Bolivia - La Paz and Copacabana

Day 20

Ellie and I arrived in La Paz, early in the morning after having the worst bus of the trip. We had the least sleep and we're really tired when we arrived before 6am. Nevertheless, we walked down and up some hills to our hostel, checked in at 6:30am and our room was ready. What a relief, Ellie had a nap and I had a rest and left the hostel mid-morning to attend the city walking tour. The tour started near to our place, which was in a square and outside the famous prison. Ellie is currently reading a book about it after the recommendation from friend Alex.

The prison is unlike most others in that cells are paid for by inmates, who often live with their families inside, enjoying luxuries like TVs, hot tubs and exclusive products to the prison like Coke. The prison has a total of 13 guards who protect the perimeter and the inmates govern the inside. You were once able to take a tour in the prison, which is how the book came about but it's forbidden these days. It's very interesting to see and hear of something so obviously corrupt, with drugs said to be made inside and thrown out of the old rickety roof in baby’s nappies to be collected by dealers on the street. There is a lot more to it from what Ellie tells me, so you will have to read Marching Powder if you would like to know more.

The rest of the tour focused on some history, on the markets and the cholitas that run them, the witches market with potions, spells and sacrifice items, and, the government and political history of Bolivia. It was a really engaging and humorous tour, made fun by some energetic and funny guides. The markets were everywhere, there wouldn't be a supermarket in the whole country in my opinion, they all operate in small stores or markets in the street. The witches market was bit creepy as they have offerings of dried out infant llama carcasses. The government or political aspect was interesting as they have a polarizing president at the moment. The countries first indigenous president, who, from the outside looking in has done some great things, although, he now appears power hungry trying to run for a 4th term when the president should only run for 2 terms as in the United States. It really is an interesting history if you look deeper into it and I did as there have been protest in riots in the city. Always good to be informed and aware.

Following the tour, Ellie and I went home to get Wi-Fi, before making our next move. While we were waiting in the lobby getting directions for tour operators the receptionist asked us if we would be interested in food tasting for a new restaurant that is opening under the hostel. We paused and said, "sure thing" and made our way to a dining area where some other people had eaten most of the food. They told us to wait and more came, it was delicious. A chicken salad and a chimichanga that we wanted to order more of, but couldn't as the restaurant opens in a week. This was easily one of the best meals we have had on the trip, especially being free.

In the afternoon after this surprise lunch, we shopped around for 'death road' tours and got a decent price for a trip on Friday. We had a slight rest then went for an early dinner at steakhouse aptly named 'The Steakhouse'. We ate some tasty buffalo wings and each had a burger and the salad bar was included. It was very touristy, but no one was there, in fact it was only Ellie and I in there the whole time. Can you guess what we did next? Bed! Of course, Ellie slept and I watched a movie as I was too tired to type, upload more photos or make a video.

Day 21

After a decent sleep in which I almost knocked myself out on the bathroom door archway in the middle of the night, we woke and ate the hostel breakfast. It's a good time to mention Bolivian people aren't tall and thus some doorways and roofs are really low, especially for me. We didn't have much planned for the morning but found it easy to meander around town until 2pm when we went on an extended walking tour. When we did go out we went to the markets to buy some warm clothes as Bolivia gets quite cold at night, as do some of our upcoming destinations. We both purchased some llama sweaters and El got a beanie as well.

At lunch time, we returned to the central market, which is in a car park like building with hundreds of cafes, mini restaurants, juice bars and general market items like fake DVDs and Beats by 'Bre' head phones. Here we got another delicious fresh made juice as we had done on the walking tour and got some empanadas for lunch before returning home to get ready for the tour and extra exciting, cholita wrestling. On the way to the tour we returned to our favourite street vendor, who sells Relenna papa (deep fried potato with mince or cheese in the middle). We ate them yesterday before the tour and again today as they are delicious.

