La Paz, Bolivia - last day of trip

This morning we get another well deserved sleep in, bonus! The tour guide is picking us up at 9:00 so we have time for a leisurely breakfast... The plans for 6AM swims in the hotel's heated pool never materialise, as the pool is closed :( Today is a public holiday in Bolivia - the Winter Solstice, very important in their pachamama religion, so I guess we can expect many places to be closed...

Unfortunately two members of our team are not feeling well today, Wendy and Mike - looks like those dodgy Copacabana hamburguesas are getting their revenge :( After breakfast Vladimir picks us up, it's a private tour for us today, no more drunk Americans! 

We start our tour in the centre of La Paz, driving up the main road. We pass a statue of Simon Bolivar, a creole who fought for the independence of Bolivia (and many other countries), and from whom Bolivia's name is derived. It used to be called the republic of Bolivar. We see the Hotel Plaza and Copacabana where Che Guevara spent the night, he made two trips to Bolivia. He even tried to run a communist regime in Bolivia, but did not succeed.

Vlad then takes us up to a wonderful viewpoint in the wealthy area of Sopacachi. There are large mansions here, and private universities and galleries, and a lovely park where dogs dressed in pyjamas are playing. The park has poetry on large stones scattered through it. The square is called Plaza Abaroa, after Bolivia's most famous civilian war hero, who fought to his last against Chile. Sadly, Bolivia seems to have lost land to many other countries, and Chile took its coast. The Bolivians are still trying to continue talks with the Chileans to give them access via a train line to the sea, but the Chileans do not seem to honour any of their promises in this regard.

The view is pretty awesome, we can see the way we came into La Paz yeserday, from the dust bowl of El Alto, and the incredible clay formations of the moon valley, as well as the modern city of La Paz and the snow capped Cordillero and Illimani mountains. La Paz is situated in a stunning valley, with colonial and modern buildings in the centre, and then little brown buildings climbing like ants into the hills that surround the city.

Vlad also shows us a beautiful little church that is used by the wealthy residents for weddings.

We return to the car, and start the drive towards the valley of the moon. It is so called, due to the almost lunar looking landscape that has been created by a glacier that receded centuries ago when the tectonic plates moved, leaving behind amazing clay structures. These are not particularly stable, but this doesn't seem to stop the people from building houses on the clay hills and tunnels through them. We see a vast cemetary built around one particularly large clay outcrop, there are no gravestones, just flowers. The people believe that being buried near a mountain helps push their souls towards heaven.

We have a quick stop to look at a botanical cactus garden, grown in the clay. In the background, we can see the devils tooth sticking out of the nearby mountains. This is an important religious site, and La Paz residents will often hike up close to the tooth for offerings and prayers for what they need. They can't go all the way up due to the instability of the clay.

We arrive at a Moon Valley tourist site, allowing us to walk around the incredible landscape. There is a long path that can be followed all the way around, but we are short on time so we do less than half of this, but get a very good view of the whole area. There are shapes in the clay with names like "lady's hat" and "the good grandfather", and there is a golf course in the background. Vlad explains that this is a good place to get a hole in one, as the thin air assists golf balls in going a lot further!

A floutist plays his instrument next to the ladies hat - the acoustics are excellent here!

Afterwards we drive around the wealthy Southern suburbs, seeing huge houses, tennis clubs, designer shops and restaurants. It teaches me not to judge a city by first impressions, as yesterday when we drove through the poor city of El Alto, I really assumed that La Paz was super poor, and was worried if the hotel would even be decent. Now we see that the hotel is actually 5 star, and we see the rich side of La Paz. In a way, we see more wealth in Bolivia than Peru, which surprises us...

There are many soccer stadiums, one for each profession, built by the government, as the current president is a huge fan of soccer. There is one for the petroleum workers, factory workers, and other professions! There are also many parks and green spaces, built by the last mayor, who made a lot of effort towards making the city a prettier and greener place. He also created large public outdoor art galleries, we pass one with photography of "the La Paz we want".

We also pass the automobile club, which run an annual race of the famous La Paz "death road" or "El Camino de la Muerte". This road, which runs 70km from La Paz to Coroico, and descends a ridiculous 3600m of tight hairpin bends on an extremely narrow cliff hugging dirt road, has been christened the most dangerous road in the world. Approximately 300 people die here every year. Why would anyone want to risk racing this??? We had wanted to mountain bike it, very popular with tourist adrenaline junkies, but we didn't have time... And I'm kind of relieved :)

As we drive through the Miraflores area, we pass their Olympic stadium, which can take up to 50,000 people, and opposite is a copy of an ancient Tiwanacan temple, with many statues, and the primary statue of the pachamama in the middle. Before the Spanish came, these temples would be covered in gold.  

We drive on, to the kilikili watchtower, apparently named after the sound that an eagle makes (the Tiwanacans were big on animal sounds)... The view from here is also fantastic. 

