Bolivia

After the day before’s false alarm we finally headed off for Lake Titicaca on the Tuesday. The ride on the bus provided yet more beautiful scenery along the way. I can´t stress how pretty Bolivia’s country side is with it’s crammed houses on the hills amongst it’s grassfilled hills against the awesome backdrop of it´s snow capped mountains.

Thankfully no strike today, the only delay was when we had to get off the bus to pay our entry to Copacabana. It was quite funny as we had to get off the bus and get a boat to get to the other side of the land, Whilst our bus floated away with baggage on the roof on a floating barge. Our bus beat us across to the other side as the boat had issues and went at literally 1 K an hour.

On arrival to Copacabana we took another one and half hour boat ride to the Isle De Sol, meaning island of the sun. We found our way to the correct habour thanks to Ricky a Local Guide who was accompanying two girls from Norway who were also on our bus.
Once we arrived at the habour we were supposed meet up with harviar the hotel owner who had promised to carry our luggage up the 200+ step Inka stone Stairway that greeted you when landing on the island. Instead we were met by a swarm of local kids trying to offer us guide and bag carrying services. We could not stoop to allow a 10 year old kid to carry our 15kilo luggage uphill for 30minutes Although it was tempting after we started reached 10 steps up. We were both determind to make it all the way but gave in after 20 steps when two older adolescent boys offered to help for 15 bolivianos($4) which was a much better than the 50 boliviano’s the little kids offered. Thankgod we gave in when we did because after the 200 steps it was another 25 Minutes up hill to our hotel Inti Kala. We almost stopped off and checked in to a few hostels lower on the hill of Yumani. However, all the pain of walking up the hill was soon forgotten when we reached the summit and laid eyes on the view that greeted us from our hotel balcony. It was nothing shot of amafuc#ingzing!!!! Imagine lush green hills with inca stone work laid amidst them, continuing downwards to the most prestine blue lake which was as large as the ocean. Beyond it´s horizon was Peru and its own hilly backdrop. WOW!!
We simply sat on the balcony and enjoyed a welcome drink with our feet up for the first hour we were there.

Initially we intended to trek to the other side of the island but could not go past this magnificent view. Funnily enough, Ricky and the girls from Norway also checked into the same hotel but they had got off earlier on the boat trip and made thereway on a different path.

Later on in the evening we made our way to a higher point of the Island to enjoy the breathtaking Sunset. It was beautiful, as delightful as the three dancing kids we saw on the mountain top. Well actually it was more delightful than them as one of the girls we gave a few bolivianoes to take pictures of turned Ferrell when we gave an extra boliviano to her friend. Yes this seven year old kid literally followed and pested Harsh for about 10 minutes straight. Shetty’s lude experlatives could not even deter this little runt’s persistence as she continued to hound Harsh for more cash unpeturbed. But not even she could take away from the breath taking scenery from the top of the island and our dinner table where we devowed the islands finest Truche(trout). The best part of the night was ears dropping on Ricky the Guide of the Noreagan girls from across the dinner table. Yes we got some great insight about Bolivian Culture and Customs from Ricky who chatted lated into the night with us. All guides Should as passionate as him.

Early next morning I took off to the southern most part of the island to see the Inca ruins alone as Shetty rested. Whilst the site was quite impressive, not having a guide with me meant Idid not get the whole picture and story behind it. Never the less it was a good mini excursion.

I wish we had more time here as there was more to see on the North end but we were pressed for time and made the tough journey back to the harbour with our backpacks to catch the boat at 10.30 after breaky on Wednesday.

Well on the saturday morning (14th March) we were supposed to climb Chacaltaya, the highest ski Resort in the world. However, Joel and Alexander our friendly travel agents called late on the friday evening to tell us they had to cancel due to another guest becoming ill. This was not too bad a situation as it allowed us to recover from Ram Jams the night before and continue our self guided city tour of La Paz. With the help of the Lonely Planet we visted the many beautiful Plaza´s of Down town La Paz and even got to see a few wedding celebrations and managed to sneak in to one at the Cathedral on Plaza Murillo. I must say they get hitched very young here, the groom looked about 16. This seems the case in alot of latin america.

After all that walking we were beggining to feel a bit peckish and was hell bent on sampling one of these hole in the wall restaurents that I was reading about. So sampled the set menu at Laza´s. Ordering was a bit awkward as our spanish is non existant as was the waiters english. In the end i just aggreed to every thing the waiter suggested but ensured shetty got no beef. The quality of cusine was average, Shetty´s chicken was a simple boiled chook in broth and mine was a palatable beef with egg and rice. Hey but we could not complain we got a salad,three mains and dessert for under $5 AUD in total.

I think we will stick to the more reputable restaurents from now. In fact later in that afternoon after sights seeing the main plaza which looked like a scene from mary poppins(tuppence tuppence ) we dined at large family restaurent in the city that served up fantastic desserts and pretty good burgers and mains. Shetty was in her element with all the disney characters around. The kids had to fight her off for a photo.

