We made it over the Border...

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Bolivia, land of the coca leaf...

And a very beautiful country, in recent years torn by a civil war through its struggle to fight globalisation and protect Patcha Mama (mother earth) which in a religious sense represents heaven, hell, God, and satan...

Politically a very interesting time for Bolivia who’s indigenous rural communities are fighting back to reclaim the lands for the people and protect the precious and much needed natural resources from being stripped away by mutli national companies eager to profit from the lands rich resources, mainly oil.

Again we did not see enough of this country either, Bolivia has some of the largest rainforest regions in the world, but alas on our route we where not able to get into these areas, maybe next time.

After our overnight bus journey through to Bolivia, our first stop in Bolivia was Copacabana, not to be confused with Barry Manilows famous tales of the young lovers Lola and Rico in the disco Copacabana...

The Bolivian town is a small town on the banks of Lake Titicaca South America's second-largest freshwater lake and one of the world's highest navigable bodies of water, a very nice and relaxed place and the closest town to Isla Del Sol, a small island traditionally believed to be the birthplace of the sun and the Incas, with many interesting Inca ruins around the area. We only stopped in Copa for the one night and then headed off to Isla Del Sol to spend another night.

Isla Del Sol was stunning, again very high altitude at 4000 m with spectacular views over the snow-capped Bolivian Andes. We took an early morning ferry ride over the lake to the north side of the island to make the 3 hour walk over the island to the inhabited south side. At this altitude though the walk proved to be more challenging than we expected, but well worth while with absolutely stunning scenery along the way.

From Isla de Sol we took another bus trip down to La Paz, Bolivia’s buzzing capital for a couple of nights. La Paz was great, very busy streets with all sorts of weird and wonderful sights. The ladies of the city have adopted quite a unique fashion of wearing bowler hats and wear a whole array of different shapes and sizes, all so pristine and well turned out, very smart, might get myself one back in London.

After spending a couple of days taking it all in, seeing the local sights and getting some well earned R&R we headed onto Argentina which is where we are now.

Were now actually in Mendoza, Argentina’s fabulous wine region after spending a few nights in Buenos Aires and expecting a snow storm to kick in any minute. This place is great and the last couple of days have been spent meandering from vineyard to vineyard trying all the delicious wines, fantastic. I’ll be back with more news on Argentina later though...

So Adios to all, we hope you’re all well and we’ll be back with some more news soon...

Take care, John and Roxy x

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Photos

Bowler Hats
A popular look for the ladies of La Paz

Comments

[Shaun the Turd]

Whateva
A wonderfully written blog guys. Is this really you John/Roxy or have you employed Posh Spice's ghost writer to bang one of these out once a week? When I knew John Kennedy in New York I never detected the sensitive and thought provoking ecologist and enviromentalist we hear from today. Additionally, I have failed to pick up any references relating to: Adult Denim, stitching technique, bleaching methods, Stella, or regretable tatoos. Enjoy Argentina and please post some more pictures of those fantastic outfits you've been wearing soon.

[gilberto]

nice pictures of Bolivia
Very beautiful pictures of Bolivia. I hope you guys can come back again. It is a very peaceful country, thank God we haven't had a civil war since the 52 revolution. The recent events before our new government was really our old failed colonial state trying to suppress peaceful demonstrations of the indigenous and worker majorities, but fortunately we never reached a civil war such in other Latin American countries. Bolivians love peace as our main city La Paz means City of Peace. In our new multicultural and indigenous society we welcome people from all over the world to see the indigenous soul of the Americas in our faces: Aymaras, Quechuas, Guaranies and everybody.