La Paz Bolivia

Currency: Boliviano $1.00 US = $6.97000 Bolivianas
Bus Copacabana to La Paz - $25 B
Boat across Lake Titicaca - $10 B
Taxi Bus Depot to Hostel - $15 B (for 3 of us)
Hostel La Paz - $55 B a night (4 bed dorm) - Wild Rover
Hostel La Paz - $15.00 US a night (private room) - Republica

The bus from Copacabana to La Paz takes about 4 hours. Part way through we had to exit the bus to get across Lake Titicaca. The bus is loaded onto a barge to go across and we are sent over via small boats. It takes about 1/2 an hour for the bus to get across, looks totally hilarious, hard to believe all vehicles go across that way, looks like the barges will sink at any minute. There are stalls that sell drinks and food so it's a great place to grab a snack and watch the fun.

The first view of La Paz that you get coming in via bus is from the road above, it is amazing, a huge bowl crowded with buildings all the way up the side of the mountains. Hard to believe some of them can stay up, not an inch of wasted space. It is an amazing sight.

The bus depot is relatively new and it is huge. It is located pretty close to the center of the city and taxi's are plentiful. I had found the Wild Rover Hostel on line and thought it sounded pretty good. Good location, clean and with a fun bar. Turns out it was also the residence of a former president at one time. The people I shared a cab with were booked at the Loki which it turns out backed onto the back of the hostel I was in. The Wild Rover is located 2 blocks down from the presidential plaza and is within walking distance of pretty much all of the sites. If booking a room at the Rover I recommend asking for a room in the back of the building. There is a weird outside annex part way in the back, gets no noise from the bar. The ones in the front of the building and by the bar are extremely noisy & the bar is open until 2ish. When you check in you get a wrist band, you can choose to pay cash for booze & meals or you can charge it to your room and pay when you check out. I did find that both times I stayed at the Rover there were extra charges on my bill that were not mine so, if in doubt ask to see the tab. On the up side they took them off as soon as I pointed out that they were not mine. There is a travel agency located in the hostel and free computers and wifi. It was a fun place to stay, lots of interesting folks and as it turns out I ran into a guy that I had done the Machu Picchu hike with that I had not seen since Cusco. He was heading to Buenos Aries from La Paz as he was on a short 1 month whirl wind tour of South America.

In Cusco I had met a couple that told me if I had time to take a trip into the Amazon basin via Rurrenabaque. The bus trip takes 20 hours and I was on my last 2 weeks before I had to fly home out of Lima Peru so I chose to fly in and out. I had also been told that the roads are often blocked by protesters so it is very likely that you can be stranded for a few days waiting for the blockades to come down. I booked both the flight and the 3 day pamapas tour via the travel agency in the hostel. The cost was $1500.00 B. There is also a jungle tour, I was told that if you like plants take the jungle tour if you want to see animals take the pampas tour. I booked a couple of days in advance so I could spend a few days exploring La Paz. When I came back from Rurrenabaque I had 3 more days in La Paz before I had to head back to Peru.

La Paz is a crazy city with a lot of history, it sits at 3500 meters above sea level and is the highest capital city in the world. There are street markets everywhere and traffic is horrible, I don't know how people drive there. As an added bonus the city is built in a basin so almost everywhere involves going up steep hills. There are tons of restaurants and shops, the witches market is totally bizarre, lots of lama fetuses, seems they are a good luck charm. When you buy a new home you bury 1 under the front porch for good luck. The Bolivians are a pretty superstitious people, catholic with a bit of witch craft thrown in. They also love a good party, I was lucky enough to be there for their annual Gran Poder parade, the streets are blocked off and unfortunately so is the view. They put up barriers that block the parade view and sell tickets for seats if you want to watch, tickets are pretty cheap, people were offering them to me for $20 B. There are places you can see it for free if you go up the hill by the witches market or from the overpass. The parade starts at 8 am and goes until around 1am. Lots of music and colorful costumes, the dancers go for 5 or 6 kilometers a lot of it up hill. Not sure where they get the energy from. I bought a couple of beers and pulled up a piece of sidewalk with the locals in their lawn chairs and their coolers of beer to watch for a few hours. Totally amazing, if you can time your visit to see it I highly recommend it, no set date it is usually at the end of May beginning of June. I so love that you can by beer on the street and drink it while you walk/sit, takes some getting used to when I get home where that is totally illegal.

