petrol Station, there is an old road that leads to an extensive trail system through a beautiful cloud forest. Thanks to Sjoerd Mayer for the description of the trail.

Indeed, at the end of the trail there is a small gold panning operation as well as a number of old mine shafts. There is also an abundance of bird life but which requires a great deal of patience to find and observe as the vegetation is very thick and because the birds often travel in mixed species flocks. This means that most of the time there will not be any birds in sight and then all of a sudden, as a mixed species flock moves through, the trees are filled with individuals of many different species. At this point, it is challenging to fix on one bird and concentrate on that bird to pick out some identifying features.

On the hike, toucans, tanagers, tufftedcheeks, thistletails and warblers were observed. Sign of the Andean Spectacled Bear was also found.

The good things about the cloud forest are the adundance of ferns, mosses, orchids, bamboos and other plant life. In turn, this diversity of plant life encourages a diversity of animal life. The downside of the cloud forest is that this diversity is due to the large amount of rain, fog and moisture in the air. The best way to deal with the clouds and rain is to set out early in the morning before the clouds build up and when the visibility is high...


Fern Detail


A cloud forest butterfly


Ferns growing in the branches of a tree

A fallen leaf on a landslide


A forest lily
A new fern leaf extending itself

The cloud forest

None cut fern leafs


Another type of fern and its new-growth pattern

Cloud forest flowers
Cloud forest ferns

Cloud forest bamboo plant

Tradition Costume and Dance Groups Come to La Paz and Parade through the Center of the City

They danced down Camacho and put on their best show in front of the grandstands by the old zoo. Paceña was the sponser so there was plenty of beer to keep the judges and the dancers going. The costumes were amazing, the music was hypnotizing and the dances were were a spectacle.

The lower trail in panorama

A tropical storm forming over the valley

Descending into the lowlands


The steps on the Subida del Diablo, one of the best sections of the trail.

The lowland section of the trail

The third section of the trail descends into the tropical forest zone. There are a great deal of microhabitats here with sheltered gullies being very humid and lush and exposed slopes often dry and fire-prone. Plant and animal life here is quite diverse.
A tropical river gorge

A suspension bridge at the end of the trail. This bridge was in the town of Chairo and is the end terminus of the trail.
The Matapalo... stranglerfig. The tree grew from the upper brances of the host tree down and eventually killed the host tree.

Ferns

The trail winding through thick, tropical vegetation. There were many species of birds along this section of the trail including toucans, tanagers and barbets.


A yellow flower growing in the moist soil along a streambank....

Walking into a hamlet, eager for shade


A house on a bend in the trail. There were not many houses but most of them has a small store and we bought a coke or cookies to leave some cash with the subsistence farmers along the trail.... one thing that was frustrating was seeing how many of them did their field burning in a very irresponsible way and the fires often got out of control and spread across the mountainsides....

This section of the trail was cut straight out of the rocky mountainside

A trail descending into the rinconada

M on a suspension bridge

Johnny heating up the chuños

A fist-sized, live land snail. Found among ferns. Slimy

A tree fern in front of the valley

A lush carpet of small ferns

A hidden brook descending one of the gullies

entering a village surrounded by banana and coffee