We sampled another of La paz´s famous night spots in the late evening called Mongo´s, we had walked passed this joint the night before and it was dead. Not so this night. It was saturday night and the venue filled up quite quickly. We were joint on our table by a Estonion guy who resides in La Paz who to us his profession was selling drugs. I was not sure if he was a pharmacist at first but when he told us to join him at a bar that sells Cocaine from the menu I figured out what he meant. The music was a mix of western and latin. We were keen to hit the floor to emulate the moves of the sexy couple we saw at Ram Jams. However, it was not as easy as it looked. At 3600 meters above sea level we found our silky smooth moves had deserted, my legs were like logs, even the ever rhythmic Shetty was off beat.

CHACALTIYA AND MOON VALLEY

The next morning on the Sunday we set off for Chacaltiya take two. After an early start we drove off into the mountains enroute witnessed some remarkable views of La Paz. Simply Breathtaking, we were literally driving in the amidst the clouds. We were joined by a mix of travellers from Holland, Argentina and Brazil of differing ages. I will not comment more on the scenery I will let you see for yourself in the Pictures.

When we reached base camp of Chacaltiya which was 5300 meters above Sea Level we began to feel the breathing getting more difficult, to add to that we then climbed a further few hundred meters to reach the summit.

My recently purchased timberlands were serving me well as we tackled the snow capped rocky terrain. Shetty did well to reach the first pinnacle slowly but surely and watched as I ventured to the second summit at 5421 meters above sea level. Too easy managed to do twenty push ups at the top, with out breaking a sweat.

Well the funny thing was I only felt the pinch on the decent. My head was cavin in, maybe the push ups were not a good idea.

After a quick Coca tea at he summit we spiralled down back to La Paz city and then Valle De La Luna(moon Valley) situated in a rich resentendial area south of La paz. The place was once a lake many years ago and has eroded into a sandstone glacier that appears like the Moons surface hence the name. It was strange walking around this place that looked more at home on the set of appollo 11 than in the middle of snow capped La Paz.

Leaving La Paz Dress Rehershal

On The Monday Morning we woke up early for our 7.30am Bus ride to Copacabana, Lake titicaca. After travelling around in the coach for an hour picking all the other tourists the bus headed off north west towards our destination. About a further 40 minutes into our journey, the bus ran into what we thought was routine monday morning traffic jams. The bus was seemingly trying to cross a bridge but had to reverse as there was some bolders barracading the entry. Our bus and all the other cars reveresed and tried to cross this town using other paths but each time we attmepted there was a similar result, Reversing back due to blockage. It turned out the blockage of bolders was not natural, it was the people protesting about rising cost of coach prices and as a result they were not allowing any vehical pass through the town. Our driver attempted many other smaller paths that had no right having a large bus on them but all to no avail.

Eventually we were informed in Espanol that we had to return back to La Paz and resume the journey the next day. La Paz Manyana thats all we understood.

This was not all that bad as it meant we returned to our comfy hotel Esterelle Adina, Harsh got to do more shopping at the markets and by more winter goodies at dirt cheap prices, We both got to eat at our favourite restaurent in La Paz - Alo Cubana on Calle Sagarnaga and i got to try a spinning Class at High Altitude at the the Strong GYM.

Yes I did say spinning at 3600 meter altitude, it was myself the instructor and another only another two idiots game to try this class. I was F&cked by the 5 minute mark, infact my heart rate monitor read 170 when I rand down the hotel stairs on the way to the gym. So you can imagine the work rate when attempting the class. but eventually I was glad i completed the 60 Minute class that seemed like an eternaty. I eve managed to sneak in a few clean and jerks and T-bar rows whilst being inspired by the posters of Arnie, Coleman and my favourite Mr Shawn Ray.

Well fingers crossed our bus gets to reach Lake Titicaca tommorrow morning.

After the horse riding we all could still feel a bit of an ache in our buttocks, eating piranha fish, and being able to see only footsteps of a either a jaguaarrr or puuuma and oh! I spotted a tucan (I can put my hand up now for being Sarath´s assistant), we made our way from our farm to get into a mini van to make our way to the Bolivian border to catch the death train.

The death train we all were so looking forward to it, all the things we had heard about it, were so anxiuos. But first we had to cross the border and get into Bolivia. On our way our tour leader Rani told us that our train was preponed from departing at 7.30 pm to 4.30pm.We gota bit tense as we were still on our way and it was about 3pm and still not crossed borders. We were a bit anxiuos of how long it would take as Lily and Mark didnt have there visas for entry into Bolivia (our tour leader had said they can sort it out once they got tot the border), and offcourse me with my dramas with me and my passport.

We got to the border at about 3.15pm and Mark and Lily were waiting anxiously to see what happens with the visas. The rest of group is travelling with either British or Aussie passport so they didnt have issues. I have not seen border crossing like this, Paraguai is still the winner. There were two men and a computer next to one them who took the passport details down. He took these details down with the latest technology ie on his note book. Yes he wrote it down in a scrap book, by drawing colums for name , passport no etc with his pen and ruler. We all were so surprised seeing that.