Price wise it is a pretty cheap place, I got some happy pants (backpackers will know what they are) loose colorful pants for $35 B and I picked up a necklace and earrings in silver with a reversible stone (1 side blue 1 side purple) for $100 B. If you are doing Peru & Bolivia defiantly do your shopping in Bolivia, way cheaper than Peru, I saw the same necklace/earring set in Lima for double the price. I spent a lot of time in the presidential plaza, there is a park and it is a great place to people watch. Also lots of history, if you take a close look at the walls of the buildings you can see lots of bullet holes from when the police and the army went at each other in 2003. At no time did I feel unsafe in La Paz but keep in mind that there is still a lot of unrest. There is lots of poverty and unemployment, and they are under a lot of pressure from the US in regards to Coca plants. Unlike Colombia they have not allowed the US to dictate or interfere with their harvests so there fore no aide from them. There were protests pretty much every day and on 1 day a big one in the presidential square. I had heard it when I left the hostel to meet a friend for dinner, lots of yelling and chanting. On the way home from dinner I cut through the square and it was eerie. No one but solders there and a haze of tear gas and damaged vendor stalls. When I came into the square the soldiers motioned at me with their machine guns to stay in the middle of the square and away from the buildings. I must be getting jaded, having guns pointed at me doesn't even faze me anymore. It is a different world, it looks scarier than it is but things can change at a minutes notice so it is best to avoid angry crowds of people and protests. The day after the big protest you would never have known anything had happened, the plaza was crowded with happy families going about their business.

Lots of great street eats especially by the San Francisco church, tons of food stalls and if you are facing the church go through the front courtyard to the right and down the stairs, more street food to be had. Other than a couple of nights I pretty much survived on the stuff. Hit 3 or 4 booths and put together a tasty meal for under $2.00 US. No ill effects and a great way to meet the locals, grab a stair and chow down.

When I came back from Rurrenabaque I stayed for 1 night in the Wild Rover (I had stored my big pack there when I went) but I was in a front room and I wanted a little more quite so I moved myself over across the street to Hostel Republica, also a former residence of a past president and still owned by his family. I got a private room with a shared bathroom for $15 US a night. A little pricey but it is locally owned and all of the staff are locals unlike the Rover where all of the bar staff were backpackers. I like supporting locals as much as I can and the room was really nice, people were nice and it also had free wifi so I was okay with the price.

A tour that is not advertised but is well know among the backpackers and used to be in the Lonely Planet guide is the San Pedro Prison Tour. An illegal tour of one of the worlds most bizarre prisons, there are no guards inside, wives and kids live with the inmates, stores and restaurants operate, food must be bought and inmates have to purchase their cells and can upgrade, furnish and modify them. One drug trafficker has built a 2nd story onto his cell so he can see over the wall and have a view of the city. The inmates govern the prison, elected inmates make and enforce the rules, they are much stricter than any guards and the penalties are a lot rougher  You can read all about it in a book called Marching Powder none of the hostels will give out any information on the tours, according to the government they no longer exist. Hypothetically if one were to go they would find it a very strange trip indeed, pretty much what is in the book is what you would see with the exception of the cocaine factory. With no guards you would be relying on 4 inmate guards to protect you so tipping would be a must and hope you tip them enough to save your ass if you need them to. Strangely Coca Cola is a major sponsor, signs and umbrellas with their logos are all over the place, so I have heard. Due to the extreme poverty families live together in the prison, the wives can't support themselves and the kids on the outside without the men. Rather than take the tour if indeed you can figure out how to do it and who to bribe (something I am not going to share, lots of tourist lose their money with nothing in return) I would suggest you read the book then make a donation to help the kids living in prison

The death road bike ride is a very popular adventure. Sadly I didn't have time when I got back to La Paz to do it but I met lots of people who did. I had done the 50k downhill ride in Peru so I picked the Amazon trip instead. Heads up people, this is not something you go bargain shopping for, pay a little more for a company that has good bikes. It is extremely dangerous, an Israeli girl died (went off the cliff) about a month before I got there. You want to go with a reputable tour company with good bikes, excellent brakes are a priority. Most of the accidents that people survive happen in the last mile of the ride, people get cocky and bite it. A guy I roomed with had road rash down his face, both forearms and both legs, he did it on the last bit of the ride. A pretty good feat considering they put you in a suit and helmet. In the hostel there where 3 or 4 people at any given time who had some kind of injury from the ride. Your travel insurance will not cover these injuries, if you really mess yourself up (as in need to end your trip and fly home).

While in Rurrenabaque I met a Swiss guy who was a hard core backpacker. He was on a year journey doing the camping in the jungle thing when he could. We arranged to meet up in La Paz and hang out for a day, he was doing the couch surfing thing. An awesome way to go, if you have not heard of it, it is a web site where you can hook up with people all over the world and find free places to stay with locals. He had a sweet deal, the apartment was across from the prison, a really nice building and he had a bedroom to himself. His host was not home when I was there but the maid was there, great lady kudos to her for putting up with mi mal espanol. Defiantly worth checking out if you are going to cities/towns, a great way to hang with the locals and learn about the culture and places in town that tourists might not normally go. I think I will give it a go next trip, the only thing is you have to know exactly what days you will be somewhere and have a pretty good idea of your arrival time.

