Copacabana
Our bus pulled into the little town of Copacabana, right by
Lake Titicaca again. This was after a funny little boat journey across the lake with our bus rocking back and forth on a raft. Our time was now reasonably limited as we had only just
over two weeks to see Bolivia and Northern Chile before we had to take our flight
to Patagonia.
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| Rocky crossing |
The first day we took it easy and just popped out for lunch.
There were so many choices, with menu del dia boards displaying what was on
offer. We eventually settled (Luke would say I settled) on a restaurant that
was medium priced and ordered. We both ordered the mushroom soup and then the
fish for seconds, Luke the pasta.
The soup was probably a good indication of how the rest of
the meal was going to go. She served us packet soup (or what seemed like half
of it, being so runny). Most places serve these hearty homemade soups, that
being the point of the day menus is that they’re cheap to make and will all go.
But packet soup it was. We drank that…and then our mains came. Overcooked
sticky cold rick and raw chips for me. And Luke’s plate was not a tomato pasta,
but cold salty noodles with a spoonful of ketchup on them! He even asked if he
could have some more salsa, and the woman just walked off. Well, we all make
mistakes…or as Luke pointed out, I made that mistake!!
We eventually went out to Isla del Sol on one of our days
there. We decided to book a return boat to the North of the Island. On our
boat, we bumped into two Irish girls we had met in Lima, and a couple from
London we had met a couple times in Ecuador. We got to talking with this couple
mostly- Robert an investment Banker and Chloe a junior doctor working in
delivering babies that was tired of the NHS. She explained to us their lack of
staffing, putting babies in danger, and the cutbacks they’re trying to make- a
third of the current pay. She said it’s made her want to quit her profession
and go into the world of pharmaceuticals. Such a shame!
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| Little donkey |
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| Island sales |
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| Stunning views off the island |
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| Ruins on the island |
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| Your everyday bag for everyday needs |
Our boat took us back to the mainland, with our driver hoping we would all say no to visiting the floating islands, but we were all keen. Unfortunately it was more touristyy than Peru! It was just one little ‘floating island’ which was not made out of reeds, but planks of wood and barrels with reeds thrown over for effect. Nobody lived there, despite the huts they had made, just for show. It was technically a restaurant on water, where you could pick your fish from the little farm they had there. A bit of a disappointment if I’m being honest. Glad we visited the floating islands in Peru!
We had a better meal that night…rule number one, always
follow the locals! Unfortunately I was starting to develop my first cold this
year…yes I survived until September, but I think a mixture of the altitude, hot
daytime weather to freezing temperatures at night, on top of the dust was
getting to me!
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| Rotten fruit lady |
The next morning, before our bus to La Paz, we decided to
take a canoe out onto the lake. It was beautiful and the water was so calm.
Can’t say I rowed much owing to the heavy wooden paddles and my lack of energy
from my cold. But I enjoyed the view, whilst my minion took us through the
waters.
Our bus took us further along the lake until we came to a
crossing…a very windy crossing. Whilst everyone got off and paid 20p to take a
motorboat across the water, our coach looked a little like it was about to
sink. Loaded onto a float which swayed back and forth on the water, you could
see why everyone had to get off beforehand. It took quite a while to reach us
from the other side, but luckily the mayor from La Paz had come to the little
village we were waiting at, whilst a good 20 marching bands were each
performing from him. We laughed at a band who had clearly taken inspiration
from our Queen’s guard, wearing the fluffy hats, but in red, and were not all
pleased with their leader’s choice! Our bus finally reached us and we jumped on
before being swept away by the wind.
La Paz
We arrived at the bus station in La Paz, the capital of
Bolivia. After a short walk, we found a cheap hostel and settled in, settling
in like my cold. Thanks to the altitude, I could barely breath with these
combined, but it seemed like a lot of people we met were getting sick. Where
was this sun that South America promised???
We eventually stumbled across a pizza joint which Luke took full advantage of…without the most important ingredient of course…cheese! But over the next few days we found a veggie place that did an incredible buffet and soup. So many veggies, it must have been Bolivia’s full yearly veg allowance considering all the other restaurants looked at us like we were crazy every time we asked for veg!
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| SO MUCH STUFF |
We spent a good four nights here, getting to know the town
pretty well. The temperature was dropping the further south we were travelling,
so it was time to invest in a jacket…a copy of course!
We both found Colombia jackets, ready for the cold and windy
weather Patagonia was going to bring. And of course we hit the tourist shops
full of all sorts of knitwear, making deals in every shop. I think we bought
enough gloves, scarves and hats to last us several winters.
One woman’s shop we had been in and out of a few times,
having bought something already. When Luke was trying to decide whether he
should buy a scarf from her or next door, she eventually said, ‘Don’t come
back. You’re coming and going so much you’re making me suspicious.’ Did she
really think we were going to steal something?
