Last week, we left off in Sucre awaiting the zombie apocalypse from underneath the local park aka burial ground. By the time we finished the cathedral and crypt tour, it was time to head back over to the Treasury Museum for the 3pm re-opening. We arrived a little after 3pm only to be told the only English tour was at 5:30pm. We told the employee we did not need an English tour but she would not let us join the next tour so we left with our money in our pocket. Evidently, the Treasury Museum did not need more treasure to survive. We stopped for an early dinner at a quiet Italian restaurant near our hotel. As we ordered, a group of children began singing upstairs and we were told they had choir practice. each afternoon. By the time our food arrived, we could have joined them in singing because we knew every word. I can say their teacher was very thorough! Just as the waitress placed our dinner on the table, dozens of children came running into the courtyard, chattering boisterously. Each child held a pan flute in his hands which struck instant terror in our hearts. They all began to blow and practice the song we had been listening to endlessly for the last hour. The waitress informed us that today was a very special day for them as they were doing a pan flute concert for their parents in an hour. We smiled, nodded, handed her our plates and asked for to-go boxes. There’s only so much fluting that one can take!
The next morning, we walked up a very large hill to the Recoleta area. The church we wanted to see was closed so we sat in the square and watched two wedding parties as they took photos. The mothers of the brides had a special short wedding dress so that must be a tradition of some sort. By the time the bride and groom in one party had finished their individual pictures, they had to run to catch up with the party which had already started. The groomsmen dragged out huge speakers into the square and the dancing commenced. I love a good wedding so it was very interesting to see all the Bolivian traditions. We spent the afternoon touring the San Felipe de Neri convent which had amazing rooftop views of Sucre. Our final day in Sucre, we toured a local castle that was built in the late 1800s by a local aristocrat. The castle was lovely but empty and in need of some TLC. We finished out the day with a stop by the Florida Palace which was in so much need of TLC that we were not even charged an entrance fee to wander through it. We also swung by the National cemetery which was unique because it had sections of very expensive gravesites, mausoleums that reminded us of a U-Haul storage center and an area that was obviously for the poor people. You just never know what you are going to find in a cemetery! Our final flight in Bolivia was to the city of Santa Cruz. Finally….back to sea level! As we sucked in copious amounts of oxygen, we checked into our hotel and set off exploring. It was a Bolivian national holiday of some sort so most things were closed. We wandered through the main square and had to eat lunch at a Chucky Cheese type restaurant which seemed to be very popular. Santa Cruz appeared to be a lively city with mostly young families so I guess the restaurant made sense. Santa Cruz was a newer city that had a population boom a few years ago so it was a typical new city without much pizzazz. Our survival Spanish failed us miserably in Santa Cruz because the people in the region spoke the Catalan dialect from Spain. They spoke very rapidly and did not seem to accept that we did not understand them because they just continuously fired off endless paragraphs and then looked at us expectantly. We finally went to my father’s theory that the answer to 97% of questions is ‘yes’ which seemed to satisfy them. The next morning, we headed to Guembe Nature Park. The park had three resort-like swimming pools, a zoo, nature trails and the largest butterfly atrium in the world (so they claimed). My favorite part was the aviary which had tons of parrots, parakeets, macaws and numerous other birds. At one point, a huge parrot landed on my camera bag and proceeded to try to eat through the mesh to get a tissue. No matter what I did, he would not get off the bag and I did not want him to eat the tissue because it might make him sick. No way was I going to reach near his very large beak so I finally took the bag off over my head with the parrot hanging on and squawking indignantly at me. Once I laid the bag on the ground, we were able to shoo him away. At that point, I hid everything in the main pocket so as not to attract anymore unsolicited attention. We figured out he was just hungry when the zookeeper walked into the aviary and hundreds of birds swarmed to the feeding stations. Bill made me leave without taking one home with us but some day….Galt will have a parrot! Early the next morning, we were picked up by a local guide and taken out to the Loma de Arena national park. On