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Published: January 19th 2009
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Uros Floating Islands
People-made floating island communities! There are a total of 42 of these islands in this area. Whoops, it seems I have been sadly neglecting this blog for my entire time in Bolivia (which is pushing five weeks now). I'll try to briefly summarize some of the escapades I've been taking part in the last little while.
After finishing up my volunteer position in Ancahuasi I happily left Cusco December 12. My first stop was Puno, near the Peruvian side of world famous Lake Titicaca (or locally Lago Titikaka). Lake Titicaca is the highest ''navigable'' lake in the world, which is an extremely strange title in my opinion and after some asking, have found it to mean that one can take a boat across the lake anytime of the year (without it being iced over). I first visited the Uros floating islands which are people-made and consist of reeds woven together to make a 3m thick mat. People live in reed houses on these islands to this day! Nowadays they make their livelihoods through tourism but in the past they were subsistence fisherpersons. I thought the reed islands were very cool. From the Uros I went to Amantani, a real island in the lake. The lake is so huge it reminded me more of the ocean. I
Sunset on Isla del Sol
Isla del Sol is on the Bolivian side of the lake and has gorgeous views. spent the night with a family on the island and it was ok, but nothing spectacular. The following day our group visited Taquille island (that one's easy for me to remember because it sounds like tequila) which featured social status hats and little girls that cried when you refused to buy their handicrafts.
I then boated back to Puno during which time I managed to acquire a mean sunburn (have I mentioned that the UV strength down here is unreal?), caught a bus to Copacabana and the next day was in Bolivia! My first stop in Bolivia was Isla del Sol, one of the Bolivian Lake Titicaca islands. I thoroughly enjoyed my day and night on the island which seemed much prettier than the Peruvian ones, had a gorgeous sunset and only cost Bs10 for the night (or about $1.50CDN).
From there I made my first of three visits to La Paz, Bolivia´s largest city. On the first trip, I did the World´s Most Dangerous Road bike trip down 64km of what apparently used to be the road with the most fatalities per kilometre in the world. I was happy to ride down on bikes made in Vancouver
Bus on Sketchy Ferry
This is an example of how our bus crossed part of the lake on the way to La Paz. I´m very glad I wasn´t on the bus as this was taking place. and overall had a lovely time except for wiping out on a corner and injuring my knee. The following day I visited San Pedro Prison, an underground major tourist attraction here. The prison holds about 1500 men, 70% of them in there for drug-trafficking and is famous for having families (including children) living there with their husbands/fathers, having markets and shops in the prison and most of all for having a coke factory that our crackhead guide told us produces 400kg of about 95% pure white stuff per week. If that´s even close to true that is incredible money. Anyway, the prison is like its own contained community chock full of corrupt guards and police (which is how tourists are allowed in and how cocaine can still come in and out). It was an interesting experience. Another weird highlight of La Paz is the Witches Market which is famous for having stalls of llama fetuses for sale. These are apparently used for ceremonial purposes and bring good luck. I met some Canadian guys a few days ago who said they mailed a few home to their friends mixed in a huge bag of cereal. Be happy I didn´t do that
World´s Most Dangerous Bike Ride
Here´s a BC person and a BC bike on the world´s most dangerous road trip. to any of you!
After La Paz I departed on what turned out to be the worst bus ride of my life (thus far) to Rurrenabaque for a pampas trip to see some Amazonian landscapes and wildlife. To summarize: the bus trip was twenty hours, about four of those hours along a cliffside on an incredibly narrow, unstable road. Buses go off cliffs reasonably often in in Peru and Bolivia and there is absolutely no reason why our bus didn´t go over, given that we would have to wait or back up on the edge that was crumbling to let other buses and lorries pass. I had my window wide open and was in a position ready to jump out the entire time in case the worst did happen. Thankfully it didn´t, but later that evening, the luggage of the bus caught on fire (directly above the fuel tank I might add) and that episode led to the nickname the ¨death bus¨ which I survived, but didn´t get a wink of sleep from.
The pampas tour started a few hours after arriving sleep-deprived and freaked out in Rurrenabaque. A group of six of us spent three days on
San Pedro Prison Cocaine Factory
This is allegedly the world-famous in-prison cocaine factory. We weren´t allowed in, but our tour guide did ask if we wanted to buy some coke (Bs100 per gram or about $15CDN...I don´t know much about drugs but I think that´s extremely cheap). one of the tributaries of the Amazon watching lots of tropical waterfowl, turtles, alligators, capybaras, PINK RIVER DOLPHINS, wild monkeys and even a cobra. It was a nice trip and ended in us having to take a fifteen hour jeep ride back to La Paz because the grass runway of the Rurre airport was wet and unsuitable for landing.
Due to the delay in getting back, the group of us (Mary, Carly, Jenna, Peter and myself) decided to stay in La Paz for Christmas. We went for a huge feast at the Loki hostel with about two hundred other people (including Rachel who I knew from Lima!) and bascially had about fifteen hours of fun. It was a strange but definitely fun Christmas.
Next time...the monkey place!!!
And some pictures for your viewing pleasure:
Lake Titicaca photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237459&l=d5c23&id=21003528
La Paz photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2242891&l=4d046&id=21003528
Rurrenabaque photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2243910&l=1f787&id=21003528
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