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Published: October 19th 2005
Our flight to La Paz was on the OLDEST plane either of us have been on, a Boeing 727-200. The novelty factor just outweighed the fear factor! It was chucking it down when we arrived and was bloody freezing as well. We were both looking forward to getting into our nice warm hostel room. Our hostel room turned out to be colder than a winter´s night in Antartica (okay, a dlight exaggeration but you get the gist!) and to top that there was no hot shower, bruuhh!
We wrapped ourselves up and went out to look round the city. We found solice and warmth in Burger King (Guy was in need of some ´normal´ food after his recent illness!) We spent a couple of days in and around La Paz, visiting the Coca Museum which was fascinating, and drinking lots of cups of Coca Tea.
Coca is not a class A drug here and is perfectly legal in Peru and Bolivia and you can buy the leaves just about anywhere. The tea is said to help combat the effects of altitude but we´re not sure if that is true, it didn´t really have an effect on us... it seems incredible that
La Paz
Racheljust a leaf (once refined) can be the cause of so much corruption and suffering, all we know is that it makes a jolly nice cup of tea!!!
After a few days in La Paz we caught a (very, very old) bus to Copacabana which is a charming little town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We decided to have a ´splurge´here, as suggested in our guidebook and checked into a place called
Hotel La Cupula Here we splashed out on the honeymoon suite which was fantastic, easily our favourite dwelling so far. It was split-level with a kitchen! We went into town and bought some pasta and garlic and tomatoes, as well as some Bolivian red wine (which went down the sink - think we´ll wait untill Chile before we try anymore tinto!) and a few beers! Spent a pleasant afternoon/evening watching the sun go down over the lake and enjoying some food & drink.
The next morning Guy cooked up some spicy Bolivian sausages and chilli scrabled eggs and ate them in bed before we caught a boat to Isla Del Sol. Isla Del Sol is the supposed birthplace of the Inca culture and is a wonderfully sleepy
Valley of the Moon
Its wasn´t a valley and it didn´t look like the moon! place. There are only a couple of villages on the island and most of the restaurants have just one thing on offer - Trout from the lake. We had possibly the nicest and freshest trout either of us have eaten - thoroughly delicious. The next morning we were up bright and early and spend most of the day hiking around the island which was fantastic. Although the altitude and sun took it´s toll, by the time we got back to our hostal we were both knackered, sunburnt and in much need of cold beer! We were so impressed with Lake Titicaca, never have we seen so much blue before, it really is a place that needs to be seen to be beleived...
We had a night back at our favorite place in Copacabana before getting the bus back to La Paz. We had a couple of nights in La Paz (and discovered the fantastic Bolivian street food, empanadas, tamales and our favourite, rollenas de papa which are like a fried potato dumpling filled with spicy meat, egg, olives etc - fantastic!) and had more of a look round. We saw the government building that was riddled with bulets during
Name that tune!
Bolivian songsmith the 2003 political uprising and a few other interesting things. The Witches Market is a spectacle, selling all sorts from lotions & potions to llama foetuses! Oh, we also went to the cimena and to Burger King again (Rachel´s craving this time!)
We are now in Santiago, Chile (see next blog for info!)
Hope you´re all well,
Guy & Rachel
PS - there are some more photos on the previous entry now...
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