Mancora, Peru

Mancora, Peru slideshow

It was soooo nice to walk on the sand, smell the salty air and watch the pelicanos fly over my head in Mancora. The beach definitely gives me the feeling of freedom, a sense that very little is needed for happiness. Sun, a bikini, sandals, a piece of cloth to wrap around the waist, and a fish meal.

The Loki Hostel is also great, with its blue swimming pool, lively bar and some familiar faces I've seen else where in Bolivia and Peru. Four days were enough for a good rest, some yoga, and lots of sun.I also felt like I was part of a big family of travelers, hanging out at the beach with people I had met before, going out for lunch together with new friends for a day or two.

The party at Loki never seems to end either, which does not leave any room for feeling too lonely. I wish they had Loki's everywhere in the planet. Peter is also at the other end of skype everyday, a witness to my travels, soon to join me. And the travels go on. Tomorrow I cross another border....Ecuador!

Lima, Peru

Lima, Peru slideshow

Lima was nothing like the dangerous, dirty and ugly city I had imagined to be. My overnight stay at Miraflores was very pleasant. I enjoyed the good restaurants, cafes and busy sidewalks. The beach was only a few blocks away from where I was staying, but the weather was cold and I was not too much in a mood for big cities. Twenty-four hours was enough for me to get a taste of it and the almost two hours to get out of town on rush-hour made me think I never want to live in a big city again. The many attractions and distractions are nice but after being in small towns for so long, I seem to like them much better. So, bye bye Lima, off to the north coast of Peru.

Machu Picchu and Huaynapicchu, Peru

Machu Picchu and Huaynapicchu slideshow

On day four of our Jungle Trail Trekking, we got up at 3:30am and by 3:40am, the group was ready to go at the lobby of our hotel at Aguas Calientes. We walked in the dark out of town, took the bridge on our left and headed out to the road that lead to Machupicchu. The buses take that road, but the first one only leaves at 5:30am, too late to get one of the 400 tickets allowed into Huaynapicchu. Of course everyone in my group wanted to hike Huaynapicchu in addition to visiting Machupicchu, so we had to leave earlier and walk our way up.

But we didn't take the road. Instead, we took a shortcut, stairs up through the road, on a vertical angle, straight up, for one hour and twenty minutes. At least this is the time it took me. Most people in my group did it in less time than that. Although it was still before dawn, my shirt was so drenched with sweat that I could squeeze it. My heart pounded to scary fast beats and I cursed myself for the beer and lime Vodka I had the night before. I also did not have any water on me. I was never this unprepared for the road...

When I got there, I joined my group in line to get in. It was 5:20am and we still had more than half an hour before the park opened. We all got tickets to Huaynapicchu, another one and a half hours of vertical climb up the mountain. Most of us stayed for the tour of Machupicchu with a guide assigned to us, and then headed out to Huaynapicchu.

But before I had to get something to drink to hydrate myself from all the salts I lost in the morning. Gatorate at the restaurant was US$5, quite a lot compared to the already inflated price of US$2 at Aguas Calientes. Water was a better deal at US$3.50 for a tiny bottle. I had to pay for being unprepared. It is always possible to get drinks from locals selling them everywhere on the road and trekking in Peru, so I thought it would not be any problem finding it everywhere. But this is Machupicchu, so it was controlled by licensed franchise.

Although I had been wanting to go to Peru and Machupicchu since my early twenties, as I entered its main door, I realized I never really read about the history of the place. I vaguely thought of it as a lost Inca Empire, complete with administrative, religious people, and populated by common folks as well as leaders. But this is not the case – only the elite class was allowed to live in the place.

Machupicchu (old mountain) was built by the Inca Pachacutec, the greatest statesman in Tahuantinsuyo, who governed from 1438 to 1471. During the Inca empire, Machupicchu was used as a ceremonial site, used by royals as a retreat and sanctuary. Only an estimated 1,000 or so people actually lived there at any given time, including royals, priests, and workers who probably had separate quarters. Virgin woman and llamas were used as sacrifice.

