We left Cochabamba on Thursday night on the 11pm bus to La Paz (the capital of Bolivia) which is about an 8 hour ride. This meant I had to say goodbye to my wonderful host family, which was harder than I thought it would be. And now when I think about it I get really sad all over again.
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| Can't believe I left my 2 year old brother. |
When I got to the bus terminal in Cochabamba, we found out that the buses possibly would not be leaving because of a road blockade that had formed during the day by the campesinos on the one and only road that goes to La Paz for Cochabamba (this happens alllll the time). If there is a road blockage, no buses can leave because (obvi) they cannot get passed the blockade. Who knows what they were protesting, but luckily the blockade broke up and we boarded the bus a little after 11. We lucked out, too, paying 70 bolivianos (10 bucks) for cama-style seats there were super spacious and comfortable.
We got to La Paz at about 7am and felt the altitude change immediately (La Paz is about 3,800 meters above sea level, thus being the highest capital in the entire world). I had a pretty intense cold (still do) and had a nice fever keeping me warm for the bus trip, but my fever was no match for the frigid La Paz air and I immediately was freezing and got exponentially sicker within about 5 minutes of getting off the bus.
Our time in La Paz was relatively uneventful as we were only there for the day on Friday. The city is very urban and the downtown is surrounded by huge steep hills of slums. This picture that I found on google displays the hills (didn't take any pictures in La Paz): http://palinstravels.co.uk/photos/flc/main/flc_241_01_l.jpg
In Bolivia, it is normal for the richest people to live on the lowest land and the higher up you get on the mountains, the more poverty you will encounter.
We left La Paz at 8am for our trek to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. Try to picture us, however, at a hostel that caters to backpackers and we each have... one HUGE suitcase that ways more than I can lift, a backpack with all of our valuables (computers, passports, etc.), a large duffle bag with all of our extra stuff (mine has medicines, pillow for buses, supply of water, hygiene products, etc) and lastly we all have sleeping bags. We can barely make it 3 steps without everything falling apart. Our bus, however, was parked about 7 blocks uphill from us. La Paz, it should be noted, does not have paved sidewalks, so we are hauling all of this stuff on dirt/rock roads.
Two hours into the bus trip, we are told to get off the bus, go buy a boat ticket and take a boat across the lake while the bus goes across on a separate bus. So off we trekked with our luggage.
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| A boat taking little vans across the lake. The same type of boat that took our bus. |
We got to Copacabana, but immediately found it was ferial (festival/holiday) in Copacabana and pretty much everyone in the world was visiting the city to celebrate the virgin (Mary? I'm guessing?). So, all roads were closed in the city which meant no buses (more importantly no taxis) could drive in the city, so we trekked again with our luggage through the cobblestone streets in search of our hotel.
Ferial in Copacabana is obscene. Everyone is drunk starting at 10am, people were passed out in the streets and along the water at 2pm as we were walking around the city. There is trash EVERYWHERE. I was always shocked by the level of trash in Cochabamba, but Copa was worse. Everyone just throws all of their trash out their car window or drops it on the street as they walk by. This applies to diapers, tampons, candy wrappers, beer bottles, you name it. The lake is also the destination for all of the town's sewage. A few meters from the swimming area is a stream of sewage that runs out of a pipe that, presumably, comes from the city's center and straight into the water.
Our second day in Copacabana was spent in Isla del Sol, an island about 2 hours by boat from Copa. It's definitely a tourist destination and nothing else. Nobody really lives on the Island other than the people who own the dozens of hostels and hotels. The boat ride is 35 bolivianos, an entrance fee to the island is charged as soon as you step off the boat. Then, little girls leading an alpaca on a rope approach and, if you take a picture (which I didn't), they immediately run to you demanding payment for your picture. They sure know how to exploit the tourists. We tried to hike on the Island, but we couldn't get more than half an hour away from the boat dock without someone demanding more money from us to use the trails. It was certainly pretty, but I definitely wouldn't recommend the trip.
We marched our luggage to our bus from Copa to Cuzco at 6pm (a solid KM from our hotel), trying to avoid hitting the cars swerving through the streets and the numerous street venders. We took the bus about 15 minutes, before de-boarding and walking to the Bolivian migration station at the border of Peru. We successfully exited Bolivia and walked across the border, getting our passports stamped at the Peruvian migration station. We re-boarded the bus and prepared for probably the coldest 10 hours of our entire lives. Even my raging fever couldn't keep me warm on this one. I didn't manage to sleep on on the 10 hour trek, which was a bummer. I also probably prevented a lot of the other passengers from sleeping due to my coughing. Whoops. We paid travel fees to pass through Puno, and got to Cusco at about 5am. We took a taxi to our hostel, where the front desk conveniently could not find our reservation. I showed him our email confirmation, but his response was something like, "well, you should really call in advance. You can't just expect us to keep your reservation after we confirm it." OKAY.
We camped in the hostel lobby for a few hours, where the app on my phone said it was 5 degrees celsius. Finally, we got to check in at about noon and we have beds at least for tonight and tomorrow! Tomorrow we are planning a horseback riding trip (stoked!).
The plan is to head to Machu Pichu on Wednesday and it will require about a day of hiking. I haven't decided if I will go yet, because there is a $140 entrance fee. Machu Pichu sounds cool, but eating for the three weeks I will be in San Francisco before my first paycheck this fall sounds a lot more fun.
This will probably be my last blog about my travels in South America this summer. Thanks for reading! If you'd like to keep following my blog about my normal life (outside of the South America), follow lucasinsanfrancisco.blogspot.com