I was just after Anthony in queque he got cleared as usual. And then it was my turn. Offcourse what did you think that I had a visa so I wont have dramas ? nnnnnnnooooooooooooo !! First this guy looks at my passport he sees the cover saying India and his eyebrow raised and he went Indian hhhmmmmm......
Then my passport was circulated between 5 officials who couldnt speak English and I was trying to tell them that I already have a visa for Bolivia. One of them pretended that he understood what I was saying and after I finished talking he goes pay $35 US. Now Anthony was getting a bit impatient and anxious and was giving me instructions to show them the visa. After about 10 minutes of running around after these guys, I bumped into this other man who was sitting in the higher official´s office. HE could speak a bit of english so he translated what i had to say to the others. Then they had another doubt I have an Indian passport and I got my visa from Sydney why? It was funny seeing how this guy was helping me to tell these officials of what was going on. Anyway after 15minutes everything was all good and I was given an entry in to Bolivia.

By now Mark was getting really frustrated that they were no where near getting a visa,it was 4pm by then and our train was at 4.30pm. At about 4.10pm our tour leader told us that Mark and Lily were going to wait atthe border to get the visas. And we made our way to the death train.

The train seemed alright. We had comfortable seats. The only 2 things that were not great was very bad food and bumps. We had not eaten for over 14 hours thanks to our tour leader and then the only option we had was beef and the train was ssoooo slllllooooooowwwwww. I still cant figure out how can a train be so bumpy on tracks.

We got to Santa Cruz at 9ish and made our way to the hotel. The hotel was good. Again good accomodation.

After resting for a little while we went for a walk and get some lunch . I must say the lunch we had one of the best lunches we have had in S.A. and great value for money.

As it was our last night with our all of us went together for dinner. Anthony and I shared a barbecued llama. After a great meal and some crazy mojitos and dacquries, everyone wondered where to hit it next.

We were in bolivia the people from the group were expecting to hear some Bolivian music but instead our tour leader took us an Irish Pub. Disappointed with the choice Anthony, Sarah and myself decided to leave. On our way back had some great ice cream. Chatting till 11pm we called it a night as had to catch a flight to come to Lapaz.

The next day Anthony before breakfast Anthony did a work out in the gym in the hotel. The gym reminded me of the gym at browns rd but only more equipment.

At 11am our group came to see us off in the lobby. It was a bit emotional to part from the guys and wish if they had come to the airport and taken the same flight as in the original itinerary but things changed for them and instead of Lapaz they were taking flight to Sucrri.

The flight to Lapaz was cool. Just like the border clearance another experience at checkin. We were passing the security to board the flight and suddenly Anthony remembered he had a bottle of vodka in his backpack and a small bottle of Casacha. We were anxious as we thought we will have to leave the 3.4 full bottle of vodka but like the Paraguai border passing, Anthony was allowed to board the flight that bottle. No questions asked. yyyyeeeaaahhh !!!

We had a guy waiting for us at the airport who drove us to our hotel called Rosario. He was nice enough to stop on the highway for us to be able to take a couple of pics of the beautiful ciew of the city.

Didnt do too much on the day apart from checkin to our nice hotel Rosario as I was feeling sick probably because of the altitude change we were 3600m above the sea level. We didnt panick about my sickness as such as we expected that.

We had a great lunch at a Thai restaurant which offered Thai, Indian and Japanese food. I got a Indian chicken masala and Anthony got a Thai grilled Trout with Hindi music was playing in the background.Anthony almost danced to the tunes as it was from a Shah Rukh movie.

I was stuffed in the evening and pretty much slept through the evening. At 10 Anthony went and got a pizza for dinner. Called it a night.

The next day I was feeling a bit better. After a good breakfast we checked out of our hotel and checked into a hostel next door (Esterelle Andina) as the accomodation was half price here with an absolutley amazing view and bright feature walls.

We ventured around the city and the little streets of Lapaz throughout the whole afternoon and had lunch at this Cuban restaurant.The meal was aaammmaaazzziiiinnggg !

We walked through the crazy shopping mini alleys around the different plazas. Didnt really buy anything except I got a very flashy pair of yellow sunnies. Couldnt resist them.

Man the city is so beautiful, I am sure the people are very nice too, however the hunkameter has not registered in Lapaz or Bolivia for that matter yet.

At night we went to this place called ram jam a salsa night club. It was highly recommended so got there all excited. The place was dead. May be because we got there at 10 so shared a decent meal there. At about 11pm it did start to get bit busy and people got on the floor. And then the band started at about 11.45 and the locals tore up the dance floor, especially this latin version of Usher and his seductive partner. We left the place at about 1am and got back the hostel at 1.30.
So far so good .

I am looking forward to stay in Lapaz it looks really nice !!