WEEK 17 - LA PAZ & LAKE TITICACA

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WEEK 17 - LA PAZ & LAKE TITICACA

The posh tourist bus with toilets, personal air conditioning, videos, music, reclining seats, blankets and oxygen was fully booked. We bought tickets for the local bus which left Turpiza at 8pm for La Paz - but it did provide blankets! We took our seats and the bus set off. Five minutes down the road it stopped and 15 more people crowded onto the already full bus. The locals must have been desperate as some had to stand for 6 or 8 hours. The road was only a dirt track which was badly eroded during the recent rains and the river crossings were particularly bad with the bus engaging the lowest gear and rolling from side to side. There were no comfort stops and we just got out of the bus to pee by the road side in the dark! The journey took 13 hours and we were pleased to arrive at la Paz.

We found a hostel and had a shower and in the afternoon took a bus tour of the city which was much easier than puffing up the steep streets. I have been lucky and not been affected by altitude sickness or headaches due to the lack of oxygen - but I do find that I need the loo more often. The secret could be that I am drinking coca tea which is supposed to help! We did notice that water takes much longer to boil at this high altitude - and it actually boils at 85C and then splutters out of the kettle spout.

La Paz, Bolivia's commercial capital, is the highest capital city in the world at 4km above sea level (4000m). It lies in a deep canyon between two mountain ranges within the Andes and itself has an altitude range of 1000m. The lower end of the canyon valley is 10C warmer than the north and has a desert climate. Here we visited yet another 'Valle de la Lune' with spectacular stalagmite type pinnacles formed from sedimentary deposits cemented together with calcium carbonate. It is in the more sheltered south where the climate is more amenable that the higher classes live with impressive achitecturally designed houses to accommodate and blend in with the landscape. The poorer people live in the upper more exposed valley where it is cooler and wetter.


La Paz is South America's fastest growing city. With a pop of 1.5 million 50% are indigenous, 24% of latin decent, 24% mestizo (mixed race), 1% negroid descended from slaves brought to work in the mines and 1% light skinned. Over half the population are 15-24 and more than a third of all women have 5 children. Life expectancy is 60 for men and 63 for women although retirement age is 65! I keep looking a the old ladies and wondering if they are all younger than I am!


Unlike every other city we have visited which has a colonial grid layout and is easily navigable, La Paz has one main street running the length of the canyon valley and then a myriad of tiny steep streets and alley ways, many crowded with traffic and market stalls- so it is much easier to get lost.

The city is fascinating. Althought there are some lovely old colonial buildings and plazas- most of the town has an indigenous feel with small shops and kiosks reflecting specific commercial outlets and activities. Our hostel was in the 'peluqueria´ quarter- there must have been 20 hairdressing salons all together. Round the corner was the ´joyeria´ (jewelry quarter) and the ´roleria´ selling and mending watches. We were lucky to be so central - and all for 1.80p per night! The streets were lined with market stalls selling anything and everything. The women particularly are involved in selling and must make a great contribution to the local economy. They are very hard working and industrious and sit knitting or crocheting while tending their market stalls. The witches market was most fascinating just round the corner from our hostel. There are still many rituals and traditional beliefs passed down through generations and it was possible to buy a wide range of herbs, vaious lotions and potions, dried frogs and dried llama feotuses which are supposed to be lucky.

There are few private cars- but the narrow roads are full of old buses with lots of character, collectivos (small mini buses), micro buses (small buses) and taxis. The conductors shout their destination to get passengers and the drivers hoot to make progress.

At last I was approached by a hooded shoe-shine boy and my boots which were white with salt are now looking smart again. (The hooded shoe-shine boys look quite sinister but many are working in disguise to help feed their families or to pay for their education.)

I bought some new specs - varifocal, non-scratch plastic lenses and photo-chromatic. Much cheaper than at home. I bought my last two pair of specs from India and they have been fine!

After two nights in La Paz we took the local bus to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca at 4600m
Just one small rucksack now for the next two weeks - much easier than having to lug around a heavy rucksack and put it on top of the bus. The principle is to take an absolute minimum - knowing that it is always possible to buy anything which we may need.

Through the steep suburbs with local markets, road side workshops and quarters for sewing and dress selling, car repairs and parts, LPG tanks, radiator repairs, tyres, brick sellers and builders yards, calor gas depots and wood yards. These suburbs housed the indigenous population is small box houses constructed with reinforced concrete supports. The better houses were clad with hollow bricks while the poorer houses were built from adobe blocks. Some had the ground floor built with adobe blocks from which they ran their workshops or business while the living quarters upstairs were built of brick.

From the head of the canyon at up onto the altiplano with fenced and secure industrial estates, the Pepsi factory and poor quality adobe housing.

