Happy new year 5515! (aymara calendar)

Our next adventure led us to Tiwanacu, a very small village close to the Tiwanacu ruins. It was supposed to be a big inca party once the sun would rise on the 21 of June, the winter solstice in Bolivia.

The truth? We had a really good time in the main plaza listening to some local bands, dancing (Borja improved his style and will be very proud to show it to you) and meeting new people. So here it is: a big hello and thank you to Victor Hugo and his cousin, Arturo and his girlfriend, and... Shirley. Many more actually but I can't remember the names. Borja was really impressed by Arturo who gave him as a present his hat from the army. He is really determined to return the gift once he will get to a place with more personal things.

Probably we have learned more about the bolivian culture from this night than from the entire trip. Really good conversations and with lots of information with Victor Hugo, the first bolivian we met that is taller than 1,80!! We were impressed by all the knowledge he has about his culture and also by his behaviour towards his friends. We really think he is a great guy!!

At 6 o'clock in the morning everybody went to where the ruins were, close to The Sun Gate, reaching out our hands towards the sky to receive the first rays of sun of the new aymara year. I was blessed by an inca priest and more or less felt it was one of the greatest encounters we had so far with the bolivian culture.

The sad part was at the end of the ceremonies where a friend of a friend of the people in the group decided to explain some things to us and take us on a tour of the ruins (we really thought he just needed to go to the bathroom). At the end of the tour, he said that we had to pay him a certain amount for being a guide to us. I hated it because we thought he was there just for the sake of it and we really tried to show him our gratitude. In the end we left really shocked without paying anything of course. It's people like that that make you think again and be more cautious in everything you do.

Refering to the previous days, because life is not only party... Coroico, our destination in the Death Road was a really nice village, incredibly small but with lots of hostals with swimming pool. We enjoyed our stay there and tried to realx after the killer road to death. Ate a lot, visit some nearby cascades and then went back to La Paz in a tiny minibus. More than 15 people with children and bags crowded in a much too small palce for our knees.

But anyway, we reached La Paz, registered again into our comfortable room of 2,5 eur per person and enjoyed even more some relaxing sessions in La Paz's best restaurants. I have to mention our visit to 4 museums and the hilarious card games in the hostal's terrace. Spanish people really like to bet!!!

Curently we are another time in La Paz (our base camp) and leaving tomorrow in the moning to the Lake Titicaca. In a few days we will probably get to Peru where everything will be a bit more expensive again.

Kisses to Iosu and thank you for everything! It was great travelling with you, and not only for the food :)