Beautiful La Paz and a visit from hell to lake Titicaca

The 1st class bus from Uyuni to La Paz with “good heating” was the coldest one of them all so far. Warm winter clothes and a big blanket didn't help much when the windows froze and so did we soon after that. I asked the driver about the heating and he smiled and said “it's working well, right?”. No, not really. I slept probably a half an hour during the whole night and was exhausted when we got to La Paz. Okay, not eating for a few days might've added to that too.

The beauty of La Paz or in fact the beauty of its location didn't hit us that morning but as soon as we got some more sleep and climbed a bit higher it was impossible to miss. Tall buildings in the valley between mountains and smaller houses on their sides was quite a spectacular sight. Best views you get from the central park at Miraflores (3,5Bv entrance) if you can stand the crowds of children that jump everywhere around on their way to the next play spot.

We arrived to La Paz in the middle of the main tourist season and many hotels were full booked but we managed to find a beautiful room first for one night at Hotel Republica (luxurious triple room for 300Bv) and then moved to Hotel Provenzal (triple room for 180Bv) for the next 5 nights. Avoiding gringo places wasn't easy but we did our best to stay away from especially Olivers Travels bar and Sol y luna and Steakhouse restaurants that were mentioned in every guide book and brochure, which means they could charge outrageous prices from the tourist-only cliental while rougher looking sea food place and 80-style Chinese restaurant next door were filled with Bolivians and served great food at good prices. (Order one portion for two, 'cause they are huuuuuuuge.)

Our cultural activities in La Paz consisted of visiting exactly one museum – the Coca museum – which told about history, traditions and current state of coca production in Bolivia.




To me the most interesting bits of the culture are however represented by the local markets; the humongous Black market and the intriguing Witches' market, where you can get for example lama fetuses and fortune telling services, are full of things that seem unique to Bolivia.



Having a street with fruit stalls or another selling jeans and t-shirt can be found anywhere, but how about a wedding theme street, a fabric block, lawyer road and bathroom furniture alley? How and where people do their shopping or purchase services can be so different.


Whatever made me think visiting lake Titicaca, the highest lake on the planet, was simply a must I'll never know. But since Eilis wanted to go, my stomach and appetite were finally back to normal and Erik wanted to do some horse back riding and adventurous bike riding in La Paz, it seemed like a great idea to take a bus to Copacabana and spend a night on Isla del Sol, the Sunny island.
The trip to there went well, even though taking a small passanger boat cross a river while our bus floated across with another one seemed a bit unexpected and the 3 hour boat trip to the island (10Bv per person) did make me feel a bit dizzy. When we arrived at 4.30pm we climbed to long stairs up to the top to admire the views; both breathtaking activities in these highs, around 4000m above sea level.

The plan was to spend the night on the southern side of the island and get up very early the next morning to do the 3 hour hike to the north side with all the sites worth seeing and catch a return boat back at 1.30pm. Before going to bed at 8pm(!) we had checked out the inca ruins (=little piles of rock) of the southern side, had a lovely trout dinner and booked a breakfast for 7am the following day. Unfortunately we never made it to that breakfast though.

I spent the night with horrible stomach pains which even the continuous visits to the freezingly cold, slightly leaking and seatless shared bathroom didn't ease enough to let me sleep more than 15 minutes at a time. The boy working at the “hostel” (icy pink rooms with dirty sheets for 50Bv) we stayed in had told me there were four boats to Copacabana every day, so we thought we'd try to get back as soon as possible to at least get me some medication and catch the first one at 8.30am.

When we finally got to the harbour around 7.30am after climbing down the few hundred stairs, each one of them hurting my stomach more and more, we found out that there had been a slight misunderstanding; there were two boats to the island each day (8.30am and 1.30pm) and two back (10.30am and 3.30pm). So we'd only have to wait three hours on the ice cold stone seats with no bathrooms anywhere to be seen and my stomach about to explode, and we'd be on our way! I went to puke behind some buildings and tried not to cry. After trying to desperately rent a private boat for three hours and only getting outrageous rip-off offers (350Bv when the normal rate was 200Bv) we finally got on the public boat for 20Bv per person.

I didn't look forward to this trip in a tiny boat without a toilet at all and seeing how the amount of people on the same ship was going to be around 25 instead of the normal 10 hardly made me any happier. I did pretty well though and hanged my head down to feed the fish for the first time only the half way. Not that I had much to give after not drinking or eating anything in more than 12 hours. To my great luck, a minute later a big wave hit the back of the boat where I was seated soaking me completely up to my thighs. Climbing up to the top of the boat into the sun helped to dry my clothes in the icy wind and hanging onto the railings as the boat rocked dangerously every few minutes made me forget how sick I felt. The waves were too big (or the boat too overcrowded) for us to get to Copacabana harbour so minibuses picked all the passengers up in another village only a half an hour away from there.

I didn't feel one bit better in Copacabana but we both wanted to get to La Paz as soon as possible, so we took the next bus heading there (15Bv person). The journey was suppose to take 3 hours but when we got to the river where buses needed to cross by small boats, we realized it would take a lot longer. There were dozens of cars and buses queueing to the boats but none crossing over; the waves were too big and traffic chaos complete. None of the boats seemed to know who's turn it was to load on or off and everyone just tried to make sure no-one could get in front of them in the queue by that way blocking the way out from all others. After waiting in pain, thirst and increasing dizziness for 3 hours our bus was finally on the right side of the river and our journey back was ready to continue. I won't even mention the traffic chaos we encountered on arrival to La Paz, and having my first drink in more than 24 hours as we got to our hotel room at 8pm made me forget it too. A loo, plenty of Fanta and sleep was better than anything I could've imagined at that moment. Erik's activity holiday hadn't been much better than our sun get-away, and after horse riding he had spent the day in bed suffering from stomach symptoms together with a slight fever. What a sick couple, I'd say, and beautiful company for poor Eilis...

After not eating anything for over 36 hours I didn't feel too energetic the next morning, but since it was time to say goodbye to Eilis, who had been travelling with us for over a month now and become a friend on the way, we decided to go see her off at the bus terminal. You know, make sure she was really going ;)

Just as we had come back to the hotel and found a cosy spot inside the blankets, Erik's phone rang: Eilis said our immigration papers had been swapped and she was now on her way to Argentina with my papers while I had hers. Luckily her bus stopped for 30 minutes in a nearby town so we took the first cab there to get the papers swapped back and Eilis on her way to her flight from Buenos Aires.

Next two days we did nothing but rested, getting our appetite and strength back little by little. To me the turning point must have been having my first cider in 15 months – a heavenly Strongbow at Loki hostel bar. Not being able to find any real cider anywhere in Argentina, Uruguay or Brazil getting it in La Paz was both surprising and amazing. After the second one I felt like staying here for ever and ever... But then again, in Wirström's in Stockholm they have Bulmers!


p.s. All of the other travellers I've met who've been to Isla del Sol have LOVED it. So I'm sure it wasn't the island's fault our trip turned out to be nightmare, just bad luck. I bet your experience would be totally different.