Next, we go to the main square - Plaza Murillo, named after Pedro Domingo Murillo, a mestizo (Spanish father, indigenous mother) who supported the indigenous people and played an important part in Bolivia's independence, but was hanged for his offenses. Here we can see the congress, the Governors palace and the Cathedral. The Cathedral has fancy gates from Italy, and windows from Spain. It was built over a Tiwanacan ruin, seems the Spanish liked to do that...

 In front of the Governors palace, the presidential guard are standing watch, dressed in red. They are the only ones allowed to wear red, as they represent a part of the army that fought to the death in the war with Chile, even after being called back. It is now an honor to wear red and only the president's guard may do so.

 The congress has two flags flying proudly, the flag of Bolivia, and the beautiful multicolored Inca flag, representing Cusco in the middle, and all the other Inca territories around it. 

 The square we are in is jam packed with families, all feeding corn to pigeons, which are frantically squabbling for food like winged rats. The kids are loving it.

Our last stop in the tour is a really beautiful museum street. It is a pedestrianised street, where each building is painted a different vibrant colour. Here we find little museums of war documents, musical instruments, precious stones, gold, silver, Tiwanacu, and Murillo's old house. Sadly they are all closed.

But we enjoy a nice walk down the street and pop into the gallery of Mamani Mamani, the "Bolivian Picasso". Outside, a bunch of old La Paz men are enjoying a bench in the sunshine, and catching up on their newspapers.

 There is a large cross here mounted on the wall, apparently placed by the Catholics to deter bad spirits from the area. Vlad explains that the local people don't actually like this approach of dealing with spirits, they would prefer to get one of their religious leaders to talk with the spirit and try to live in harmony together, otherwise, where would the spirit go??

Vlad returns us to the hotel, and those that are still feeling fit head out on foot in search of lunch. We end up at Cafe Ciudad, on the main road, 10 minutes walk from the hotel. This place is open 24 hours and has an old world feel to it, it's waiters dressed sharply in tuxedos. We order coffees, milkshakes and sandwiches, the food isn't that great but the portions are generous.

Next we meet up again with the rest of the gang for our final exploration of La Paz. We take two taxis to the famous "witches market" and have a walk around. At first, this appears to be just a regular tourist market, selling the usual tourist junk: fake alpaca jerseys, scarfs and beanies, t-shirts and the like. But we venture off the main road and find more of what we are looking for. Here there are many stalls selling strange and exotic things! The weirdest are the llama fetuses, dried out and hanging for all to see from the entrances of the stalls. Some are quite large, and even have some fur or wool on them, others are pretty tiny, and skinned. All are really gross!

 There are also many starfish, not sure where they get these from, since Bolivia is a land locked country.

We also see amulets on sale, in all sorts of animal forms - representing wealth, health, love and any other of our hearts desires.

There are herbs and potions on sale as well. We even see "ready made" offering kits - combinations of amulets, herbs, money and llamas all packaged neatly together for the hectic city folk to pick up and use. It is tradition for a llama fetus to be buried under a new house, or burnt when moving into a new house, this is an offering to the pachamama, for protection and good luck. Apparently the llamas are collected from miscarriages, which must be common. Vlad also mentioned they would often sacrifice an adult llama, and if it was pregnant, the fetus would also be harvested. Use of the fetuses is more for the poor - rich Bolivians are expected to sacrifice a live adult llama!

The witches in these markets also read coca leaves to tell the fortunes of their people. They believe that Coca leaf was created by gods for medicine, health, offerings, rituals and to read fortunes. The dark side of the leaf is positive, and the pale side negative, but apparently fortunes can always be changed :)

Along the way we come across some Bolivians in traditional dress, partying big style to celebrate the solstice - these people are totally wasted! Music is booming, they are dancing and drinking like fish. And they don't particularly appreciate us trying to pass by and snap a few cheeky pics while we're at it!

We all meet up again at the San Francisco church, a beautiful church which is sadly closed as well. 

 

Most of our crew decide to head back to the hotel, but Dad, Werner and I feel like walking a bit more, so we take the 20 minute stroll back to the Cathedral to see if there is any chance it will be opening. The walk is pleasant, through more markets and up busy streets. 

The cathederal is also not open, so we chill in the square for a while and then take a slow walk back to the hotel, it's all downhill from here so it's very pleasant, and we admire the moorish buildings on the way, also housing a gallery of sorts.

We don't have that much luck with dinner, as the restaurant we had in mind is closed, so we stumble upon a Japanese restaurant next door and decide maybe Asian food wouldn't be such a bad idea after eating so much of corn, potatoes and quinoa. The food is truly excellent, one of our best meals. Afterwards we say our goodbyes to everyone, as we will all be going our separate ways. Early to bed for us as our pick up is 5:30, we'll be dreaming of coming home!

Puno to La Paz via Copacabana

We start our day at 5:00am to catch up on blogging before our trip to Bolivia. After a quick breakfast, we grab our bags and meet up with our transfer to the Puno bus station. The trip takes only 15 minutes and soon we are sitting on the bus with a bunch of other tourists heading to La Paz. The sky is crystal clear but an icy wind blows through the city. Just after 7:30 the bus starts up and trundles out of town. 

