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Published: September 25th 2007
Hi,
So we are in La Paz now after a whirlwind tour of Bolivia. After leaving Arequipa, we took a bus to Puno, where we hoped to make a connection to Copacabana. We just missed it, but a very helpful Peruvian man chased down the bus for us in a taxi... and so on to Bolivia. Copacabana is a small very touristy town on the shores of Lake Titicaca (one of the highest navigable lakes in the world). There is not much to the town itself apart from lots of touristy bars and restaurants but no ATM! Well there was a cash advance facility in one of the moneygram places but the guy was on holidays while we were there. So anyway we had changed all cash at the border and figured we had just about enough to do what we wanted and make it to La Paz. So from Copacabana we took a boat out to Isla del Sol (the birthplace of Inca civilisation) on Lake Titicaca. The lake and island were beautiful. The island is pretty small- we walked around it in a couple of hours, and spent the night there. Next morning back to Copacabana where we spent
our last Bolivianos on a bus to La Paz. What we didnt know, was that there was a boat crossing on the way to La Paz- the bus driver kicked us off the bus and told us to go on the passenger boat. Oooops - no money to pay for this crossing. Thankfully we met a really helpful Argentianian and some generous Germans who loaned us the money (the equivalent of 10 cent), so we weren´t left stranded and we didnt have to swim.
La Paz is a crazy city- where rich and poor literally live side by side. There is one main thoroughfare in the city and about half way down it, the city changes from a third world place into what could easily be mistaken for any modern European city with cafes, bars and fast food outlets everywhere. I know lots of places are like this, but you get to see it all by walking from one end of the main street to the other. Traffic is mental here and being a pedestrian is not an easy life. You basically have to make a run for it and hope for the best. Night life is pretty good
here too. I knew my cousin (Alison) was in La Paz somewhere too so we decided to stay put for a few days, take some spanish lessons and try meet up with her. Unfortunately she didnt check her email till the day we had decided to move on. So bus tickets purchased, we went to meet Alison for a quick coffee before leaving. But the bad influence that she is, convinced us to stay another night and go to a party with her. So that was a waste of 160 Bvs on bus tickets- aw well! (160 Bvs is less than 16 euro, but it would pay for about 3-4 nights accomodation for the two of us- this country is ridiculously cheap). The day after, we left on an overnight bus for Uyuni (hangover included- thanks Alison).
Uyuni is a small town south of La Paz on the edge of the famous Bolivian salt flats. From here we did a 3 day tour of the south west of Bolivia. We saw the salt flats which were pretty cool (made the ones in Peru seem like toy ones), stayed in a salt hotel, saw numerous lakes, volcanos, mountains, geysers, hot
Downtown, La Paz
Still optimistic before the French gamesprings. The whole area is pretty much a desert - its hard to believe there is any wildlife or farming but we saw lots. It seemed to me like most of the animals were eating little more than clay. We did the tour in a jeep - which was on its last legs and so it wasnt exactly a comfortable trip and the roads in Bolivia are little more than dirt tracks- no such thing as road surfacing here!
We took another overnight bus back to La Paz last night and we fly out of here tomorrow for Chile. So it really was a quick tour of Bolivia. A nice country, much poorer than Peru, food and hygiene standards are a lot lower but there are pretty cool things to see.
Chat soon
Ciao!
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Eoin and Rachel
Eoin Mulholland and Rachel Harte
Cooool
Holiday looks savage so far. Time to stop wearin the rugby jerseys though guys! Keep up the good work wit da blogs. - Eoin