La Paz and Lake Titicaca

Friday night we set off at 11pm to La Paz on the overnight bus. Semicama, so got a bit of sleep and arrived into La Paz at about 6.30. It was bloody freezing! Went straight to the same hostal we always stay at and dumped our stuff, had some pancakes then went out to explore the La Paz we hadn't seen yet. We went everywhere! All the plazas, witches market, the zona sur (very posh) and then the coca museum where we were offered free coca leaves to chew. No taaaaaa!

On Sunday we wandered around La Paz a bit more and then in the afternoon headed to Copacabana to see Lake Titicaca. We got a bus just as it was leaving... began to be a bit of a pattern in the Lake Titicaca trip. Found a hostal pretty easily and then went to the worst restaurant in the whole world for dinner. Everything we asked for had 'no hay' as the answer so we ended up getting choclo soup which was pretty much cup a soup. So not worth my 5 Bolivianos!

Monday morning we got up early to get the boat to the Isla del Sol. Got to the isla at about 10.45 where we went to a tiny museum and then joined a group with a guide who took us around the north of the island. The views were amazing and there were so many beaches and you could see the mountains in the distance... really pretty. Once we'd reached the ruins at the north, we left the guide to do the (supposedly 2.5hr) walk to the south of the island to get the boat back to Copacabana.


This took longer than suggested. We started at 12.30 and walked and walked and walked. Mostly uphill. At about 4000m. It nearly killed me. The walk was beautiful though; we had views of the lake on both sides, one side Bolivia and the other Peru. We also built one of those little rock mountain things. Here's me with it :L We had to be at the dock for 3.10 so when we asked a cholita how much further it was and she said media hora at 2 we thought we had plenty of time. How wrong we were. At 3 we were still walking, at 3.10 too. We got to the south at 3.20 but still couldn't see the docks... at this point we started to run down the hill. We started to see our boat leaving and we shouting 'espera!'. We got to the jetty just in time; even so, the boat had to come back for us. The bonus of arriving so late, was that there was hardly any room on the boat so we had to sit right at the front... not even inside the boat. We basically held onto our bags and a rope and had an amazing view the whole way back. Here's me in (one of) my llama jumpers on the front of a boat. I'M ON A BOAT :L

The next morning we explored Copacabana a bit more. We'd heard there was an amazing viewpoint a half hour walk from the town so we decided to do that. Half an hour my arse. Walk my arse. We eventually reached the top after about an hour and a half vertical climb to see some amazing views. It was really pretty and after we'd caught our breath, we made our way back down to catch the bus back to La Paz for the night.So... this morning we got a bus from La Paz to Oruro to see Annie's host dad. He's a celeb chef and has cooked for Bill Clinton among others and gave us a free meal. Score!! I had lamb and it was lush :)

Getting yet another bus tonight to go to Uyuni to start our Salar tour. Salt flats, coloured lagoons and volcanoes wait for me there. And temps of minus thirty possibly. Will post up pictures if I can live through the cold!

A x