Machupicchu contained about 200 building, including storage buildings, temples, houses and observatories. The temples were build in such a way that they could observe the movement of the sun. The place was also strategic to observe the stars. It covered about half a square mile. Three areas were created for agriculture, urban living, and religious purposes. The buildings were created without mortar. The stones are locked together so well that even thin knife blades can not fit between them. It was terraced for agriculture, with crops grown at different elevations.
Machupicchu was mysteriously abandoned only about 100 years after it was built, and by the time of the Spanish conquest of Cuzco in 1534, the site was largely abandoned and thus drew little attention from the Spaniards. The roads then became overgrown as did the buildings, and the entire site was lost to the world for four centuries.

The explanations are many, but it may simply be explained by the death of Pachacutec and the construction of a new 'royal estate' for the next Inca, as was the custom. Other scholars suggest that the city's water supply may have dried up. By the way, I was impressed to see water collected in carefully designed canal, carved for 5 kilometers from its source in the mountains to the citadel. As I entered Machupicchu, I was also surprised by the lack of artifacts. Abandoned for four centuries, Hiram Bingham, a doctor in philosophy and history at Yale University, discovered it in the early 1900's. All of the artifacts found on site at the time were transferred to a museum at Yale. As per
agreement reached recently between the Peruvian and American government, they will be returned to the Peruvian government.

The hike up Huaynapicchu (young mountain) was hard, but rewarding. We saw Machupicchu from up there, and enjoyed the cool fresh air, views of the mountains, and the bridge we crossed from Aguas Calientes. The Incas chose the spot for Machupicchu really well. Surrounded by mountains, with access to water, lush jungle and river right below, with very few points of entry, allowed privacy and security. The energy of the place is very intense and peaceful. Hiro, a Japanese fellow hiker kept saying he didn't want to leave and I understood.

At the end of the day we were exhausted. The train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo was at 6pm and we were picked up there at 8pm. We didn't arrive in Cuzco until almost 10pm. After a long shower, I slept like an angel.

Jungle Trail to Machu Picchu, Peru

Jungle Trail to Machu Picchu slide show

There were 16 of us in the van, plus the guides and driver, heading out for a four days Inca Jungle Trail to Machupicchu. We had the bikes on top of the van and traveled for almost four hours to the top of the mountain, at San Luis, after a quick stop at Ollantaytambo.

San Luis is at 10,240 feet, and 50 miles, five hours bike ride down to Santa Maria, at 4,500 feet where we spent the night. Most of the road was asphalted with only the last hour on bad gravel road full of large rocks, that left my butt sore for a few days. The views were fantastic as we changed from Andean cold weather to jungle, sticky, lush and mosquito land at the lower altitude. The last time I was in this low in altitude, was at the Pantanal, Brazil, and it was a reminder that my days around the Andes are almost over. I will miss the mountains, but not the freezing nights and trouble breathing in a few places.

The bike ride reminded me of the way from La Paz to Coroico. By the way, a similar bike ride was offered there which I considered, but did not do. It was nice that I had another chance at experiencing a 6,000 feet drop in altitude, among majestic mountains, while witnessing it all on top of the bike saddle.

The next morning we split up in two groups of eight people each, and walked from Santa Maria to Santa Teresa,meeting up with the other group for breaks, lunch and sometimes along the road. We went up and down steep hills, walked through banana, mangoes, and coca plantations. The hammock break after lunch at Qellomayo was all we needed for a snooze before heading out again along Rio Vilcanota (same as Urubamba – the river changes its name along the way) towards Colcamayo hot springs. Ahhh, these relaxing hot springs are heavenly, specially after so much walking.

Cuzco, Peru

Cuzco slideshow

The Lonely Planet travel guide may be wrong about many things but I think it describes Cuzco well. “Once the foremost city of the Inca Empire, now the undisputed archaeological capital of the Americas as well as the continents oldest continuously inhabited city, but there is no question of who rules the roost now: the city's economy is almost totally at the whim of international tourists, and every second building surrounding the Plaza de Armas is a restaurant, shop and hotel.:

The weather was very nice when I got to Cuzco: sunny and hot during the day and a little chilly at night and early morning. My hostel was in a constant party it seemed. It played cool music until late hours of the night, had a full bar and a restaurant, plenty of movies and day activities, hammocks in the yard...lots of people to do things with and a travel desk that organized day trips and longer trekking. It was a good place to hang out for a while and forget that I was a tourist.