The second tour started by catching some local mini buses to a cemetery in a neighbourhood outside the city. The main reason we did the tour was because we wanted to get out of the city but to do this alone, was considered unsafe. The mini bus was a 2 Boliviano experience that we shared with 10-15 other passengers on the way to the cemetery. It was around 15 minutes in a taxi and it cost us 40 cents. The cemetery revealed some interesting aspects of Bolivian culture with a lot of sacrifices offered to please God and care for the dead. It was really interesting to learn about this side of the culture, but shocking to learn in the cemetery the family have to pay an annual fee for bodies to be remain buried in the mausoleum. If the fees aren't paid the bodies are 'evicted' and then cremated. According to our guide this isn't too bad as to hold on to the dead for any longer than 5 years is holding them back from leaving you and having a good life in heaven. It is certainly a different culture but is a part of the limited space in the city of La Paz.

We then took the cable car (teleferico) up to a town called El Alto, where the poorest class of people live and evidently the most dangerous place. But, mostly only dangerous for tourist. Here we had some fantastic views of La Paz, visited South Americas biggest flea market, which is also a black market. It's over 400 blocks of flea market and runs twice a week (Thursday and Sunday). This led to the biggest witches’ market as well with more of the same items from the previous stalls. Ellie and I brought a safe travel charm since we were there and then went to visit a Shaman. Here, I got my fortune told by an old man reading cocoa leaves. Time will tell how accurate he was on the questions of health, happiness, relationships and career. Apparently, I will have 2 kids, a boy and a girl but there's a bit of a wait to see that come to fruition.

The tour then headed to a hostel where we changed from local mini bus to chartered bus that was taking us along with a large group of tourist to the cholita wrestling, aka Americas WWE wrestling that two of my cousins loves so much. We had some beers on the bus and arrived at the indoor but open sports venue, (like a PCYC in Australia) then took our seats. Front row; there were only two. We watched some of the best wrestling we have ever seen, in fact it was the first we have ever seen. With performances like Mankind vs the Undertaker in the men and the women's and even better spectacle. They performed all the tricks and even jumped from the top rope to the ground, which was concrete and mightily dangerous. It was a very funny evening as we ate popcorn and watched cholitas battle it out. It's a very touristic outing although we had heard otherwise. In the end, we saw WWE in Bolivia, hard to beat that.

The bus took us home through the extremely busy streets of El Alto and had us home by 9, way past our bedtime. With an early start for the death road tour the next day we went to bed and minded our head when we went to the bathroom.

Day 22

Up early for breakfast and early for our tour pick up, the company we selected, Barro Biking, were running late. They eventually arrived around 15 minutes late and began driving us and the other 3 people on the tour to the top of the mountain. Passing through snow-capped areas and then down in altitude again we parked at around 5000 feet and got all our gear for the ride. The death road requires good mountain bikes, motorbike helmets, elbow and knee pads and we got some waterproof clothes that have an extra layer of warmth as it was freezing cold at the high altitude. As soon as everyone was dressed we were off, 30 minutes downhill along the main road through the mountains. Stopping a few times for photos we could voice our concerns about faulty gears in Ellie's case and a loose seat on mine.

I was concerned by the quality of camera the guide had for taking photos and videos along with his care for taking decent photos. He seemed to point and shoot in less than a second then pronounced 'vamos', which means let's go. I made sure to take our camera after that along with our action camera. The scenery was quite spectacular with deep valleys running inside high mountain ranges. There were a lot of waterfalls bringing down melted snow and rain. Ellie and I led the support group in case anyone fell at the front. We were even behind the van at the start in case it crashed.

Safe to say, we played it safe. Especially at the start. Once we got comfortable we stayed with the group but remained at the back anyway. Ellie was impressing me with her bravery, when we got further behind she wanted to peddle faster to catch up but we were going so fast peddling made no difference. She did a great job and at the end of the day can say she finished the death road and survived injury free. Relatively anyway, while she didn't fall or crash, her hands were really swollen from gripping the handlebars and likely the brake very tightly. I stayed with her most of the day for 2 reasons. The first to encourage and support her and secondly to not let me go silly on my own. She was my speed monitor that kept me from crashing off a cliff.