The altiplano bounded on each side by snow-capped mountains was agricultural with dispersed settlements and small adobe houses surrounded by adobe walls to shelter livestock at night. Small strips of oats, barley, potatoes and broad beans broke up the otherwise desolate landscape. To protect the crops cows, sheep, llamas, pigs, goats, donkeys and horses were tethered or small flocks of sheep and llamas were tended by little old ladies in colourful traditional dress. Their only protection was a thick blanket wrapped round their shoulders to protect them from the cold wind and rain.

Then the sighting of Lake Titicaca. It was jade and not unlike Lake Turkana in Kenya. Later it became sky blue and looked wonderful in the sunshine. We stopped. Everyone got off the bus - and we found ourselves in a small motor boat - with only 3 life jackets for a bus full of people - crossing a narrow stretch of the Lake. Meanwhile our bus was driven onto a rickety old flat barge like vessel, punted out of the shallow water and then slowly motored across the lake along with 6 sheep and a motor bike. (It was even more exciting 2 weeks later when we did the return journey in the dark! Actually the lake looked wonderful as it shimmered in the moonlight.) All aboard again for a short ride and we arrived at Copacabana (3800m) on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. It was quite touristy but we enjoyed our visit. It was also quite chiily and we needed all our layers!

To the Isla de Sol - a sacred Inca island. It was here that the Inca's believed the sun was born. A lovely boat journey to the north of the island landing at Santiago Pampa. Amazingly most of the hills surrounding the lake are terraced. There must have been 1000's of miles of narrow terraces which must have supported a huge population at one time. There are only a few ruins and the belief is that a large Inca city lies beneath the water. Inca artefacts and gold images have be recvoered from stone boxes deep on the lake bed.

The local population rely on tourism for an income and ladies were awaiting our arrival in wonderful colourful national dress tending their market stalls. There were alos a few hippies selling beads - bu they looked a bit out of place. A cafe con leche. Fe had chips - unusual for her - but the two I had were very tasty. I found a rare a Bounty bar!

A peaceful walk along the shore through a village with traditional small adobe houses and pigs, donkeys and sheep foraging on the shore. Small strips of maize, potatoes, quinoa and lots of broad beans - one of my favourites. An old lady sat knitting by the road side and I bought a cosy hat with llamas on which covered my ears. Back at the jetty Fe and I shared a fried egg and tomato sandwich which was very tasty.

We anchored again at Yumani where locals were cultivating their strips of land with digging sticks and hand weeding their crops. Ladies were sittting by the path knitting and weaving, children were selling brightly coloured belts and another lady was trailing along a llama on a rope hoping to have her photographs taken for 1 pesos (6p). On the lake was a reed (papyrus) boat which was quite spectacular. A very worthwhile excursion.

We then travelled across the border to Peru to visit the famous floating islands on the lake.
It was as though the border between Bolivia and Peru coincided with the boundary of the wild infertile steep lands with relic terraces and the wide fertile plain. The Peruvian shoreline was one of the most fertile areas we had seen. Adobe walled small holdings were dispersed through out the area - seemingly with no roads connecting them. There were colourful strips of yellow, orange, pink and crimson quinoa, broad beans, lupins, oats, barley and potatoes. Some strips were being cultivated by ox ploughs and men with digging sticks and oats strips were being harvested by women in traditional dress hand using sickles. Oher groups of ladies and children were hand threashing quinoa on huge mats. No mechanisation here! All around were tethered cattle, sheep, llamas, donkeys, pigs and horses. Off shore were fish farms for the famous large Titicaca trout.

Puno also the shore of Lake Titicaca is a large commercial city unlike Copacabana. We took a 3 wheel motorised taxi from the bus terminal and found a hostel.

A trip to the unique floating islands. The home of the Uros peoples who initially lived in papyrus boats with cover to escape the agressive Collac and Inca tribes. Gradually they lashed the boats together for security and lived in communities and then constructed the floating islands from totora reeds. These islands which float on 18 metres of water are made from 2 metres of reed turf held together by wooden stakes and 1 metre of loose reeds which need topping up every month.

Houses and boats are still made from totora reeds, but with solar panels the remote houses have lights and TV and the main island has a school, mini market and an international telephone box. It is rather commercial and more like a floating museum but it allows the language and unique lifestyle to continue.

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Photos

La Paz
Hooded shoeshine boy

La Paz
Highest capital city

Floating bus
Crossing Lake Titicaca with 6 sheep & a motobike!

Lake Titicaca
from Isla del Sol

Floating islands
Lake Titicaca

Comments

[Jean Cooney]

Brilliant
Your journals arre so vivid and the pics (including the spitting llama) are marvellous. I expect I'm like your other friends, very envious! Mind you, I don'tknow that I'd cope with the no loos on the desert drives and other practical problems,but certainly feel Im almost there with you. And those fabulous places you've been stayingn for a few dollars a night too. You ust have reseached your travels well, I think. . Your descritpions are terrific. how will Kinclaven seem after all this? But I suppose you did equally enthralling travel before in central America, didnt you? Hope it's all still going well. Love J