south america
south america time. s. america is another world. it's an amazing place and every country is so different from the next and soo different from the US. we went to four countries - peru, bolivia, argentina, and brasil (yes, i'm spelling it that way.) i even ran out of stamp space in my passport!! it's currently with the US government getting new pages put in!!

i'm being wayyyyyyy lazy and not posting any photos from a ton of places we visited because if i did it would take forever. but if anyone is ever considering going to any of these places and wants some info, i will gladly tell you about all the places i visited and upload some pics for you then! there is sooo much to see in each country--i could've spent the two weeks in peru alone and still i wouldn't have seen all the things i wanted to see.




first we started in lake titicaca, peru.
we went to an island called Uros that is man-made entirely of reeds. it is awesome.


one of the little bbs that lived on the island became our little friend and sang songs for us as we took a ride on one of their reed boats. again, it is awesome.


here she is playing with my watch:


funny money from all four countries


our second day in lake titicaca brought us across the border to bolivia to go to Sun Island. i forget what these mountains are called, but they're awesome and can be seen really well from sun island and even better from moon island (where we didn't go cos my mom is an evil, evil person haha)


the stairs on sun island. not too bad, but considering the altitude is ridiculously higher than ours, these were a challenge.


the mountains from atop the island through the trees


sun island was like shangri-la. it was soo beautiful and out of this world. the photos really don't capture it, but i tried


an alpaca (or is it a llama? i can't remember) on one of the terraces (people live on sun island and farm it.) the white mountains are in the background.


the mountains from our bus ride home


moving on to our next stop: iguazu falls in argentina (and brasil)
this is Owly, who stays near the pool of our hotel all day long. I LOVE HIM.


so iguazu falls/the rain forest that it's in is also out of this world. we saw so many animals and insects and birds it was crazy!! these are only SOME of the things we saw:




these are called coatis (ko-ah-tees). they're the size of raccoons and have similar tails but their noses/face look more like an anteater's. the ones in the park have gotten used to humans so they just come near you like you're nothing...more on that later.


MONKEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (btw these animals are in their natural habitat--it's not like we're at the zoo or something)




YUCKY SPIDER


the falls, which are AMAZZZZZZZZZZZING. if you like niagara falls, you have to come here. it's like niagara x 382.






i love that this photo looks like i was photoshopped in


the coolest butterfly on earth


hi


different falls (iguazu falls is not the name of one waterfall, but over 200 separate falls...it's nuts)






CRAZY LADYBUG!




our friends the coatis returned, and this time they took our entire lunch. i am not kidding. we were sitting at that table eating and they just mozied on over, jumped up on our table, and ate our food.


they also took this little girl's ice cream straight out of her hands haahhahahhhhahaahahha


the next day we went to the brasil side of the falls, where there are a lot of activities to do...LIKE FLY OVER THE FALLS IN A HELICOPTER.


aerial views!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






another fun brasil activity: the bird park!!!!!!!!!!




normal:


scared/angry:


TOUCAN SAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! toucans (the "toto" kind) are officially my favorite animal of all time. they are sooo soooooo beautiful.




brasilian falls




YUCKY SPIDER




my mom and i were chasing butterflies like it was our job. this one, which is really ugly on the outside, refused to ever open its wings and stay that way. but our guide knew a little trick: give it some water and it will sit and open its wings while it drinks!!! SCOREEEEEEEEEE


next stop: MACHU PICCCCCCCCCCHU!


















on our second day, we hiked wayna picchu (the big ass mountain that's in all the pictures of machu picchu...see above.) it was retarded. at times we were vertically climbing the mountain, with just a wire rope to hold onto. the "stairs" were rocks carved out to vaguely resemble stairs....it was so hard and scary, and sooooooooo not worth it.
this was the view you got:


half way up the mountain you could see that view and it didn't change much as you got higher....if anyone ever goes to machu picchu, i would tell them to hike half of wayna picchu (if they REALLLY wanted to), take the pictures, and then turn the hell around.




LLAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




OMG OMG OMG. this was the second day in a row that this man was dressed this way. IF ONLY you could see him from the front...YIKES. my mom had no idea i was taking this picture, so that face she's making is NOT staged HAHAHAHAHAHAA. when i showed her the pic she said, "i didn't know i was making that face! i guess i wasn't hiding it very well"


the prettiest flower i have ever seen, on our way back from machu picchu to cusco


we stopped at this place called Moray, which is an inca ruin. the incas WERE GENIUSES. Moray is "several enormous terraced circular depressions that were used to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops. The depth of the pits (the largest is about 30 m deep) creates a temperature gradient of as much as 15° C between the top and the bottom. As with many other Inca sites, it also has a very sophisticated irrigation system for providing the plants with water."
it basically looks like an alien crop circle, BUT MUCH, MUCH COOLER




cusco, peru. we happened to be there on june 1, which is the big kick off day for their monthlong celebrations in the month of june. there was this crazy, huge, long festival that we got to witness:











the jesuit church (compañía de jesus) and the main square's (plaza de armas) fountain


finally, we stayed with our friend patty who's living in lima for a few days. we went to a monastery that had thousands and thousands of bones! it was super creepy but pretty awesome




POLAROIDS!!
my little Uros bb:


i believe all three of them were siblings, but maybe not. they had never seen a polaroid and i'm fairly certain never had a photo of themselves, so all three of them wanted a copy. i gave them each a photo of themselves and each a photo of all three together. when their dad, the mayor of Uros, saw them, he wanted his own too. it was really cool to be able to give them something!


copacabana church in bolivia. copacabana, bolivia is the ORIGINAL copacabana!!!!!!


iguazu falls:






toucan sam!!!


mach!


LLAMA!


moray:


jesuit church in cusco:


THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!