sudamerica 2009: time's up for bolivia
2nd-mar-2009 - posted by dtra
almost anyway, i'm back in loco la paz, after spending the weekend away in copacabana and isla del sol up at lake titikaka. arrived in la paz las sunday, just in time for carnaval, it wasn't as good as oruro, but it was pretty crazy nonetheless. lots of water fights and people in the streets, and everything was of course closed. i managed to catch up with Esther and Mathieu (they studied spanish at the same school as me in ba), and we sat down and had a nice curry, they did, i had to go for the vindaloo with extra chillis, just so i could get a free t-shirt. well, i don't recommend it, but i got the shirt (you have to finish the curry), so that was pretty nasty. so finally things opened up again on wednesday, so i went to do the death road just outside la paz. we went with a company called b-side adventures, cos they had similar bikes to gravity, but cost a lot less. the bikes were ridiculously good, the road was ridiculously dangerous (moreso for cars than bikes), and a lot of fun was had, although we didn't get to start from the top (4750m), because it was about to snow, we had to start from the first checkpoint (4100m), but we still got great speed going down, and it was really fun (alf, you would've loved it), i've got a photo cd, but i haven't seen the video yet, should be good.
didn't do a lot on thursday, went for a bit of a wander around town, but not too much. i honestly can't really remember what i did that day, so i won't continue, went to copacabana on friday, it's a town on the shores of lake titikaka. we spent the weekend there, had a really, really, nice stuffed trout at la cupula on friday night, followed by a massive chocolate fondue dessert. then went to isla del sol on saturday morning, and did a 20km hike from the northern end to the southern end, where we spend the night. unfortunately, never really got a good sunset there, but took a heap of pictures, and they look really nice, not difficult when you think about the scenery. on a quite annoying note, on isla del sol, you get charged for every little thing you do or see, we didn't do it, but some others didn't pay the fees that were asked; there were three sections where we paid $20 bolivianos in total (would be good if there was some kind of information, or just a once-off payment at the start that looked somewhat official, rather than some bolivians standing around with a ticket book). we then spent half the day playing cards on sunday, before returning to copacabana in the afternoon. me and another aussie (rob) were going to get a bus to peru (arequipa for him, cusco for me), but it turned out to be a farce, and now we're back in la paz, deciding when to get the bus to our destinations (i'll probably go tomorrow morning), although i've got a bit of a cold, so we'll see.
anyway, that's it for now, i didn't manage to get to rurrenabaque this time around, but i think i'll come back to bolivia in may when the weather is better, and go do the amazon thing then. i'll leave you with a bunch more pictures i've taken in the week, which should leave you drooling for the full photo gallery when i get home. the main photo was taken of lake titikaka, what a peaceful place that is, and beautiful. will see you all in peru next time, probably after having conquered macchu picchu.
info on accommodation and transport
i've been staying at adventure brew too hostel in la paz, it's a really great place, pancakes for breakfast, and a free beer everyday. in copacabana, we stayed at some place right near the shore of lake titikaka, it was nice enough, and isla del sol, we stayed at hostal inti kala, ok, but breakfast is expensive (nice but not worth it). transport to and from la paz to copacabana is pretty basic, and should have costed $15 bolivianos. i also forgot to mention that our bus back from copacabana broke down 80km from la paz, we managed to get our stuff onto another passing bus and made our way to la paz safely.
Last edited at 14:00 2nd-mar-2009
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