the way, the guide search diligently to find monkeys and slots but to no avail. The park was famous for huge sand dunes and it reminded me of Kitty Hawk, NC where the Wright brothers had their first flight. The guide was very excited to hear this information and immediately searched on his phone for pictures of Kitty Hawk. When I asked him how he learned to speak English (because so few people spoke English in Bolivia), he responded, “When I was twelve, I began listening to music by Eminem. I studied his lyrics over and over and that is how I learned English.” Considering his English was almost perfect, I think the public schools in the United States should adopt the Eminem curriculum plan! As we climbed to the top of the dunes, we enjoyed breathing and were proud that we made it to the top. Once at the top, the guide waxed some sand boards and we climbed onto them for a fast surf down the dune (sitting down, of course). As the guide explained how to get moving, he and Bill slid easily down the hill as I got stuck at the top. Finally, after much wiggling and pushing, I was on my way! The sand surfing was fun but the sand fleas swarmed and even invaded the car. There were thousands of them. The only thing in the park that outnumbered the sand fleas were the butterflies. Our guide said since it had been a drier year, the butterflies were abundant. As we drove out of the park, the butterflies parted like the Red Sea to allow the car to pass. Breathtaking. Our final day in Bolivia, we took a taxi outside of town to the Botanical Gardens. We have seen many gardens during our travels but we hoped to spot some monkeys or sloths at these gardens. Alas, it was not to be and the gardens were a bit boring for us. To catch a taxi back into town, we had to stand on the edge of the ‘highway’ and wait for a taxi to stop. We climbed into a very rickety taxi that had an automatic window control on Bill’s side of the cab and a manual window control on my side. The taxis never fail to entertain. We gave the taxi our hotel address and in a few minutes, he pulled into a local area with food stalls and tons of stores. We told him this was not our area but he said that was where he was dropping us so we got out of the taxi. We finally figured out that his taxi company could only cover a certain area and our hotel was not in his area. Bill was glad to have an opportunity to buy some meat on a stick from a vendor with a huge grill so no harm done. We caught a taxi back to our hotel and prepared for our 5:30am flight back to Cartagena. We had arranged a ride to the airport with our taxi driver who had picked us up at the airport on our incoming flight. At 3am, he showed up reliably but I am pretty sure he had been into the coca because he looked terrible. Our flight was painfully early and our day was long but we landed in Cartagena in time for dinner and went straight to bed. Southern Peru and Bolivia was an amazing trip filled with interesting characters and sights that we will never forget. Thank you for sharing this journey with us! ****See pictures tab for more pics
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Following a much needed rest day after our Salt Flat excursion, we headed to the bus station to buy tickets for our 3 hours bus trip to Potosi. Bill has a way of finding odd, out of the way destinations that always add an extra layer of adventure to a trip but his oddities usually end up being a highlight. Potosi was added to the list because he found the oldest continually mined silver mine in the world, Cerro Rico. Our bus adventure began with sitting in the small Uyuni bus station listening to ticket hawkers scream as if they were working in Grand Central Station. “Potoseeeeee! Potoseeeee!” shrieking continuously from at least 6 different bus companies. In total, we had about 20 people sitting in the station who had already purchased their bus tickets so I am not sure why the hawkers felt the need to yell over our heads for 30 minutes. After we boarded the bus, the hawkers followed us outside and continued their ear splitting chant until the bus pulled out of the station. With “Potoseeeee!” ringing in our ears, we settled back for a smooth ride to Potosi. As with all buses in South America, the bus stopped to pick up people hitch hiking on the side of the road and at one point, a man climbed onto the bus and stood in the middle of the aisle. He began speaking very passionately in Spanish to everyone on the bus. At first, Bill and I decided he must have been preaching but then came the sales pitch. Even in Spanish, Bill could recognize a snake oil salesman. Whatever he was selling must have been a cure-all because almost everyone on the bus except us bought his magic elixir. The man kept pointing to Cerro Rico in the distance so I am guessing it either protected them from mine disasters or guaranteed them a rich strike. After a hectic run through the Potosi bus station, we