Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Hi all - I only have one hour before our (mostly free) organised tour through Bolivia starts. I was hoping for a nice big group of maybe 12 or 14 people, including some Brits that we could befriend. There´s 6 of us and not an English name in the bunch!! We thought we´d write a quick blog entry now so that the next one would be more of a full Bolivia account. Hang on - Ems just been told that to upload photos its going to cost more - I´m literally having an argument with her now...she´s crazy!!!
Anyway - back to the blog... so weve entered Bolivia via Lake Titicaca, and the fasirly uninspiring town of Copacabana, and are now in La Paz (the highest capital city in the world).
12/09/11 - Wanted to get a morning bus from Cusco to Copacabana but we missed it so had to get the night bus instead. So with our ´day to kill in Cusco´ Em dragged me into our second museum of the trip - the Museo de Inca. Highlights were some pretty gross Inca mummies in a foetal position and some bizarre elongated skulls that apparently signify either royalty
or a slightly different race. We then walked up to Sacsayhuaman, the best Inca site within walking distance of Cusco town centre. Once we´d trekked the 1km up hill to get there we realised we had to pay so detoured to the top of the adjacent hill for an excellent (and free 😊 ) view of the ruins and Cusco.
13/09/11 - Our day started in depressingly cold fashion as the one and a half our stopover in Puno became a three hour stop-over from 4:30 in the morning! Gloves, hats and pretty much anything that could keep us warm were thrown on until finally we were able to board the next bus to Copacabana. Just as we sat down on our fully cama seats (the most expensive ones - not through choice!) I spotted a couple who I had booked their entire trip for loading on their backpacks. Not knowing whether a) they would recognise me, b) they were actually the people I thought they were, and c) whether they were going to unleash fury on me for all the gaffs I had potentially made with their booking, I waited for them to spot me...luckily all was fine
and we arranged to meet up that evening for some food. Copacabana is a tiny town on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the highest altititude lake of its size (make of that what you will...). The lake itself its steeped with Inca history and is reportedly the birth-place of the 1st Inca (he is suppossed to have emerged from the crystal clear waters one day to rule the Andean people). We booked into an eco-lodge just outside the town and, after three failed attempts to withdraw any money, turned up completely broke apart from the 11 Bolivianos (1GBP) we had managed to change at the border. Starving hungry we were forced to order a pizza from the ecolodge making a topping up due to a lack of any kind of menu! This turned out to be Bolivia´s (and possibly the world´s) most expensive, taxi delivered, pizza!! Suitably devestated at the outrageous price of 125 Bolivianos (the clever amongst you will have calculated that this is c.12 of our British pounds - unreal - at least at Dominoes they give you another one free!) we decided to make the rest of our time here very very cheap. That evening we met
with my STA chums (Matt and Sups... from Hitchin - even smaller world) and reminisced over the wonderful service they received at STA sharing some buy-one-get-one-free coca based cocktails.
14/09/11 - We opted for a lie in and half day tour of the Isla del Sol at the princely sum of 1.50GBP each. After a 1GBP set lunch (thats the last time I´ll say how much anything cost!) we jumped onboard our boat and headed 2 hours across the 120 mile long lake to our destination. The island had some old Inca steps and ruins, as well as some great views of the lake with snow-capped mountains in the background. Very picturesque but not a lot else. That evening I think its fair to say we hit rock-bottom... With saving money as our top priority we decided to try and sort out our own dinner. This is quite tricky with no kitchen and the poorest selection of shops you´ve ever seen. We opted for a tin of tuna, a sachet of mayonnaise and some crackers topped off with the luxury purchase of a (tiny) toblerone. The tuna literally looked like cat food and the lack of a tin-opener meant
that we had to hack the lid off with a knife leaving any hope of draining out the repulsive brine impossible - never again!!!!!!
15/09/11 - We were awoken by a torrential down pour and peered outside the cabin to discover a freezing mixture of sleet and snow. Its not all sunshine and beaches on this trip! Took the one thirty bus to La Paz and once again bumped into my old STA bookers (who we had thought took an early morning bus straight to Sucre, beyond La Paz). When we got to La Paz we had about 2 hours before the other guys needed to catch their next bus so embarked on a whistle-stop tour of Bolivias capital, with Matt as our enthusiastic guide. Dont really know how to describe La Paz other than a giant traffic jam of white mini-buses spraying toxic exhasut fumes into the air and indigenous people riding on the back of trucks wearing tiny hats! Its dirty, grimy and in many ways similar to Bangkok - which makes a pretty fun city to spend a couple of days (not being sarcastic - it really is).
16/09/11 - We perfectly timed our one
full day here to coincide with a complete city wide strike! The down side was that loads of shops, bars, market stalls (noooooo!) etc were closed and you couldnt get any kind of transport anywhere. The upside was that there were no cars which meant a pollution free tour of the city within walking distance. The day was spent wandering around and browsing the few market stalls and sights that were open. This did include part of the witches market, which is a very weird and wonderful array of stalls selling llama foetuses (they are literally hanging above the doorways), love potions and various coca based products amongst other things! I did buy something... a tub of minty paste for healing sore feet and headachesThat evening we inadvertently went to a German restaurant, hmmmm German, and managed to get a really nice meal and a free glass of Bolivian vino!
17/09/11 - I managed to buy my Bolivian football shirt this morning, while Em was spending the grand total of 2.50GBP on my b-day presents - brilliant (although I´m promised there is more to come). We then visited the coca museum - Bolivia being arguably the worlds capital for coca production and therefore one of the main targets against the (American) 'cocaine war'. A few interesting facts from the museo
-90% of Bolivians chew coca leaves (its their coffee)
-Although making up only 5% of the population, America consumes 50% of the worlds cocaine!
-Synthetic cocaine is commonly used in many of todays medicinal goods and was the key ingredient in the first bottle of Coca Cola!
We wasted the rest of the afternoon at the cinema watching The Beaver. It was pretty weird but I liked it! And it was cheap - a quarter of the price vs England! We´re now off to meet our 4 other travel buddies for the next 9 days (could be a long trip) and I´m going to try and sneak out of this internet joint without paying (reminds me of home 😊 ). Adios amigos!
PS sorry for the lack of photos - snapfish isnt working so bare with us - you´ll have some more eye candy soon... This is an official and 100% Olie blog written in record time!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0429s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sally and John
non-member comment
You cheapskate did you get caught leaving inter net cafe. How are the feet- we can't believe what you have achieved- all that treking and climbing. It does sound so amazing you are going to come back so fit!!!! We love the history- in fact we have recorded a programme where they travel in S America tonight it's Bolivia and Chile so we really looking forward to that and comparing the places you went to . Would you like another "meal sub" as you sound like you could do with it !!!! Will put £30 into bank account tomorrow Tues. Have fun with it- we have to space them out for you !!! Love you lots keep up with the super blogs look after those feet Mum and Dad xxxxx