Blogs from La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America - page 16

Copacabana, hostal imperio, después de varias aventuras que nos han ocurrido en el camino, el segundo día en Tiwanaku lo empezamos con sol, después de mucha lluvia en la noche, fuimos a visitar las ruinas, la. Puerta de la luna, el alto de akapana, los monolitos y la plaza central ceremonial donde el 22 de enero será la posesión de Evo, todo el pueblito estaba en obra, todos muy ocupados en preparativos para ese evento incomparable, por eso vimos en el parque arqueológico de tiwanaku a un grupo de unos 100 indígenas que hacían los ensayos de la música y eventos que tendrían para la ceremonia del presidente. Tiwanaku es un pueblo remontado en la historia décadas en el pasado. Caminamos toda la mañana en el parque y pasado el medio día, terminamos el recorrido sentados ... read more

When Neil Armstrong visited La Paz in 1966, as part of an eleven country goodwill tour of South America, together with other famous US astronauts, armed troops lined the route from the airport to the city centre. They take security very seriously in Bolivia! As part of his trip he visited the Valley of the Moon, just 10 km south of the city and is said to have named it thus, because it looked like the moon’s surface, as seen in photographs, studied as part of his training, in preparation for the moon landing to follow. The Valley of the Moon, or La Valle de la Luna, in Spanish, is a fascinating landscape of eroded rock and clay; wind and rain, over centuries, have sculpted this landscape of gullies, stacks and ridges, forming exotic ... read more

The next day we headed back towards the Peruvian border for Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. The lake is the highest inhabited body of water in the world and by this time both of us were feeling the full effects at being at high altitude – headaches, lack of appetite, upset stomach, fatigue, etc. A few new friends from our hostel in La Paz were heading there too so we had a little tour group to get the bus and ferry to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). After checking in to whatever accommodation we could find, we set of on foot to explore the town of Yumani on the southern end of the island. Several places seemed closed and we wandered if it was just a bit of a sleepy town but then we ... read more

Due to a minor planning oversight when preparing for this trip we did not have Brazilian visas. With Christmas and New Years fast approaching we decided to head straight to La Paz to lodge our visa applications with the Brazilian Embassy and then back track to see Lake Titicaca. We arrived in La Paz on 23 December and headed for the Embassy. Unfortunately we turned up to the (wrong) entrance where a sign said they were closed until 3pm. We decided to pop to a café and return at 3pm only to then discover that the visa application office keep different hours to the rest of embassy and indeed closed is doors at 3pm promptly. We were turned away and told to come back tomorrow when they would be open from 9am till lunch then taking ... read more

Cela fait déjà plus d'un mois que nous voyageons et nous sommes toujours en Bolivie. Depuis Uyuni, nous nous rendons directement à cet autre lieu incontournable avant d'entrer au Pérou : Le Lac Titicaca. Bus de nuit entre Uyuni et La Paz, puis bus entre La Paz et Copacabana. En chemin il nous faut traverser le détroit de Tiquina en ferry, nous, ainsi que le bus. Copacabana s'étale au Sud du Lac Titicaca. Sa grande plage permet un peu de farniente en terrasse, et de nombreuses agences proposent de louer pédalos, canoës, voiliers,... Max et moi en avons profité pour réaliser notre baptème en scooter des mers, un vrai régal ! Le temps n'étant pas idéal pour profiter de la plage, nous nous lançons dans une balade en vélo jusqu'à Yampupata, pointe de terre proche de ... read more