checked into our hotel and began wandering the town of Potosi. Cerro Rico had originally been owned by the Spanish and was the richest silver mine in the world. It had been operating for over 500 years. After Bolivia gained independence from Spain, the mining continued. Cerro Rico was taken over by the State in the 1950s and then “given back” in the 1980s. Since that time, small consortiums continue to mine (mostly copper and tin) but no real money is made from the mine. As a result, Potosi was a slowly dying city. Its’ façade was still grand but its’ people had the look of those needing to find new opportunities elsewhere. Our first stop was the Museo de Moneda which was the old mint and had interesting information on the history of the silver mine. It would have been better if the tour had been in English but we managed to piece together enough information. One interesting part was about the ship the “Atocha” and its’ cargo loaded from the Cerro Rico. Anyone who knows Key West’s history will recall the Atocha as the ship that Mel Fisher found off the coast of Florida with one of the largest treasures ever discovered. When the tour concluded around 4pm, we were hungry so we thought we would search for a quick snack before dinner. We searched and searched but were unable to find any place that had appetizer-like snacks. We finally gave up and ate dinner at 4:30pm. After “dinner”, we headed to the nearest corner store to grab some beer only to find that nowhere sold beer! After at least 6 stores turned us away, Bill asked the hotel manager about buying beer and was directed to one store several blocks away that stocked beer. Potosi was an odd city!
Early the next morning, we were picked up by our local guide to head to the mine. He was a miner but on days he gave tours, he “didn’t have to dig in the mine” so he greatly appreciated our visit. I had decided I would not venture into the mine because A) I get a bit claustrophobic and B) I read the book, “Deep Down Dark” about the Chilean mine disaster and I really was not keen on being trapped in a 500 year old mine. Our first stop was the miner’s market where we were encouraged to buy gifts for the miners we would meet on our visit. We could buy coca, liquor, snacks and….dynamite! Bill was determined to buy dynamite so our guide showed us the dynamite stall and sure enough, you could just buy as much as you wanted! Our guide told us the miners really appreciated the coca leaves and energy drinks the most because they needed energy. The coca leaves also helped them time their breaks because they knew when the coca leaves lost their flavor it had been 4 hours. The second stop was the refining facility where the minerals were separated from the mined rock. We were given coveralls, rubber boots and masks. As we entered the facility, our guide said, “Just don’t touch anything because some of the chemicals used are very toxic”. This statement was not very reassuring given the mask we had was a flimsy over-the-counter useless Covid type mask. As we stepped into the facility, we were greeted with vats of boiling sulfuric acid and sodium cyanide. We had to walk on an uneven platform between the vats and for anyone who knows me, balance is not my strength. Doing my best to balance while holding my breath and not touching anything, I managed to make it through the facility without having a tragic incident that would turn me into a Stan Lee Marvel superhero. Now covered in lethal chemicals, we climbed back into the car with our coveralls and boots and headed to the mine. Our guide promised me he would take us in a large corridor in the mine and we would only go in a few hundred feet. I agreed to give it a try so we began our walk into the mine. Every few feet we would be squeezed up against the wall while men with wheelbarrows ran past at top speed heading in and out of the mine. The full wheelbarrows must have weighed a ton and the men had to stoop over and run with the wheelbarrows due to the low clearance. I asked the guide how the Spaniards had “discovered” the mine if the locals had been mining it before the Spaniards invaded. It seemed like they would have kept it a secret. The guide stated, “Some Peruvian showed them where it was.” We are always humored that the Peruvians are always blamed for anything bad that happens in South America. After hunching our way through the shaft, we came upon the “chapel” that was used by the miners. No Catholic icons were allowed inside the mine and no women miners were allowed inside the mine because they were bad luck. The “chapel” was filled with gods from the indigenous religions so we sat next to the large, bull looking creature. He had a cigarette in his mouth and liquor bottles and bags of coca surrounded his base. The liquor was made by the locals and was 96% alcohol. Glad to know beer was controlled so the locals would not develop a drinking problem! We all shared a drink and the