On one day a man came up to us showing us something. Us
thinking he was trying to sell it to us, we quickly said no, but Luke soon
realised he was trying to get us to tell him what it was he was holding. It
turned out to be an energy gel, a banana and strawberry one. He asked us if he
should consume it or use it as a shampoo!! ‘Eat it,’ we said, ‘it will make you
strong…for a while anyway.’ He thanked us and went on his way. It seemed
everyone around us were popping out of nowhere with different samples of stuff
and little shopping bags. We eventually stumbled across this massive street
fair that was on. People were selling little trinkets, food, giving out samples
and university students with stalls showing us what they’d learnt, with a lot
of impressive work in electronics.
We came a across a baking stall, claiming that their food
was really healthy. We were expecting them to say something like- no sugar, low
fat butter or some new super food we hadn’t heard of. Everyone wants someone to
say to them ‘cakes are healthy.’ But no, it wasn’t as surprising as that in the
end. The carrot cake had….carrot in it. The almond biscuits had…almond in them.
The peanut butter cookies had…peanut in them. All healthy they assured us. I
wish I could convince myself that the sugary, buttery, eggy cake I was eating
was good for me! Sorry guys, you didn’t win me over, but I’ll still be eating
cake…I just know it’s not good for me…but it is...
We checked out a few museums, but the lack of signs in them
made it hard to see any relevance in them. There were some amazing dolls and
scenes displayed with little puppets, but not much of a description of what
they were about. There was also a small gold museum, but absolutely no signs
anywhere. It was a shame, but nice to have a look around anyway. All four
museums were down a cute, colourful alleyway with cobbled streets, which made a
change from the uneven, dodgy paved roads that covered La Paz. In the short
time we were there, we had seen a lady trip over whilst crossing the road, and
another led by some women who had smacked her face on the pavement and was
bleeding from her nose and mouth, with a bruised head. Poor lady!
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| La Paz views |
There were telefericos in the city, essentially cable cars
that lead up to these viewpoints. La Paz looked set in a valley, but it covered
the hills as well, and there were brilliant views from the top once we got in.
There were snow-capped mountains in the background from several different sides
of the city. It was beautiful, and all the colours of the buildings in the city
looked amazing against the backdrop.
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| Up, up and away in La Paz |
We eventually decided to move on from this city, not having
expected to like it much, like most big towns you come across on your travels,
you just expect it to be dirty and crowded and a bit unsafe. But for a big
city, it was lovely to have explored and we were sad to be leaving.
Having got a bit lucky with our bus, we managed to get these
comfy cama (bed) seats for nearly half price of the other companies. We
appreciated it, as it was a twelve hour overnight bus.
Uyuni
We arrived at Uyuni early in the morning for the salt flats.
With Luke having done a three day tour several years ago, and my cold not yet
gone, we were reluctant to hit temperatures below freezing at night in these
cold hostels they put you up in.
We decided to just do the one day tour, but were knackered
so decided to do it the day after instead of rush off within the hour. We
scouted out the best deal for the one day tour. Most were asking for 160
bolivars (£16), but as we were walking out of a shop, another lady rushed up to
us and said she could do it for 100 bolivars. Well she said she was called
Fatima and led us to her own office tucked in the back of the street next to a
hostel. It was one of those things where we thought…is this too good to be
true? But she issued us with a proper receipt and she did have her own office,
so we thought, why not???
The next morning we got breakfast from the same toothless
lady at our usual stall. Coffee and a couple pieces of plain bread for 40p.
Can’t argue with that? She even gave us her best smile J
After that, we headed to Fatima’s agency for 10.30am,
bumping into her on the way. She seemed in a rush, but just said to wait there.
Her place was locked up, so we just sat outside. And waited, and waited. At
10.50am, we started to worry and Luke went to ask the group of women trying to
sell their company’s tours at the end of the street if they knew Fatima and
where she was. They all started laughing!! Oh dear, that can’t be good. They
said she apparently disappears a lot! And we asked the woman at the hostel next
to her office where she was and the woman shrugged and said she’s not a proper
agency, and not very legit! Oh dear…what have we done. It got to 11am and Luke
and I were wandering the street looking for her. She had a distinct boil on the
end of her nose so hard to miss. Luke was trying to call her from some French
guy’s phone when all of a sudden this jeep pulled up, and the women Luke had
spoken to early said that it was for Fatima’s group. So I grabbed Luke, and we
bumped into the mysterious women herself. We jumped in the jeep and relaxed a
little. There was an Aussie guy, a girl from Yorkshire, two Brazilians and a
Spanish girl – we couldn’t all be being conned!
