Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 517

After the rigours of the Inca Trail, we have both returned to some kind of normality. Nadine´s Salmonella seems to be losing the fight against the antibiotics, and I am back to using the toilet again! (Inca trail toilets were somewhere between that toilet in 'Trainspotting´and the gates of Hades, and I have the uncanny ability to shut down my bowels in times of crisis. Too much information I know!!!) So after a brief sleep in a normal bed, we headed to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 3800m above sea level (For the geeks out there, supposedly 'Navigable´means you can sail a steel hulled ship in it?). Its about 135 long miles by 50 miles, so I guess its pretty big. The scenery is amazing here ... read more

Besides the many misfortunes that happened my first couple of days, i enjoyed bolivia. if you come there with no plans, and nothing bad happens, it is a paradise. sorry guys, i have gotten too lazy and with school starting, too tired to update. so i will briefly summarize: Leaving La paz, i went to Copocabana, the city of lake titicaca. the 3 hour bus ride is scenic and not bad. there are plains with mountain tops in the distance. this city is small and not much happening. but overall, it was lovely. The highlight was eating fresh fish from the lake. the lake itself is amazing. being so high in altitude you really have to take things slow. i spent 1.5 days on isla del sol. this island is where the incas say the sun ... read more

It had to happen sooner or later. Graham started feeling a bit stomachy about 10 minutes over the Peru-Bolivia border and spent a couple of days dashing between bed and bathroom. I got a lesser bug two days later. Neither of us were horrendously ill, but it wasn´t very pleasant. We ended up staying a lot longer than anticipated on the shores of Lake Titicaca. On a not unrelated note, Titicaca, we learned, is pronounced Titichacha (like the ch in ´loch´). In the local Aymara language it means stone puma. And it seems everyone has a good laugh about tourists pronouncing it wrong. ´Caca´means the same in any language. The Peruvians argue Bolivia is the ´caca´ side and Bolivians argue the other way. From our experience it would seem the Peruvians have got it right. But ... read more

Kot sem omenil, sva sla na 4 dnevno potovanje z dzipi po Altiplanu. Pot se je zamaknila za en dan, ker je eden iz nase skupine zbolel, tako da smo morali pocakati, da se posteno skozla. No, ta dan sem izkoristil za tri urni izlet s konjickom. Tisti, ki poznate moje prigode s konji, se zagotovo smehljate. Ampak na vaso zalost vam povem, da sta tokrat moja rit in hrbet zmagala. Pravzaprav gredo velike zasluge dobremu sedlu ter dejstvu, da sem ves cas sledil najpocasnejsem konju in se tako izognil galopiranju. Pot je bila lepa, vodila je po lepem rdecem kanjonu, 12-letni vodic dobro izurjen, tako da ni bilo problemov. Naslednji dan smo pa postartali. Sest komadov (2x Svica + 2x Anglija) v dveh vrstah v Toyotinem Land cruiserju. Za silo je bilo celo udobno. Prvi ... read more

After some hectic days, we finally arrived to La Paz, the worlds highest capital (which is not really the capital... anyways... and we being an American girl and two French brothers - great travel companions). Before this dazzling city I had the opportunity to visit the Uros people, living on the floating islands made out of reed in lake Titicaca, Copacabana (no, not in Rio) and the Sun Island, where, according to the Incas, the sun was born. These are all beautiful and worth visiting places, but still quite crowded with tourists. I also had the opportunity to try one of the local dishes - al paca (lama), which was, to my big surprise, really good. The second day in La Paz was spent biking down "the worlds most dangerous road" (or if you prefer "the ... read more