guide poured alcohol at the foot of the statue to bless the mine and the miners. Most of the miners died young due to lung disease. They chose to mine because even though the mine was dying, it was a better living than earning the $300 USD a month minimum wage with other jobs in Bolivia. Elsewhere in the mountain were huge deposits of silver but mining those areas would be unsafe due to the number of tunnels that had been dug throughout 500 years. Even though we had not gone very far into the mine, I was glad to be safely back out in the sunshine. Next stop, Sucre. To catch the 4 hour bus to Sucre, we headed to the “new” bus station which was a two floor building much like a mall. If we thought the “Potoseeeee” hawkers were loud, they could not begin to compare to the “Suuuuuccccreeeee” caterwauling echoing through two floors of tiled building. We were the only two passengers on our bus which meant that it took us an hour to get through town as the hawkers stopped every mile to drum up business. At one point, I wanted to ask how much it would cost for them to stop hawking tickets and I would have bought the remaining seats! Finally, we made it to Sucre which was a lovely city. Sucre is the official government capital of Bolivia. Bolivia has two capitols, La Paz and Sucre, so it can get confusing. Sucre was known as the “white city” because of the white rock used to build all the buildings. Sucre was clean, uncrowded and a much welcome respite after La Paz and Potosi. Our hotel was amazing and had a courtyard garden as well as a restaurant with amazing views. We walked down the hill to the main cathedral. We were allowed to wander through the cathedral and museum on our own and we were the only people there so it was very quiet and peaceful. For a quick rest, we went to a small park across from the next cathedral we wanted to tour. When our English tour guide arrived, we went into the crypts and learned that all the Spanish aristocracy was buried in the crypts. When I asked where the common people had been buried, she pointed across the street and said, “There are thousands of them under the park across the street.” “They just built the park on top of the graves?” I asked and she nodded. Have these people never watched Poltergeist? These things never end well! I thought I could finish the trip this week but alas, we just did so many wonderful things in Bolivia! I do not want to shortchange Sucre or Santa Cruz so Bolivia, 2024 will be continued next week! When we arrived in La Paz, we checked into Hotel Elegance. When booking hotels, I read a million reviews so I have gotten pretty good at hotel selection. On Hotel Elegance, most of the reviews were positive with a few “a bit dated” comments. Since we do not really care about “a bit dated”, I booked the hotel. Once I had convinced the desk employee that I really could live without the “wonderful view from the seventh floor” (the elevator only went to the fifth floor), we made our way to the fifth floor. I am pretty sure that in 1972, the Hotel Elegance was a sight to be seen! Unfortunately, it had not been updated since that time. When I sat in the chair, the arm fell off. The sofas were something that not even a frat house would have saved from the trash bin and everything in the room was burnt orange. However, the room was clean and besides the fear of crashing out of the chairs, it was safe. The next morning, we began our day at the buffet breakfast that was also from 1972. Thank goodness for the pineapple and watermelon that kept us alive each day. The altitude of La Paz was over 12,000 feet above sea level so we were a couple of slow moving snails. We managed to make it to the San Francisco Basilica which was a grand cathedral that was very dark and ominous. I am guessing it costs too much to keep it well lit during the day but it was beautiful none the less. On this tour, we discovered that the Bolivians tend to honor their commanders that lost battles. We think it was because they have not won many battles in history so they must take what they can get. Our guide would say, “Here lies so and so. On such and such a date, he was defeated at the battle of ____. He is a great hero for us.” Thus the reason that Bolivia is landlocked (see previous blog about Guano Wars)! We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town wondering why every other shop was a barbershop or a beauty salon. The current population of the metropolitan area is just under 2 million so based on our calculations, every person would need to get their hair cut weekly to support all the barbers and hairdressers. The funny part was that 99 percent of Bolivians had straight, black hair….not a curl or color to be found! We had a very busy second day which started with a ride on the teleferico which offered amazing views of La Paz. We made our mandatory stop at the cemetery and found something unique to Bolivia. Each mausoleum had a