There’s always stories about these trips that your driver is
so drunk that there are several deaths each year. Bearing in mind there isn’t
any traffic and no cliffs or anything…just driving straight across the salt.
The Lonely Planet even says you should ask your driver to stop drinking if he
starts up!
Luckily for us, our driver was young and cautious. I think
because we were on a one day tour rather than three, he wasn’t in a rush as
knew he’d have to stay out for sunset anyway. He was really sweet and friendly,
and our day turned out to be pretty good.
He first took us to the train cemetery, you got it…where
trains come to die. It was pretty cool, as we all climbed on all these rusty
old things in the desert. Most of them just old shells now.
We moved on to the salt flats. They weren’t very white at this point, and the driver was quick to point out that the salt gathered into small piles on a few foot high were not natural believe it or not, but man made! Shock horror.
The jeep moved on to take us to lunch, which was pretty
decent and they catered to our veggie needs. The Yorkshire girl reminded me of
three people – her accent like my old housemate Hayley, her humour like the
unforgettable Beth, and she looked like my mate Kelly. I just wanted to hug her
forever…but I resisted for fear of odd looks and an awkward car journey!
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| Train graveyard |
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| Swing swing on the train set |
We moved on to the salt flats. They weren’t very white at this point, and the driver was quick to point out that the salt gathered into small piles on a few foot high were not natural believe it or not, but man made! Shock horror.
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| Salt flats |
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| Anybody want some salt? |
I had been thinking for a couple of months now that I should
have been creating a Mummy photo album this whole year. On my journey there
have been a lot of short, dark skinned, short haired women resembling my mummy.
I had thought about trying to get a picture of each of them with me…but I think
I left it too long and have missed out on some goodies. Plus some probably
awkward turtle moments have been missed from asking them!!
We headed on to even whiter salt flats, feeling it crunch as
we drove over them. The puddles that had dried up have made these amazing patterns on the surface. It’s a shame there’s no water on them at the moment as
they made the most incredible reflections.
When you look into the distance it almost looks like the mountains, hills and volcanos are floating. After stopping for a few pictures, we headed to this beautifully coloured volcano where a few flamingos fed at the bottom. It was stunning and the flamingos were a bright pink with a beautiful reflection on the water they waded through.
After dropping off the Spanish girl and the two Brazilians, who were on a two day tour, we headed to an island that was unique in the salt flats for being covered in cactuses. It was ridiculously windy, but we managed to clamber to the top and take in the amazing view of salt flats surrounding us.
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| Beautiful coloured volcanoes |
When you look into the distance it almost looks like the mountains, hills and volcanos are floating. After stopping for a few pictures, we headed to this beautifully coloured volcano where a few flamingos fed at the bottom. It was stunning and the flamingos were a bright pink with a beautiful reflection on the water they waded through.
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| Flamingos on the salt flats |
After dropping off the Spanish girl and the two Brazilians, who were on a two day tour, we headed to an island that was unique in the salt flats for being covered in cactuses. It was ridiculously windy, but we managed to clamber to the top and take in the amazing view of salt flats surrounding us.
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| Cactus island! |
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| Random, but stunning |
We were going to watch the sunset but the Aussie and
Yorkshire lass had booked a bus for just after and had been told by the woman they
booked with that they’d be back on time. Shame to miss it, but as Luke said, ‘I
think there’s a sunset each day, we’ll catch the next one.’
Hungry and cold, we quickly searched for food and stumbled
through a night market selling all sorts of things set up for just that
evening.
We had an early bus the next morning, a 4am start, so an
early bedtime it was. The bus was to Calama in Chile. It was meant to arrive in
Calama at 1pm and we were told there were usually 3 buses after then from most
companies that headed to San Pedro de Atacama, where we were to couchsurf at a
girl called Mariana’s place, with her boyfriend Sebastian.
Well, we got to the Bolivian border at 7.30am. Border
doesn’t open till 8am, and we had to wait for the first coach load of people to
pass through immigration first. When we eventually did, the officer asked us
for 15 bolivars each. We had asked the immigration office in Uyuni if we had to
pay anything and he had said no. So we knew this was just going into his
pocket. We stood our ground and said we were told we didn’t have to pay
anything to leave. He tried to tell us that our bit of paper for entry had a
stamp on it that had been scribbled on it to say it was cancelled…to which we said,
‘that clearly says 30 days.’ He eventually gave up arguing and stamped us
through, not even looking at my passport picture! Good job Mr!! More training
in corruption than security here I see? He was charging all the locals 15 each
too, but not one argued. I just think they’re oblivious.
So 9am and that was Bolivia done, and we were due to arrive
in Calama in Chile at 1pm, or so we thought…
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| Cars look like they're floating |
