Blogs from Isla del Sol, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America

This past weekend was my last full weekend in La Paz so I spent it with a combination of tourist attractions and livin' like a local. I spent one full day in Lake Titicaca which is the highest lake (at 12,500 ft) in the world. It borders Bolivia and Peru in the Andes Mountains. It takes about 2.5 hours to get there from La Paz. Part of the trip we took a small boat and our bus took a ferry to cross a section of the lake. The main city, on the Bolivian side is Copacabana (yes I played the song over and over again in the bus :) First I visited some of the interesting architecture in the city including the Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana and this super cool Hostal las Olas. The ... read more

Bolivia Part 1 Copacabana and Isla Del Sol (01/07/2018 - 03/07/2018) Copacabana Copacabana; a small, pleasant town on the shore of Lake Titicaca (3800m), and my first stop in Bolivia. The Peru-Bolivia border was very quick and easy (20 minutes), and there were no issues. I didn't really know exactly what to expect in Bolivia. I knew the infrastructure would deteriorate (it definitely did, hello bumpy roads and increasingly rustic buildings) and I knew it would be cheaper (great for my bank balance!). But I had also heard the food was nothing to write home about. Regardless of the latter, I was super excited to see what Bolivia had to offer and determined to find some delicious Bolivian food. Here in Copacabana, you can eat your body weight in trout. Interesingly, the trout consumed by the ... read more

Parc Torotoro - du 12 au 16 avril 2016 Isla del Sol - du 19 au 22 avril 2016 Dans un tout autre registre que nos précédentes découvertes boliviennes, nous avons eu la chance de randonner dans deux régions très reculées où vivent des gens complètement à l'ancienne, parfois sans eau courante... le parc Torotoro et la Isla del Sol. Rien que pour s'y rendre, c'est une aventure en soi ! Pour le parc Torotoro, rien de moins que cinq heures de bus sur un chemin de terre montagneux et tortueux...pour parcourir 130 kilomètres! On s'y rend à partir d'une ville du nord de la Bolivie, Cochabamba, ville que nous avons traversé par une journée de grève générale...pas un seul bus pour relier les 3 kms qui séparent la gare routière du départ du bus, des ... read more

Yesterday was another hopping off point for an adventure. First, on the docks everyone was preparing to embark on the journey to the island of the sun. It was great because all of these different small boats were leaving at the same time. So the entire way there it was like we were all playfully facing each other and pointing the way. Before our boat set off these three Argentinian traveling musicians/flower children got on and after a few words in Spanish began to play. They were so enthusiastic, other worldly, and bohemian that I couldn't help but be enchanted with them. That the two girls were gorgeous certainly did not hurt. After a couple of songs they disembarked the boat collecting bolivianos along the way and with that boat shook off its tethers and zoomed ... read more

We got on the boat to get to Isla de Sol which is located in the middle of Lake Titicaca. We sat down on the top deck with a bunch of 14 Argentinians from Buenos Aires who had come to Bolivia to dance caporalles, one of the dances danced in Carnaval . They were rowdy, laughing and joking and after an hour into the boat trip, they had finished two litres of some blue syrupy sweet cocktail. For the last half hour of the boat trip they were very drunk, all singing songs about the dance and waving bottles of cocktail in the air. Half way through the boat ride we got caught in a hail storm and it was really cold and windy, but fun. Once we arrived on the island Ronald and I, and ... read more