small, enclosed shelf where the family would put keepsakes and things that the person had enjoyed. For example, Bill’s would have a beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a small UGA bulldog with a bobble head and a boat (and of course, he quickly added “and a picture of you” just to cover himself!....wise man). After the cemetery, we made our way over to the Witches Market which we were both excited to see. People on Youtube made the Witch Market sound really cool….it was not. It was a replica of the usual cruise port with the same tourist junk for sale at each store. As we hunted for the supposed witches, we came across an Irish pub called “The Lucky Llama”. We could not pass by an Irish pub in the middle of the Witches Market in La Paz, Bolivia so we ate lunch. After further hunting, we finally asked where the witches were and we were directed to two small stores at the end of the street which had some petrified animals hanging on the storefront. I went into the store to try to find a curse potion as a gift for my daughter (yes, she would say, “Who doesn’t love a good curse potion!”). All I could find was tea that would make someone fall in love with you. What kind of weak spell is that? We voted that the Witches Market was our biggest disappointment we have had in all of our travels….that is a sad statement.
Our next sightseeing expedition was to visit the Valley of the Moon. It was on the far side of La Paz and it was like stepping into another world (see the picture below because it is difficult to explain). After an easy hike through the valley, we stopped by the La Paz Golf Club which claims to be the highest golf course in the world. We chose not to play a round of golf given the altitude issues but it was a fun item to check off the list. Our evening entertainment was the ultimate thing to check off one’s list. La Paz has an event called Cholita Wrestling which was a must see. Walking into the building was like stepping into a Las Vegas casino from the 1950s. The wrestling ring was center stage and we had front row seats. With music blaring and lights flashing, the show began. Cholitas are a major symbol of Bolivia. They are the women that wear the bowler hats, corsets and huge, puffy skirts. Now, imagine these woman in full regalia….wrestling each other. In true WWE fashion (no pun intended), one “good” cholita and one “bad” cholita would enter the ring and try to pull the crowd to cheer for them. As the “match” began, the Cholitas would climb onto the ropes and soar through the air with skirts flying to “land” on top of the other cholita. Inevitably, the two would end up throwing chairs at each other or spitting water on each other right in front of our seats. The night was raucous fun and we decided that anyone who could not have fun at Cholita Wrestling must have no sense of humor in their entire body. Our final day in La Paz was spent exploring the Pre-Incan ruins of Tiwanaku. We hired a driver to take us to Tiwanaku and he was an interesting source of local information. On our way into La Paz, we had passed a row of tents on the side of the street that was at least a mile long. We could not believe La Paz would have such a horrible homeless problem. Our driver explained that the tents were not for homeless people. Twice a year, the army holds its recruitment. Every Bolivian must serve a mandatory year in the service. The tents were filled with young people who wanted to be first in line on recruitment day because first in line meant the best assignment of location. He stated that “no one wants to be in the Amazon jungle…there’s too much oxygen there and we can’t breathe. La Paz is the top pick for recruits”. Seriously? Give us some oxygen! We found it humorous that their kids camp out for the service and we camped out for concert tickets at their age. Our driver also explained Evos Morales, Bolivia’s president from 2006 to 2019. As described by our driver, “He was a great communist and did amazing things for our people. At first. Then, he became corrupt and it was not good.” As usual, communism worked well…it was designed to make a select few have everything and the people have nothing in the end so it worked like a charm. As we travelled throughout Bolivia, we found it curious that cities where people worked hard jobs like mining hated Morales and people who were more reliant on government loved Morales. Politics are always the same story no matter where you are! Tiwanaku was interesting and had some well preserved ruins and an informative museum. As we walked through the ruins, dark clouds began to gather overhead and we jumped back into the van just as a storm began. A hailstorm. The outside temperature had just been close to 80 degrees so we were not sure how Bolivia managed hail. Our guide kept trying to talk us into stopping at a “must see” sight in the middle of a hailstorm but we voted him down and said we would just have to survive