So I walked around town, saw many churches from the outside, like Iglesia de Santo Domingo, a huge complex off Avenida del Sol. On my way to the market where I often had fresh squeezed juices and ceviche, I passed in front of Iglesia San Francisco, Arco de Santa Clara, Iglesia de San Pedro. But I didn't fell inspired to go inside any of them. Instead, I just walked around the streets feeling the strong sun while walking on narrow cobblestone streets, built between massive Inca walls. Despite all the commercialization, I could feel Cuzco's rich past entering my veins. I just wanted to walk and walk during the day and at night join the party at Loki's, get a nice meal, surf the Internet and prepare physiologically for the four days Jungle Trail Trekking to Machupicchu I booked through the travel desk. Thus I spent three days in Cuzco, just about doing nothing but hanging out.

Colca Canyon Trekking, Peru

Colca Canyon Trekking slideshow

After viewing condors at Cruz del Condor, we headed to Canaconde, 20 minutes away. After lunch we hit the trail. Right outside town, a 15 minutes walk, we saw pre-Incan stepped terraces where mainly corn, barley, potatoes and beans are cultivated. Mules are used for transportation as well as for cultivating the soil, so we saw these peaceful looking animals all over the place carrying goods, people, or helping out in the fields. We passed several villages along the massive mountains, with lots of ups and downs and some flat ways, where only people and animals could go. Sometimes the road was so narrow that we had to put one foot after the other. I was amazed to see how the mules navigated this difficult terrain.

The local people still maintain ancestral traditions, so we saw women dressed traditionally, with embroiled dresses and flowery hats. The great majority had a large piece of colorful cloth wrapped around their neck in a backpack of sorts where they carried children, potatoes, clothes, sometimes animals and anything else they needed to transport. This was a common sight in Bolivia as well among the campesinas.

The altitude at Cabanaconde is 11,483 feet and during the first day we descended to San Juan de Chuccho at 7,218 feet. It was only a three-hour walk but by the time we got to the hospedaje, Marc, Rachel and myself were beat out. We ordered a liter of beer each, ate our dinner of vegetable soup and mixed vegetables with rice and hit the bed. The next morning we slept in until 7am, had a breakfast of coca tea, bread with butter and jam, potato fritters. We were ready to head out to the swimming pool at the “Oasis” at the pueblo of Sangale by 7:30am. We had been seeing the Oasis from up the mountain from most of the way the previous day, so we had great expectations of getting there.

On our way from San Juan de Chuccho to Sangale, we passed through the villages we saw as little dots from the distance, when we started from the top of the mountain on our first day. Tapay, Cosnirhua and Malata are pueblos of about 20 people each and besides living of agriculture and tourism, they produce great tasting honey. This side of the mountain was also greener than the Cabanaconde side. We walked through canals that captured the water coming down from melted snow on the top of the mountain. I was amazed to see the abundance of water in this dry month, and how lush the area is.

We saw a lot of agave, the plant used to make tequila in Mexico. The national drink here in Peru is pisco, made from grapes. Luis, our guide, also showed us cochineal, a traditional red dye. This precious dyestuff is obtained not from a plant, but from an insect whose life mission is to suck on a cactus. Luis picked a few of these bugs from a cactus plant and squeezed one on his hand, turning it into a rich red color. Apparently, this dye is exported to several countries.

We got to the Oasis around 11am and although it was only a 3:30 hours walk we were exhausted when we hit the pool. It felt really good to stretch the calf muscles in the water, sunbathe and rest all day. The following day we would need a whole different set of muscles going up the hill. Good thing we have so muscles to use. The calf ones surely needed a rest.

The next day we got up at 5am and climbed almost a mile up the hill (4,593 feet - from 6,890 feet back to 11,483 feet.) It was a heart throbbing three-hour hike back up to Cabanaconde and I must admit that during the last 10 minutes I accepted an offer to hop on a mule. If I had to walk, it would have taken me 30 to 45 minutes. Even taking the mule ride,I was so tired afterward that I could hardly breath. The thinner air in Cabanconde did not help.

By 9:30 am we were finished with breakfast and headed to Chivay for La Calera hot springs, lunch, and back to Arequipa. On the way, we viewed volcanoes Ampato and Chucura, 20,630 feet and 17,580 feet consecutively,among others. We also saw alpacas grazing on the fields and more stepped terraces, beautiful ones. By the way, alpaca meat is a lot tender than llama, and the Peruvian folks only eat alpaca, while the Bolivians eat llamas. I liked the taste of alpaca much more than llama.

