Animal Selfies

Selfie.

The word didn't exist a decade ago, and now I bet its in the dictionary.

Something about taking the picture yourself just makes it a different kind of photo. There's a time to hand your camera to a passerby to snap a frame, and there's a time to have a too close, badly framed, crazy selfie that captures the moment.

Here's all the moments I captured with non-humans.

Starting off with one of the Machu Picchu llamas.

Giant prehistoric fossil ground sloth

Little tiny flamingos

My favorite statue. I think it's supposed to be an eagle with a snake, but I thought it looked more penguin-ish

There's a lionfish in this photo, I promise. I just didn't want to get my head too close to it, with it's poison spines and all.

Christmastime reindeer

This was the burning effigy at New Years. Since he at one point had a face, I figure it counts.

Rescue pup at Kingbird

Pina the macaw

One of the many lizards around Chichen Itza

This was my favorite floaty toy ever, a big blue hippo

Crazy shrimp statue in Costa Rica

Coati friend

Speaks for itself.

This was after he stole my glasses off my face

What are you looking at...

First animal selfie in Peru, with one of the pacaranas

Failed train selfie going in

Better train selfie walking out

Baby llama!

Adult llama

Surprise llama!

Morante, Fernando's horse

I also discovered a bunch of things that I rode. Not enough for a whole post, but here you go.

Day 1 in Lima

What else to do in a kids park? I went early morning before catching my bus specially to take this photo. I had to wait my turn because a small child was using it...

Way back in a dead-end

At the Cali Zoo

Also the Cali zoo. Photobombing crazy lizard sign in the background gets extra points.

Lake Titicaca

May 5, 2016

Our last day in Bolivia we woke up early, packed our bags, had the delicious hotel breakfast buffet, and after leaving our bags at the front desk hopped a bus to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

It was a 4 hour ride from La Paz including a brief interlude where we got off the bus and took a ferry across the strait while the bus was taken across on a barge.

Bus barge

Passenger ferry

Upon arrival to town we 1. Found a bathroom and 2. Found lunch (in that order) then headed for the water. The initial view was amazing.

We were quickly able to find a boat hollering for a trip to las islas flotantes, the floating islands. A half hour boat ride across the lake and we were there.

The 'islands' made me smile. They were clearly paying tribute to when the indiginous people lived on floating rafts of reeds tied together, but these were wooden docks covered with reeds on top.

Fish pens

The view was nice though, and if you desired you could choose a trout out of the pens for a fresh cooked meal. There was a big rock out in the water to walk to for great photo ops.

There was a music group filming a music video while we were there, and I wish I had gotten their name to YouTube later, I bet it looked pretty cool.

Once back on shore we made a quick visit to the spectacular baroque cathedral before hopping a bus home.

Ceiling inside the cathedral

We had the same ferry drill coming home, and got a nice sunset too.

After that it was a late dinner in town, a taxi ride to the airport after grabbing our packs from the hotel, and 22 hours of travel home, safe in the knowledge that we had an excellent last day.

We had a 7 hour layover in Bogota on the way home, and since I was familiar with the city, we headed out of the airport and around town for a little while. Way better than 7 hours of small airport.

We walked around the main downtown plaza

Got hot chocolate and cheesecake at 10am

And headed for LA in a dreamliner. It was huge!

La Paz and Valle de la Luna

June 3-4, 2016

We arrived in La Paz in the morning after flying out first thing from Uyuni. We grabbed a taxi to our hotel, and then spent the rest of the day shopping in the Centro.

Llama knit everything, brightly colored scarves, blankets, hats, and bags were everywhere. Taryn found a sweater, I found a thimble for my collection. I also ordered a custom made coat from a little shop we found tucked away in a courtyard. They didn't have the combination of size and color I wanted, so I arranged for one to be made to pick up the next day.

First clothing shop I've been in where there's bolts of fabric waiting to become a jacket

We found the witches market, where dried baby llamas hang outside shops between herbs and souvenirs. Inside, soapstone carvings mix with aromatic oils, herbs, cure-all potions, and incense.

wut. the. fluff.

So fluffy!!

In downtown there were dancing zebras helping everyone cross the street. I'm not sure if it was for safety, or to encourage following the traffic signals or what, but they were fun.

The next day we went to el Valle de la Luna, the Valley of the Moon, 45 minutes outside town. Weathering and erosion has turned the valley into something fantastical which was excellent to walk through.

On the way back we hauled our butts up to Kili Kili mirador, for a fantastic view of the whole city.

La Paz in the late afternoon sun

Illimani in the background

That evening we had a nice dinner of llama steaks, much better than the ones in Uyuni. Verdict: not quite beef but I still can't put my finger on the difference. Very tasty when properly cooked.

There was also hot chocolate and pie...

I picked up my new coat, which David finished sewing as I watched.

It fits beautifully.

With just one day left in Bolivia, we headed for the hotel to get a good rest before our journey to Lake Titicaca the next morning.