The 3.5 hour bus trip to the border post of Kasani passes uneventfully. Occasionally lake Titicaca comes into view on our left, and to our right we have the bleak brown hilly landscape of small farms and towns. The border crossing goes relatively smoothly. We are forced to exchange some dollars at a bad rate at the border to pay a 1 Bolivianos (Bs) tax for the privilege of entering Copacabana. We set our clocks an hour forward, Bolivia time. After another 8 km we are dropped off in Copacabana and meet up with our tour operator who informs us we will catch an onward bus to La Paz at 13:00 and we have some free time to explore. We make our way down the main street to the lake front. 

We laugh at an unimpressed dog in camo pyjamas in the pic below!

The town of Copacabana is a total tourist trap. All the shops along the way are offering clothing, curios, snacks, and the cool cafe's and restaurants compete for the tourist buck. A couple of boho travelers, who look like they have been travelling forever, saunter up and down the street. The local vendors call out to us in spanglish, trying to tempt us to buy their wares. We reach the lakeside and enjoy the views and take snaps.

  

We venture out onto the rickety piers and fight to keep our balance against the buffeting winds.

Soon we are feeling hungry and look for a place to eat. We walk back up the main street and settle on a restaurant with a nice sunny patio sheltered from the wind. We order drinks, hamburguesas, a bowl of nachos and a pollo sandwich. The meal is decidedly average, the nachos are disgusting. No time for post purchase dissidence, we pay the lunch bill and make our way back to the bus stop. Just after 13:30 we are back on the road. 

The road winds back and forth along the contour of the island. The driver is gunning it, braking hard, trying to overtake slower vehicles. Roughly an hour later we reach the port of San Pedro Tiquina. We have to get off the bus, which will be ferried seperately across the water on a ramshackle pontoon. 

We queue up at a ticket office to buy our tickets (2 Bs) for the passenger boat. Next we have to show passports to a policeman, even though we are already in Bolivia, they don't seem to be taking any chances that a group of dodgy South Africans might infiltrate their country and commit unspeakable acts of crime and mayhem :) 

Shortly after we scramble onto the next available boat and take our seats. The boat is packed, there are at least 20 people on-board. The weatherbeaten helmsman guides the boat out of port, the engine is missing a cover and who knows what else. The lake is rough today and the waves break against the side of the boat throwing spray onto some of the passengers. Fortunately the trip takes only about 20 minutes and we disembark at the port of San Pablo Tiquina. 

The port is a dump. A bunch of stray dogs roam the area, plying the tourists for food. Policemen slouch around looking bored. The usual troop of vendors sell refreshments and curios. There is a square with a statue of some or other war hero. We wait patiently for our bus to arrive, praying all the while that it does not sink in the lake with all our worldly possessions included. Eventually the bus arrives and we take our places for the final leg of the journey to La Paz. The trip is uneventful and we doze off. 

Later the bus enters the outskirts of El Alto, a seperate city that developed directly above La Paz. The plains seem to stretch out as far as the eye can see, only the distant snow capped Cordilleros rise up in the distance. El Alto seems to consist of rows and rows of unfininished multistory buildings constructed from terracotta coloured bricks, in a word - ugly. Not a single green living thing in sight. As we approach the more developed parts, the buildings take on more polished look, painted in vibrant mustard or green colours. We hit the rush hour traffic and we join the thousands of minibus taxis and busses. It is comforting to observe that no matter where in the world minibus taxis are operatored, the drivers are equally aggressive and answer to only to their own rules of the road.

After what seems like forever we catch our first glimpse of La Paz. The city is huge, filling almost the entire valley that cradled its development. High rise buildings and verdant parks are visible as we descend to the city, an oasis of civilization in a desert land.

The bus eventually deposits us on a street curb somewhere on the hill behind San Francisco church and the witches market. In the rush to collect our bags I drop our passports, but fortunately Sandy Morrison comes to our rescue and picks them up. We retreat to the lobby of a nearby hotel, and soon our final transfer arrives to take us to the Europa Hotel a few blocks away. Our tour guide Vladimir, who accompanied us from Copacabana, explains a bit more about the city as we drive. We check into the hotel, unpack and shower. This is by far the nicest hotel we have stayed in on our tour and we are forgiven for lingering in the rooms instead of rushing out and exploring the city.

We meet for complimentary Euro sours cocktails in the hotel bar, before heading to dinner at 7pm at La Troncera, a walk of about 20 minutes away. The restaurant specializes in grills and we struggle to make our selection from the expansive menu. Eventually we settle on a mixta parilla (beef, chicken, pork and sausages - just like our braais!) and an llama skewer. All the meals come with a salad bar including green salad, carrot salad, quinoa soup, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes, fried bananas and more. When the food arrives, the waiters also tie a large white bib around each persons neck... By the end of the evening we have all overindulged. As usual we have a bit of challenge with calculating everyone's bill.