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but could not partake in the festivities of August 15th in town. Today is the birthday of Arequipa, and although I saw the festivities on television, I could not get out of bed after a long hot shower. Bedtime was at 9pm.

But the following day I met up with Paul for lunch. He took me to a very nice traditional restaurant where I had rocoto relleno - stuffed hot peppers with alpaca meat in a nice stew of onion, potatoes and raisins, accompanied by grilled potatoes with cheese. Was that yummy! Then one last look at the city's view from the mirador, a walk around the neighborhoods and off to Cuzco.

Colca Canyon, Peru

Colca Canyon slideshow

I got up at 3am and by 8:00am we arrived at Cruz del Condor, a major viewing place for the birds. Starting at 8:30am, as the weather got warmer, and the place got filled with tourists and souvenir merchants, dozens of condors flew over the canyon and our heads. In this particular spot, where thermal water rise warming the air for the condors, the canyon is not so deep. But in other parts, it reaches almost 10,469 feet, making it the second deepest canyon in the world. The first is also in Peru, only a few miles away in Canon de Cotahuasi.

It was quite a site to see some of the birds flying at very close range to where the view points are. Some flew over us, beyond the canyon, allowing us a great photo opportunity.

At 9:30am we headed to Cabanaconde, and after lunch we started a three day trekking into the canyon and out of it. My group was small. It consisted of a couple from London: Marc and Rachel, our guide, his girlfriend and me. So, after lunch, we got our walking sticks and our backpacks and headed out to the mountains.

Arequipa and Yura Termas, Peru

Arequipa slideshow

I knew Arequipa was a sophisticated colonial city with interesting architecture, lots of museums , monasteries, nightlife, good restaurants, fast Internet and a land of active volcanoes, thermal springs and the world's deepest canyons.

But during my first days here I dragged as I walked around town and visited Monasterio Santa Catalina. This is a citadel within a city, occupying a whole block, founded in 1579, less than 40 years after the Spanish arrived. The place housed cloistered nuns. Visiting their living quarters reminded me of Zen practice. Constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone quarried locally. I am sure the bright colors painted over the stone are recent. The living quarters of the nuns were stark and practical, with many of them having a stove with burning wood to make bread. The monastery is so big that it contains streets, fruit filled plazas, courtyards, visiting rooms, a cemetery and chapels. The place was founded by a wealthy widow, Mary of Gussman and at one point, even Flora Tristan, Paul Gaugin's grandmother lived at the monastery for some time. But it is my understanding that the nuns had servants, so there is a little difference from Zen Buddhist practice, where work is part of the practice. And although frequent meditation cloister practitioners for days, Zen practice is more life positive.


Maybe I was feeling so tired because of the drop in altitude of over 4,500 feet in a day, as Arequipa is a lot lower than Copacabana. Or it could be that the unmineralized bottled water I have been drinking was finally catching up with me. To be on the safe side, I took one whole day to do nothing but surf, eat and sleep. The next day I bought six packets of minerals that I added to my bottled water. And, although harder to find, a couple of brands of real mineral water exists here, so I hoarded a few bottles when I found them.

Even though I was tired, Paul, a Couchsurfing member,who I have been corresponding with, was able to drag me out of my hotel one evening, for a couple of rounds of pisco sour, a drink of grape spirits, egg white, lime, sugar, crashed ice and cinnamon. It is more delicious than it sounds and it does taste a lot like caipirinha. The ingredients are more or less the same minus the egg white and cinnamon. And for caipirinha, cachaca, made of sugar cane is used, instead of pisco. Paul and I walked around town, sat a local bar and had conversations about volcanoes, hot springs and our personal lives. He showed me San Francisco church with its unique bare brick arches and we strolled around stately Plaza de Armas' distinctive volcanic stonework buildings.

On my fourth day here I hit Yura Termas, a hot springs an hour from Arequipa. The water was so bubbly it felt like I was bathing in champagne. There is a hotel with a restaurant at the springs so I had a nice lunch and then headed back to Arequipa.