without another stop. After a great visit in La Paz, it was time to head to Uyuni to visit the largest salt flat in the world. Our flight to Uyuni was uneventful with the exception of our fellow passengers. We are used to being the minority in South America but this flight was different. We were the minority but so were the South Americans! The entire flight was booked by people from Asian countries. We had Chinese people, Japanese people, Korean people and I am sure others as well. When we arrived in Uyuni and met our tour guide, he commented in Spanish something about Asians and gave a big sigh. We later found out that for some reason, Uyuni was a top destination for the Asian continent. If you look at Uyuni online, you will see the entire town is about 5 blocks wide and 15 blocks long. The roads are dirt and only about 6 blocks had anything that would hold a tourist’s interest for even a few minutes. Outside of those 6 blocks the roads were ruled by dogs which ran everywhere and made the tour buses dodge and weave around them. At some point, the locals figured out tourism was a far easier way to make a living than digging salt and now it is Bolivia’s top tourism destination. For our first day of touring, our group had two vans so we were around 12 people total. We headed out of town and as we started on the main road into the salt flats, we came upon a toll booth. Just before the toll booth, our driver took a sharp left off the road onto a side dirt path and drove around the toll booth. We all laughed and our guide said, “Avoiding taxes!” Evidently the toll booth workers did not care because all day there was a line of tour vans passing to the left. Our first stop was at the Train Cemetery. Back in the day, mining companies in Bolivia set up trains to move minerals more easily. Now, the engines sit on the abandoned tracks, rusting in the hot sun and salt. It was a cool stop and everyone enjoyed climbing on the trains for pictures. The salt refining “factory” was next. It was a small building with a few mounds of salt and some processing tables. The salt was only used by locals and no exporting was done because the salt was low in iodine so not very healthy without some tweaking. As we drove across the salt flats, our guide explained the importance of hiring a professional tour because if tourists try to drive themselves over the flats, they do not know the dangers. Much like a frozen lake, the salt flats have parts that are not stable and cars can break through the surface and sink. The salt flat was once a lake that has now become Lake Titicaca as it has evaporated over hundreds of thousands of years (so much for climate change being “new” and caused by man). The flats stretch on as far as you can see and you had to wear sunglasses because the reflection was very intense. In the middle of the flat was an “island” that had cactus growing all over it. We spent some time walking around the island and it was like a different world. The next activity was the greatest marketing scheme ever devised by man. The perspective pictures! The guides took us out to a spot that had nothing in the background but salt flat and blue skies. Then, they set up pictures that made everyday objects look huge next to a person in a picture. At one point, the guide had us all dancing around in a silly way and moving in between cones he had set. When all was said and done, he had a video of us dancing (and prancing!) out of a Pringles can and then running back in as we were chased by a giant T-Rex. Steven Spielberg could not have done better! Evidently, all the tour guides compete to see who can come up with the most clever idea. Afterwards, the guide took individual pictures and then asked that everyone post them on social media so “others will come to visit our salt flats”. Very clever! Day one ended with sunset photos without any sunset but I managed to capture some incredible reflection shots despite the challenging lighting. Day two we were a smaller group of six. Two Peruvians who spoke no English, two Japanese who spoke English and us who spoke English and survival Spanish. Our guide kept forgetting about the Peruvians in the back seat so I would turn around and try to piece together a few words for them to understand so you can imagine how well that went. Bill finally prodded the guide to remember the Peruvians on occasion. On this day, we headed out to a volcano that jutted out of the salt flats. As everyone else decided they were going to hike to the crater of the volcano, Bill and I tagged along to see the burial cave with skeletons which was cool. After the cave, Bill and I headed back down the hill to wait in the car and we were so glad we did. The guide decided to take them to the top of the volcano which was an even further hike and when they returned, even the Peruvians (who were born and raised in Cusco’s altitude) were in pain. On the way back to town, we stopped at the