After the first half an hour on the main road we stopped for a snack in a small village on the side of a cliff. We enjoyed a Coke, egg roll and banana before being driven to the beginning of the death road. From there it was all downhill, except for 10 minutes, but seriously it was good fun. Not as dangerous as it sounds and worthwhile if you asked me. I wouldn't do it again, however, we are glad we did it. It included a few drink stops and a beer to finish before we were taken to a hostel for lunch, a swim, shower and some table tennis while we waited. The food was sensational, with plenty of it, no one went hungry. After lunch and some downtime we were taken back to La Paz, a long drive that had us back at dark.

When we got home we wanted a quick dinner then an early night. The pizza shop proceeded to take 45 minutes to make a margherita pizza, ridiculous, as there were only 5 other people in there and they already had their meals when we arrived. Regardless, we ate our pizza and returned for showers and bed. It was our last night in La Paz, one of our favourite places so far. Especially as it's a big city but doesn't feel just like a city.

Day 23

Today we had another hostel pick up, this time for a transfer to Copacabana, but on a tourist bus. It's not the Copacabana beach as in Rio, but the town on Lake Titicaca that covers part of Bolivia and part of Peru. (I know it's a funny name). The tourist bus gave us a look at wildlife, a lagoon and a lookout. All of which we would have had on a normal bus as we just drove past each of them. The weather was bad so this didn't help looking out the windows. We did make it to Lake Titicaca in the end which was the main thing and one thing that was interesting was the shortcut the bus took. Everyone offloaded and took small ferry boats across part of the lake and the bus took a barge. There were heaps of them, and each barge took a bus and a car or 2 cars from one side to the other. It was quite bizarre. Check out the picture...

While we waited, we met a nice Aussie couple from Perth, who had just finished a cruise to Antarctica. As we drove to Copacabana they showed us some awesome photos from their trip. After arriving and checking in we would coincidently run into them not long later and be on the same boat to the Isla Del Sol (island of the sun). Ellie and I got some delicious wraps for lunch off the street and ate them lakeside before heading on a long ferry ride to the island.

On the island, we took a guided tour, which most people were doing with around 5 different guides. The tour was interesting with some history of pre-Spanish and even pre-Incan civilizations. Our time on the island was short lived with the ferry returning to Copacabana after 3 hours. It was a beautiful island, at least the side of it that we could see in the time we had. The views from the high point we reached were amazing, great for panoramic photos.

When we got back from the island we had a walk around the town with our new Aussie friends before settling in for a drink at a restaurant on the Main Street. We each had a pisco sour, a traditional drink in this part of the world. Ellie and I ordered dinner and the others a snack as their tour continued back to La Paz so they had to go. Ellie had trout from the river and I had a saltada (stir fry with beef), both were good apart from Ellie's having bones. After dinner we had a bit of a walk down the beach, brought a chocolate and returned to the hostel. By now it was bed time, or blog time as we finally had some decent internet before going to bed.

Day 24

Today we farewelled Bolivia, in the morning Ellie was unwell and it was raining so our plans to climb a nearby hill with nice views of the lake were squashed. I ran some errands like getting breakfast, printing boarding passes among others before we had to be at the bus station around midday. From here we would be travelling to Puno, a town in Peru but still on Lake Titicaca. It was sad to leave Bolivia as it had been our favourite country so far. I would say because it's quite different to many western societies, it's interesting history and current political climate, the energy in La Paz, but mostly the beauty of the countryside with the national park and the salt flats. It was a real treat, but time to say see ya later Bolivia

(This is one of my favourite photos of the trip: these woman [cholitas] are everywhere in Bolivia)

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