Copacabana and Isla de Sol, Bolivia

Copacabana and Isla del Sol slideshow

It was good that there was an empty seat on the bus from La Paz to Copacabana, right on the first row. I like traveling up front, and besides, Sigrid, a woman in her thirties, from Austria, who had the window seat, seemed as eager to hook up with a travel companion as I was. After spending four days by myself in Coroico and going back to La Paz to find out that Antonio, my host, was gone traveling, I was ready for company.

In Copacabana, Sigrid and I shared a hotel room by Lake Titicaca's beach, where the joint was inappropriately named Hotel Brisas de Titicaca. Given the strong winds and cold we experienced at night, the name did not evoke the soft ocean breeze one would expect from it. And the place was not nearly as glamorous as the name indicates, but we still had fun during the cold nights, watching pirated videos on my computer. These videos are sold all over South America for less than a dollar, and although I am a little ashamed to buy them, I must say they come quite handy in a distant dusty town with no movie theater and not much else to do in the evening.

The trip from La Paz to Copacabana was very nice and eventful as the bus, along with ourselves, had to cross the lake on ferries. Our boat's motor failed mid trip and we had to change to another one. But the views were astonishingly beautiful from the boat. Once back on firm land,views of Lake Titicaca continued to follow us for a good hour. At an elevation of 11,460 feet, 177 miles long and 75 miles wide, the lake is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world and it extends over to Peru.

After a failed attempt to have breakfast in the morning,we went to the the lake's shore to catch a ferry to the north part of Isla del Sol. Strangely enough, most Cafes were closed at 8am, when ferries expect passengers to be at the dock by 8:15am. The only Cafe opened was attended by a woman who looked and acted in her 80s and beyond. She kept forgetting our orders and getting them mixed up. After a fifteen minute wait, we figured we would never get our orange juice in time to catch the ferry.

It took the ferry two hours to get to the north side of Isla del Sol and I thought we would freeze on the upper deck of the boat as little flocks of snow hit us. But soon enough we arrived, and after a moderately strenuous four hours walk, we descended Escalera de Inca (Inca Stairway) to catch our ferry back to Copacabana from the the south part of the island.

The Island of the Sun is the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology and today, it has a population of about 5,000 people, distributed among several villages. Although the ruins were rather disappointing, the views of the lake from the mountain ridge were phenomenal. The high altitude made the walk a little harder than it should have been, and in the afternoon we were blessed with soft sun rays that later proved more fierce than we felt. When we looked at the mirror at the end of the day, I had a sun tan and Sigrid looked like a skunk with white marks around her eyes where the sun glasses covered.

After a meal of charcoal grilled trout from the lake and vegetables, we were ready for another movie and deep sleep. The next day I left for Arequipa, Peru, and Sigrid was going to take the day to relax before her four days journey back to Vienna.

Coroico, Bolivia

Coroico slideshow

The road from La Paz to Coroico was impressive, as we dropped over 3,000 feet in less than 100 miles. We traveled through snow dotted peaks, oceans of clouds, on a narrow road exposing deep precipices below us.

It was sunny and hot when we arrived at 1:30pm on Monday! After checking on my list of hotels from Lonely Planet and finding out that some were full, local ladies directed me to Hotel Paraiso. I was shown a corner suite with sweeping views of the mountains, TV and a very comfortable double bed for a reasonable price. The swimming pool was large enough for laps and very clean. The best part was that I was the ONLY guest! I was going to stay only for one or two days, but ended up staying four days. I discovered I still needed to rest from my cold and my lungs were happy with the lower altitude. It was also a nice break from the budget hotels I have been staying at. I did yoga for the first time since Brazil, and swam topless and happily everyday - my bikini got stolen in Chaqui and I could not find a replacement yet.

Coroico is a resort town for Bolivians and foreigners in need to take a break from the cold weather and high altitude in La Paz (11,500 feet high) and it is indeed hard to break away from the place. Surrounded by mountains, banana, tangerine and coffee plantations, I woke up everyday with chayatas, (a wild white bird the size of a small chicken) singing. Then I did yoga before breakfast and when the sun got very hot mid morning, it was time for a swim. Sometimes I went into town for a stroll in the afternoon, or I just read in bed enjoying the sun on my body. But the trip had to go on, so I finally left August 6th, Thursday, Bolivian independence day at 1pm.

