Lake Titicaca and Bolivia

Some very hectic days...

Day 18

This morning, we took some sort of cyclos (pedel powered transport) down to the port in Puno.

Here we boarded a boat for a visit to the Uros floating islands in the bay of Puno.

Very different exsitance for these people, living on a bed of reeds complete with all the basic needs for life. They seem to be a very cheerful bunch, and eager to meet visitors.

After visiting a couple of these islands, we continued on to the larger, more normal, island of Amantani. Here we were met by our ¨families¨ who would be our hosts for the night. These are the local Aymara/Quechua Indians who actually live in a very nice village on the slopes of the island. They basically act as boarding houses for visitors, two persons per family, and they provided beds and all meals while we are there. We brought some gifts of rice, pasta and other basic needs that we had purchsed in Puno the day before. Facilities are quite primitive and they speak primarily the Quechua language, but we were able to get along quite well for the short time we were there.

While on the island, we participated in a football match (tourists against the locals), a hike to the top of the island for a view of sunset, and a dance at the local hall. All us tourists had to dress up in local garb for the event (harder on the girls than the guys). It is quite cold at night at these altitudes and many layers is a good idea.

Oddly enough, even though it is very cold at night, it can be quite warm during the day, and the risk of sunburn at this altitude (about 3700 Meters) is severe, as some of our group discovered. Between that and the injuries from the football match (on a paved pitch) and hiking on very uneven cobblestones, there were more mishaps on this one day than on the rest of the entire trip.

Day 19

The next morning, we left by boat from Amantani island and travelled to Taquile island. Completely different culture here, where the men stand around knitting distinctive woollen hats while the women work the fields and do some weaving. Of course, we hiked to the top of the island (if there is an opportunity, we will climb), had lunch at a restaurant near the main square of the village there, and then descended via 526 steps to the port to re-board our vessel for the return to Puno for the night. A few brave souls went swimming in the lake on the way back (9 degree C water). As for us, only Russ was brave enough to try it, and he was back on the boat pretty quickly.

Day 20

Last night, our tour leader got word that some sort of strike was imminent today. Apparently, the idea is to block the highways so no-one can move about the country. With this forwarning, we got up at 2 AM to board a bus that took us to the Bolivian border before the strikers had set up the blockades. As a result, we got to the border about 5 AM and had to wait for it to open at 8 AM before we could cross. The actual crossing was pretty smooth.

Once in Bolivia, we went a short distance to the town of Copacabana, still on the shores of Lake Titicaca, where we changed to a Bolivian bus for the rest of the trip to La Paz. We travelled across the Altiplano (a high-altitude plain), following the shore of the lake, most of the way to La Paz. At one point we had to cross a bit of the lake via a small passenger boat while the bus was brought across via a barge.

As a result of the early start to the day, we arrived in La Paz earlier than originally anticipated, so we had a chance to walk around the city a bit before we all headed to a lively restaurant/night club for a group dinner. Tonight is our last night with this group and there were many goodbyes to be said. As an aside, our taxi driver that we found to take us to the restaurant got totally lost and it took over a 1/2 hour to travel what should have been a 10-minute drive. We did get to see a lot of La Paz by night though, that we otherwise might never have gotten to see.

Day 21

This is officially our last day on this tour and we decided to just make a lazy day of it, actually sleeping in. Our plan for the day is mostly to try and figure out what we are going to do for the next two weeks before our second tour starts.

So far, La Paz is quite an interesting, busy and confusing place. Everything is very cheap and there are a million little shops selling anything you could possibly want. But walking about is a bit of challange. The streets are all up and down hills and at all angles, with lots of motorized traffic that seems to have the right of way over pedestrians at all times. Not really a lot different from the other cities we have seen such as Cusco, just bigger.