Arriving in the small village of Copacabana, nestled on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in landlocked and underdeveloped Bolivia, Kim and I both experienced a strong sense of culture shock. Too many tourists. Too many backpackers. Too many travellers, uniformly dressed, sporting local alpaca headgear and huge rucksacks, wandering around looking unsure and lost. Che Guevara, whom quite a few of these people seemed to be trying to resemble, would be spinning in his grave.
Tourists. Tourists everwhere. Tourists, just like us. In China, tourists and travellers are overwhelmed by the land and the people. Even when the numbers of
Full Text Entry: I, Tourist
10 Comments -
Add Public Comment or
Send Private MessageWow, you describe everything a reader might want to know!
Your narrative and pictures are phenomenal. This is easily one of the top 5 blogs I've ever read. It certainly thickens my anticipation as I am going to Bolivia this winter...
Being half-Bolivian, but never having been there, it should prove an amazing experience.
Forever inspirational pictures. Loving it. Good work guys!
I have read a great deal of travel blogs and normally enjoy this particular one immensely. However, on this occasion i feel it necessary to point out one particular factual inaccuracy. That's an alpaca and not a llama. I expect better in the future or the house gets it.
Dear Mr Al īPacaī, there are three photos of hairy horses on this page. Two I was assured by local Bolivianīs were Llamas, the last one to be honest I didnīt check. Not wishing to stand in the way of ethnographic progress, please can you enlighten us as to how to tell the difference ?
...Three? I thought that was a man with a hat on.
I am inspired by your photography...shots like this confirm my addiction to TravelBlog
Sorry its taken so long to reply but i've been struggling with ethnographic progress. Alpacas are smaller than Llamas and i think they have narrower faces. In fact niether of us are actually incorrect as Alpaca is a type of Llama. Llama being the genus and Alpaca the species; Llama is also as species under the genus Llama. Please pass this information onto your peruvian freinds so that they don't mis-inform any more bloggers.
I am very impressed with your photos. They are stunning. I liked Dove Lake especially.
I have a question about Africa if you can find time answering:
With 2-3 weeks in Sept and not being to Africa before would you go to Botswana/Namibia or Kenya/Tanzania/Zanzibar? It sounds as if you were disappointed with Botswana. Could that been down to the season? Many thanks in advance.
Your question is difficult to answer without knowing more about your budget/motivations etc. Perhaps send an email via travelblog and I can answer in more detail.
Botswana is great, and ranks as the best game viewing in Africa. The Chobe game cruise was one of the highlights of our trip. However game viewing in the Okavanga delta is hideously expensive. Otherwise I would say East Africa is more game and people whereas Southern Africa (where we visited) is more game and landscapes. East Africa is difficult to travel around independently whereas for Namibia and South Africa at least self-drive is an option. If you are new to Africa you might also consider South Africa, which is a more gentle introduction.
For me the ideal trip would be Cape Town to Vic Falls via Namibia and Botswana, but then I like deserts!
I think they just want to claim Lake Titicaca as the highest something in the world. I know Lake Tilicho in the Annapurna region of Nepal is higher (between 5,000m and 5,200m depending on the map you look at), so I guess the fact that Lake Titicaca is used and navigated constantly by people as part of their daily lives gives it the title of highest "Navigable" Lake.
Who knows though!!!