La Paz, Bolivia

La Paz slideshow

It was perfect that Antonio, my host in La Paz, is the owner of a vegetarian restaurant right in the heart of town, off Avenida Prado. I took the train from the Salar de Uyuni to Oruru at midnight. It was a very comfortable ride. The train was heated, blankets, sandwiches and tea were offered and by 7am we were arriving at the train station. But Oruru, another high altitude place, was very cold, and by the time I arrived in La Paz the next day (it is three hours away) I had a bad cold.

Antonio made me tangerine, orange, lemon, ginger, cinnamon tea and gave me pieces of ginger to chew on for my cold. And besides the wonderful vegetarian food of local potatoes (there are over 200 types of potatoes in the Andes, and I was told it was the Incas who planted them first), salads, soups and main dishes, there was the protein-rich pancake for breakfast, made of roasted quinoa, flax seeds and corn mixed in with bananas and nuts, nothing else. The drink was a thick maroon liquid made of red corn cooked for several hours with apples, cinnamon, cloves and ginger called Chicha Morada. It is a typical Peruvian drink and the fruit can change to include peaches, pineapple, etc. Was that yummy and feeling! I didn't feel hungry again until dinner time.

La Paz is a very striking city when seen from up the hill, down into the valley. I couldn't stop taking pictures as we were arriving in town, but I was not on the right side of the bus and most pictures do not portray well what I saw. When down in the valley, La Paz feels like a colorful and vibrant city with thousands of eateries, pedestrian bridges, and the always busy Pedro Murilo Square where the governmental offices are.

The downtown area and the best apartments and houses are located in the valley, while the rest of the city is build up on the hills surrounding the valley in a full 360 degrees! Most of the buildings up the hill don't look quite finished, as they expose bare bricks, instead of paint.

I stayed in bed recovering from my cold a whole day after my arrival, and the next day I was ready to explore. Since I stayed in the Prado area, it was easy to walk to museums, important sites, like the Presidential and Legislative Palaces, banks, shopping area, restaurants and Internet. But when I read that Coroico is only three away and and more than 3,000 feet lower in altitude, I knew this was my next destination. After all, I was feeling better, but my cold was not completely gone. I needed more rest in a warm and relaxing place.

La Paz

La Paz slideshow

It was perfect that Antonio, my host in La Paz, was the owner of a vegetarian restaurant right in the heart of town, off Avenida Prado. I took the train from the Salar de Uyuni to Oruru at midnight. It was a very comfortable ride. The train was heated, blankets, sandwiches and tea were offered and by 7am we were arriving at the train station. But Oruru, another high altitude place, was very cold, and by the time I arrived in La Paz the next day (it is three hours away) I had a bad cold.

Antonio made me tangerine, orange, lemon, ginger, cinnamon tea and gave me pieces of ginger to chew on for my cold. And besides the wonderful vegetarian food of local potatoes (there are over 200 types of potatoes in the Andes, and I was told it was the Incas who planted them first), salads, soups and main dishes, there was the protein-rich pancake for breakfast, made of roasted quinoa, flax seeds and corn mixed in with bananas and nuts, nothing else. The drink was a thick maroon liquid made of red corn cooked for several hours with apples, cinnamon, cloves and ginger called Chicha Morada. It is a typical Peruvian drink and the fruit can change to include peaches, pineapple, etc. Was that yummy and feeling! I didn't feel hungry again until dinner time.

La Paz is a very striking city when seen from up the hill, down into the valley. I couldn't stop taking pictures as we were arriving in town, but I was not on the right side of the bus and most pictures do not portray well what I saw. When down in the valley, La Paz feels like a colorful and vibrant city with thousands of eateries, pedestrian bridges, and the always busy Pedro Murilo Square where the governmental offices are.

The downtown area and the best apartments and houses are located in the valley, while the rest of the city is build up on the hills surrounding the valley in a full 360 degrees! Most of the buildings up the hill don't look quite finished, as they expose bare bricks, instead of paint.

I stayed in bed recovering from my cold a whole day after my arrival, and the next day I was ready to explore. Since I stayed in the Prado area, it was easy to walk to museums, important sites, like the Presidential and Legislative Palaces, banks, shopping area, restaurants and Internet. But when I read that Coroico is only three away and and more than 3,000 feet lower in altitude, I knew this was my next destination. After all, I was feeling better, but my cold was not completely gone. I needed more rest in a warm and relaxing place.

La Paz