most breathtaking area where the flats melted seamlessly into the sky and it was difficult to tell sky from land. As I tried to capture some of the beauty with my Nikon camera, I teased the young Japanese woman about using her cell phone when her country made the greatest cameras on Earth. Her boyfriend laughed loudly and said, “It gets better….her father works for Nikon!” Shame, shame, shame! I could go on and on about the Uyuni leg of the trip but I know you are tired of reading! Next week’s blog will be filled with planes, trains and automobiles as we round out our incredible time in Bolivia. ****More awesome pics on Pictures tab After our very cold and rainy bus ride to Puno, we worried that our weather luck might be running out but we woke to a beautiful, sunny day in Puno. Puno’s claim to fame is the Uros Islands. The people of Uros fled from the Incas and figured out a way to build an entire city on the lake. We had scheduled a tour to go and visit the islands because they were only accessible by boat. Along the way, we learned the history of Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake in the world (12,500 feet above sea level). Lake Titicaca is shared by Peru and Bolivia and each country claims to have a larger part of the lake. Each country also claims that their side of the lake is “Titi” and the other side of the lake is “Caca”. As we approached Uros, we saw dozens of “islands” with huts on them. The island we visited was inhabited by 10 people and one person was elected “President” of the island and represented their island at the larger council which had an overall “President”. The President of our island explained in depth that the islands were made from reeds that were cut apart, dragged to the location of the island and bound back together. As the reeds settle, the islanders add to the top layer continuously and each island lasts approximately 30 years. If one of the islanders wants to go and build his own island, the new island must be approved by the council. The islanders made beautiful handmade crafts and relied heavily on tourism for survival. They did not speak English or Spanish but spoke Imada so our guide had to translate. The huts were one room and our guide (who lived on another island in a different region of the lake) said even he could not stand to sleep in the huts because it was so cold. At the end of our visit, our hosts sang some traditional songs for us and yelled, “Hasta la Vista, Baby!” as we left which gave us all a laugh. Our stay in Puno was a quick one as we jumped onto our double decker Peru Hop bus the next morning to make our way across the border into Bolivia. After a pleasant ride around the lake through some very tiny Peruvian villages, we disembarked at the border to begin the laborious task of checking into Bolivia. Earlier in the 2000s, someone in the United States pissed off Evo Morales (previous President of Bolivia…more to come on him next week) so US citizens are now required to have a Visa to enter Bolivia. Prior to leaving on our trip, we had gathered all of the necessary information including: passport, two passport photos, proof of flight to exit country, proof of hotel stay, a bank account statement to prove we had money and most importantly, $160 USD each. First, we had to pass through the Peruvian immigration office to exit the country. Our guide from Peru Hop walked with us to the Bolivian immigration office to assist. Luckily, he had a copy machine handy because we needed two copies of all the materials. A woman from China was also checking in with us while everyone else on the bus got simple stamps in their passports and left on the bus to continue the trip. After copying all the nonsense, we got in line behind the Chinese woman. She went through all the steps to obtain the Visa until the officer asked her where her exit stamp from Peru was located. She had not exited Peru, therefore, she could not enter Bolivia. The officer told her she needed to walk down the hill and get her passport stamped. While she was gone, Bill and I continued our check-in process. The most hilarious (and yet, sad) part of the event was the list on the wall of countries who needed the same level Visa as the USA. The countries on the list included Yemen, Somalia, CHADD, Syria and all the “stan” countries. Seriously?! Again, I am not sure who made Evo so mad but evidently he was really mad. Unfortunately, all the Visa requirement does is cause US citizens to choose other countries in South America which hurts the Bolivian citizens far more than it hurts the USA. As we were wrapping up our Visa party, the Chinese woman came barreling back in front of us and said, “I have NEVER been treated so rudely in my life! I am not going to get an exit stamp from Peru! I will just NOT enter Bolivia. I will take my business elsewhere!” Bill and I were very confused as to who had treated her poorly because the officer had been nothing but polite to her. As the tour guide, Bill and I got into the taxi to go to our hotel, all we saw in the rearview mirror was the Chinese woman walking back down the hill toward Peru.
