Blogs from Lake Titicaca, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 8

Having arrived in Copacobana, via another of Bolivias lovely buses!! I found my hotel ,and it was literally on the shores of Lake Titicaca - The view was superb. I arranged to go on a boat trip over to the Isle Del Sol the following day - The island was believed to be the the birthplace of the sungod of the Incas. It was a lovely bu gruelling day, as it involved trekking up and down mountain peaks at over 4000m above sea level, for about 10km. I was a dead man crawling by the end of the day, and was glad that the boat journey back took nearly 2hrs, as it gave me a chance to collapse!!! Once I was back at the hotel, I was just in time to see the sunset over the ... read more

We have arrived at Lake Titicaca and are staying in a very cute little town by the lake called Cocacabana?, mmm pls excuse the spelling :. We left La Paz by minivan (all 12 of us!) at 5pm so it was 9 and dark when we arrived.. so I will leave the description of the spectacular scenery for Gav and another time. After leaving Cochacbamba it took about 8 hours, over the mountains and thru the high altiplano, to reach La Paz which is a enormous city built on the sides of several mountains, very steep cobbled streets and so crowded with people and traffic ! Our hostel was on a main road , near some massive markets . We were both feeling the altitude and had to crawl at a snails pace up all the ... read more

After two nights in our sub-zero hotel in Uyuni, we braved the horrific conditions of a nightbus, and headed towards Bolivia´s capital, La Paz. The nightbus was utterly disgusting - completely cramped and claustrophobic, it stank of urine and the blankets provided were like a science experiment of filth. That said, my main concern (and Sibs) was that it would be cold, and it really wasn't all that freezing - in fact it was considerably warmer than the hotel we left behind. For the first few hours it felt like we were driving across the highest and rockiest peaks of the Andes in a 1970s Mini Cooper - the only journey it could be compared to over this year was our bone shattering bus from Cambodia to Bangkok. But eventually the road improved, and because I ... read more

Our friend (and fellow avation ethusiast) Agustin asked if we wanted to join for a train trip to Guaqui at the Titikaka Lake. We didn't even know about a train on the altiplano but as it all sounded fantastic we were ofcourse in for the idea. Tickets were bought two days before for the incredible amount of 2 euros return. Very early Sunday morning on April 13th the train was waiting in El Alto just outside La Paz to bring us to Guaqui at Lake Titikaka. The train only drives once a month on a Sunday as a tourist outing. Most of the passengers are Bolivians spending a day out. On the way to Guaqui the train stops at Tiwanaku where there is time for a short visit. The sunday we decided to do it, it ... read more

From Cuzco we took a train to the town of Puno. It was a little longer than the bus ride- but very worth it. We had lots of room to strech out since there were only 8 of us in the train car and they served beers.Lake Titicaca sits on the border of Peru and Bolivia. We first visited the lake on the Peruivan side, in Puno. There's not really much to say about Puno, except we did take one tour out on the lake to visit the island of Uros.Uro's is comprised of many small reed islands. The islands arent made of dirt or rock but rather piled up with 3 meters of cut reeds. Its very spongy and soft to walk on...sort of a softer trampoline feel. The reeds are also harvested to build ... read more