Blogs from Lake Titicaca, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 4

The bus ride from La Paz to Lake Titicaca is amazing!Its a really short ride and you ar driven through huge green mountains overlooking the lake which is srtunning!I couldnt beleieve how huge the lake was, iv never seen anything like it!We stopped in Copacobana on our way to Puno so that we could see two sides of the lake!We had such a nice lunch in this little cafe on the edge of the lake!We spent a few hours drinking beer and eating trout from the lake which was delicious!We then moved over to Puno which is a more established town. We spent the day visiting the floating villages!They were so cool, the people live on these huge islands made from straw!This sounded insane to me before we went but the villagers showed us how they ... read more

Nous y voilà, la Bolivie ! Le pays qui représente le plus ce que l’on s’imagine de l’Amérique latine. Le pays le plus pauvre aussi. Peut-être le plus authentique également… La Bolivie c’est bientôt 10 millions d’habitants, c’est 4 langues officielles (espagnol, quechua, aymara, guarani ; les 3 dernières étant surtout parlées par les peuples des montagnes ou de l’Amazonie). C’est tout juste 9 habitants par km2 (c’est pas encore la Nouvelle-Zélande, mais c’est pas mal). C’est aussi une monnaie tellement dérisoire pour nous autres (surtout cette année, vive le franc suisse !), c’est-à-dire presque 1 franc suisse pour 7 bolivianos. C’est rien. La Bolivie, niveau géographique, c’est aussi un mythe qu’il faut casser : l’Altiplano, cette zone particulière à plus de 3000 mètres que l’on voit sur toutes les photos de la Bolivie, c’est seulement ... read more

After a night’s rest following our Inca Trail achievement, we set off on an early morning tourist bus to Puno that visited some “slightly” less impressive Inca ruins en route. We immediately realise we should have taken the direct bus and the “fascinating” detours which include a church, museum and a half built mud house fail to top Machu Picchu somewhat. Cat unfortunately missed these delightful interruptions to our journey due to the fact that she was quite ill and was somehow managing to be sick silently into numerous plastic bags (all but one of which had no holes in!). After 10 long hours we arrive in Puno and catch our first glimpse of the lake. Puno itself is no idyllic lakeside setting, but the sheer size of the lake makes an impressive vista. That night ... read more

Dear all (Many more photo's right at the bottom of the page!) Well we are in La Paz, Bolivia at the moment - the highest capital city in the world, and don't we know it. The city is 3660m above sea level and the oxygen here is 40% less than normal, meaning it is almost impossible to walk up stairs and even talk to each other without feeling out of breath. We are acclimatatising and the dull headaches are going but it has been quite an experience where the only real remedy is to chew on Coca leaves like the locals do - it tastes like forest! We have just come back from a wonderful trip to the Amazon and our friend from back home, Chris has flown over from England to spend some time with ... read more

We arrived in Copacabana, the town which sits on the edge of the sapphire blue waters of Lake Titicaca, late on Sunday afternoon. We had been passed reroute from Sorata by many cars decorated with flowers and upon our arrival in Copacabana we saw cars being decorated in front of the Cathedral in the main square. The fascinating custom - the Blessing of the Automobiles, takes place here every weekend. It is like a spiritual insurance policy - once you’ve had your car blessed presumably you’re less likely to have a car accident. Since our arrival in South America though we’ve seen dozens of roadside shrines to road accident victims (many decorated with the broken windscreen or tyre from the car) - unlike most Australian shrines there are very rarely only one cross - we’ve regularly ... read more