Our first stay in Bolivia was the beach town of Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. If we had to vote, we would definitely say that Bolivia got the “Titi” portion of the lake and Peru got the “Caca” portion. The temperature in Copacabana was in the upper 60s/lower 70s the day we arrived. The lake was packed with locals partying like it was the Fourth of July! If you have ever been to Myrtle Beach, I want you to close your eyes and picture all the “toys” that Myrtle Beach has from jet skis to parasailing to the banana boats. Now, multiply that amount of toys tenfold! Boats were dragging hundreds of people around on dragon boats, octopus boats, spaceship boats, pirate ships and amongst all that chaos were a few crazy people rowing kayaks. Speed boats zipped in and out in a complete frenzy barely missing each other. It was insanity. Given how much Bill and I love crowds, we headed in the opposite direction to get some food. We found a local restaurant that was playing old USA rock songs from the 1970s and 80s which was a vast improvement from the Musak we had been suffering through the past few days. We decided to order Carbonara pasta which might seem odd but we were tired of the usual South America food this particular day. When the pasta arrived, it was one of the best pastas we had ever eaten! For another snack in Copacabana, we had onion rings which were amazing and finished off our odd food tour with an Oreo cheesecake. Who knew that Copacabana, Boliva would be such a unique food mecca?! To wrap up our stay in Copacabana, we went on a tour to Isla del Sol which was the supposed birthplace of the Incan Empire. Our boat ride was about an hour and when we arrived, we explored an Incan temple. At that point, the guide pointed out the hiking trail to go to the top of the island for “views” and stated that the walk was about an hour long. Since Bill and I continued to struggle with breathing, we did not want to slow the rest of the group down so we voted to sit at the bar and wait for the hikers to return. We were very happy with our decision when the younger ones were returning from the hike looking exhausted. With no time to spare, we all hopped back in the boat and headed to meet the bus which would take us on to La Paz. When we reached the bus stop, our guide came over to me and said, “You are going to ride in this van with another family because the bus is full.” I checked out the van and agreed that option would work for us. Meanwhile, a woman we called “Karen” went over to the van with her husband and son. She immediately refused to ride in the van “because there are no seatbelts”. I said, “I understand. Your son needs a seatbelt”. She turned to me and said, “Um, we ALL need seatbelts!” with a very snotty tone. I burst out laughing and said, “Good luck with that in Bolivia!” because we have not had seatbelts in any cars since we left the States in 2020. We were just happy the car had wheels and doors! In the end, they crammed that family on the bus and Bill and I had a private taxi to La Paz. When the guide climbed into the car, Bill asked him how the bus was overbooked. The guide simply said, “Ah. It was election day in this region so all the usual drivers were drunk. Only the one bus driver was able to make it.” And to think Karen was worried about seatbelts! The drive through the mountains with the lake below had some amazing views. In the distance, we saw mountains with glaciers and when the sun was setting, the reflections off the glaciers were breathtaking. Bill asked why the Bolivian bus was not a double decker bus like we had in Peru. The guide laughed and said, “A double decker bus won’t fit on the ferry.” So, Bill and I were both picturing a ferry with a lower clearance. When we approached the ferry dock, it was not a lower clearance…it was no clearance. The “ferries” were barge-like creations that would hold two to three normal sized cars. The ferry man would grind the edge of the barge onto the shore using a small outboard engine and then the cars would quickly load before the barge floated back out onto the lake. Bill and I enjoyed our taxi ride on the “ferry” as all the bus passengers had to disembark and take smaller boats across while the bus went on the ferry. I am guessing the ferry man did not trust that his ferry would not sink to the bottom of the lake. After the ferry excitement, our remaining drive to La Paz was uneventful. We ended the initial leg of the Bolivia trip by checking into the Hotel Elegance….trust me when I say it was a hotel but it was no longer elegant! More information to come next week! **More pics on Pictures Tab |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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