I had a killer bus trip ahead of me, La Paz to Lima, I only had 3 days before my flight home so no stopping in between. There is a sort of direct bus, the cost was $75B and the advertised time of the ride was 26 hours. As it turns out it was more like 36, I thought it would never end. I bought the ticket at a travel agency up the hill from the San Fransisco church.

On my 2nd visit to Bolivia the next year (2011) I made it on the Death Road Ride. Took Gravity Assisted Biking, great company bikes are great, staff was awesome. Video here.  Ends at La Senda Verde Animal Sanctuary I did a 2 week volunteer stint there. Playing with monkeys & birds all day, an incredible experience.

I also took the train to Oruro to Uyuni (3 hour bus ride from La Paz - Oruro cost about $3.00) did the 4 day 4x4  tour, salt flats/mountains (600 Bolivianos), also great then the train from Uyuni to Villazon (boarder to Argentina). Incredible scenery and cheap. Faster than the bus and no potholes.The roads in the south are not the greatest. Don't buy a bus ticket for Argentina on the Bolivian side, people will hit you up at the train station. You will still have to walk across the boarder and take a taxi to the Argentinian bus depot. They will charge you more for the bus ticket in Bolivia and your bus may have already left. There is an hour time change when you cross the boarder, they know you won't be coming back so they will screw you over. Had a few people fall for it that I ran into. Just walk to the boarder, cross and grab a cab (short 10 minute ride) to the Argentinian bus depot & buy your ticket there. Flecha is a good company. Save yourself some headaches.

Copacabana - Lake Titicaca Bolivia

At the Copa, copacabana, the hottest spot north of........ That song got stuck in my head for most of my stay here..  All yours now.. I am way behind on updating the blog, I was in Copacabana in May

Currency: Boliviano $1.00 US = $6.97000 Bolivianas
Bus Cusco Peru to Copacabana Bolivia $75.00 Soles ($27.00 US) - 12 hours - includes 2 mini van rides
Hotel Copacabana $84 Bolivianas ($12.00 US) per night
Boat To Isle De Sol $20 Bolivianas (included there and back)
Tourist Fees on Isle De Sol $20 Bolivianas
Warning: There is no ATM in Copacabana, make sure you have US $'s on you. You can change them at the bank or a money changer. Otherwise you will need to get a cash advance on your credit card.

So surprise the bus to Copacabana was not exactly as advertised, it left Cusco at 8pm and was suppose to be direct to Copacabana Bolivia. The picture in the tourist office in town had a shiny double decker. We got a not so shiny old bus with no bathroom, okay it had a bathroom but it didn't work and remained locked for the trip. I am used to the bait and switch but for some of my fellow passengers this was the first time and they were pretty angry. They soon discovered that no amount of yelling will change their situation, especially yelling in English. The folks that run the bus are not the ones that sold us the tickets so it really isn't their fault that the booking companies lie to people. On the plus side it had big seats that went all the way back and heavy blankets so comfy, oh how my standards have dropped. Got in a pretty good sleep after the movie.

I'm snoozing away when I am woken up by the sound of squealing brakes, breaking glass and a thunk noise as the back tires run over something. The sun was rising over Lake Titicaca and all should have been right with the world at 5am. Good thing I liked the view as we ended up sitting there for over an hour. No one working on the bus came back to tell us anything but we could hear hammer on metal clanging so we all assumed a tire blew. Turns out not so, we hit a donkey and poor Eeyore did not fair so well. The direct bus dropped those of us going to Copacabana off on the side of the highway a few hours later where we took a mini bus (along with locals with livestock) to the Peru/Bolivian boarder. That is when we saw the damage the donkey did, most of the front of the bus was a crumpled mess, the windshield was shattered and the side door to exit the bus was splattered in donkey bits. We must have been doing a pretty good speed when we hit it, or it was some kind of huge monster donkey.

The mini van took us to the boarder where we checked out of Peru then walked across the street to check in to Bolivia. There is no cost to enter Bolivia unless you are from the US. 1 of the guys with us was, he had to pay $130.00 US and supply a photocopy of his passport. The charge allows US citizens to come an go from Bolivia for 5 years. It is in retaliation for a fee the US government imposes on Bolivians entering the US.  Thank god there are bathrooms at the border, pay ones but at this point I would pay just about anything. Border bathrooms like bus depot bathrooms are places of last resort, this one came with a bucket that you had to fill with water from a hose and dump in the bowl to flush. At least it was sort of clean. Customs on both sides was pretty easy, no line ups but we were there pretty early. There are money changers at the border, the rates are okay, I only changed $5.00 US over. Once in Bolivia we are met by another mini van that takes us to Copacabana about an hour away.

