Bolivia

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From the Uros Islands we were driven to the border of Bolivia stopping at a couple of interesting markets along the way. One was a local cattle trading market and the other a local fruit and vegetable market. They were on a country road in the middle of nowhere with not a tourist in sight. We crossed the border into Bolivia and were handed over to our new guide and caught a boat across Lake Titicaca to Isle de Sol (Sun Island) which is the largest island on the lake. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigatable body of water in the world, being 4,000 metres above sea level. We stayed the night in an Eco Lodge on the island near the town of Yumani. Now, we're all for the environment but this environmentally friendly lodge had no heating and no hot water and on a freezing cold night (4,000 metres above sea level) all green thoughts went out the window and we swore never to stay in an Eco Lodge again.

The next day we caught the boat back to the lakeside resort town of Copacabana, before driving 3 hours to La Paz. The scenery along the way was spectacular with stunning views of Lake Titicaca, at times on both sides of the road (Sharon can't verify this as she slept most of the way). At one stage we had to cross Lake Titicaca by ferry, which involved the van we were travelling in driving onto a barge and being transported 1/2 mile across the lake, with the barge being powered by an outboard motor. There were dozens of similar barges as every vehicle crossing the lake gets its own barge.

La Paz is the highest city of its size in the world (just over 1 million people), sitting at 3,740 metres above sea level. The city sits in a bowl shaped valley, and the first view you get is from about 500 metres above the city -very impressive. It is also home to the highest golf course in the world, although the green fees were a bit pricey so we decided against a game.

La Paz was chaotic - very busy, polluted and a little bit scary. We were there for the May Day celebrations so thought we would walk into the main square to see the parade and march. There were hundreds of police in the heart of the city and around the main square, wearing riot gear, and with many of them carrying machine guns. When you can't understand the language its difficult to tell the difference between a celebration and a protest and when we heard what we believed to be gunshots going off every couple of minutes we quickly retreated to the safety of our hotel. The next day our guide told us that what we thought were gunshots were actually firecrackers which are legal in Bolivia so we may have over-reacted - although it is only 4 years since 25 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police in the same square (February 2003) - therefore I still think we made we right move.

We flew out of La Paz on the morning of May 3, headed for New York, so this was the end of the South American part of our journey.

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Photos

Lunch on Isle de Sol (Sun Island)
A traditional Andean lunch - so much yummy food, served in a hessian cloth it is laid out on the table and members of your party dig in with their hands. No dishes to do - what a great idea!

Lake Titicaca - view from Isle de Sol
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigatable body of water in the world, sitting at 4,000 metres above sea level

Crossing Lake Titicaca by barge
This is how vehicles cross Lake Titicaca. Each vehicle drives onto a barge powered by an outboard motor. Note the full sized tourist bus on a barge in the middle of the picture.

La Paz - the first view
La Paz sits in a bowl shaped valley. This is a view from the top.

Moon Valley
Moon Valley is one of the major tourist attractions in La Paz - a lunar like national park. You can see some trees in the background which are on the highest golf course in the world.