I had tried to reserve a room at a place that had been recommended to me by someone at the hostel in Cusco as a place to stay if you wanted to spoil yourself a little.  Alas I could not get a reservation but they told me to just drop by when I got into town as they sometimes had last minute cancellations and something becomes available. Turns out they had a room available, lucky lucky me, went to the restaurant and had some coffee and pancakes while the room was getting made up, then off for a nap. La Cupula is said to be the best Boutique hotel in Bolivia. It is beautiful and has a 1st class restaurant. It is run by some German folks, I highly recommend the Goulash and the breakfasts for under $3.00 US are awesome. I got my own room for $12.00 US a night (you can pay in US at this hotel) it came with a comfy bed, lots of blankets and a heater. I had a shared bathroom with hot water, tons of it and I never ran into anyone else using it. I highly recommend breaking the bank and spending the big bucks,  after the Machu Picchu hike a reward of a little luxury was great. They also have a community kitchen so if you really want to you can make your own meals.

One of the main draws of Copacabana is that it is on the shores of Lake Titicaca and is the launching spot for tours to Isle De Sol (Island of the Sun) the birthplace of the world according to Inca legend. The trip can be done as a 1/2 day or a full day trip. If you want to hike the island from 1 end to the other you need to do the full day trip. The boat drops you off at the far end of the island and you have 4 hours to get to the other end to catch the boat back. There are accomodations on the island so you can choose to stay if you want. I wasn't willing to give up my luxury digs so I did the full day trip. The boats to the islands leave from the docks in Copacabana at 8am, no need to purchase a ticket in advance, just show up and pay. The trip to Isl De Sol takes a couple of hours, a beautiful trip. Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world at 3,811 meters above sea level. The air is so clear it gives everything a sureal look to it, the clouds are fluffier, the mountians are clear, the sky feels so close it felt like I could reach out and touch the sun. That being said, I cannot emphasis it enough, take sunscreen, lots of sunscreen, lots of water, some food and a hat. Being that high the burn rate is pretty fast and there is no shade on the island hike, it is all pretty much in direct sunlight. Other than at the dock when they drop you off there is nowhere to buy water or food on the route.

There is a $10 Boliviana fee to go on the island, this includes a trip through the museum if you wish to go, there are no roads on the island. I passed on the museum and myself and a couple of folks that were staying at the same hotel as me took off up the trail. I'm not sure if I was a little jaded after Machu Pichhu but I really didn't think the island was all that great. Like I said, no shade, only 1 good set of ruins, just a lot of walking.  The views from the top of the island across the lake are incredible. There were some surprise charges along the way, seems the locals think they should get a cut of the tourist $'s so twice they charges us $5 Bolivianas to continue on the trail. All very slimy, the last one was a couple of old ladies just outside of the town were we had to catch the boat back. Inca trail robbery, we argued with them for 15 minutes, they told us if we didn't like it we could turn around and go back. We ended up paying but it is the first time I have told an old lady I would have no problem tossing her ass off the trail and down the hill. They were really mean rude old ladies, much figure waving in your face. Not sure what would happen if you didn't have any money on you. If you are going to do this hike you do have to be in relatively good shape, it is hot and a lot of it is uphill, you also have the time limit before the boat leaves, if you miss it you are spending the night. I have a feeling that room rates on the island double once the last boat pulls out.  We made it back with 1/2 an hour to spare.

On the boat ride back we stopped at the floating islands, islands made out of straw. Not long ago people used to live on the lake on islands like these. Not many people live on them now but they have a couple they have built for the tourists so you can see what they were like. Pretty cool but a little on the hokey/touristy side, that people really used to live on something like them is amazing. On the way back I got to sit at the front of the boat (outside the rail) I would recommend going to the island just for the boat ride, it truly is a spectacular trip.

I spent 3 nights in Copacabana, it is a nice little town, it has great shopping and for way cheaper than Peru.  Hats, leggings and jewelry are all way cheaper than Cusco.  There are tons of backpackers and lots of hostels and restaurants in town, a good place to hang out for a few days and adjust. There are some great hikes that you can do around town and lots of boat trips, any of the hostels and hotels will have information on them. As I am starting to see the end of my trip coming up I am trying to get to as many places as I can before my flight home out of Lima Peru in less than 3 weeks. I would love to have spent another day here but La Paz calls, I have heard that it is an incredible place.

There are a ton of buses that go to La Paz, I got a ticket for the expensive one at a cost of $25 Bolivianos, the trip takes about 4 hours, I caught the 1pm bus out of town