* Copacabana - 17th to 20th March 2016 *
We took an overnight bus from Cusco to Puno, Peru which left at 10pm. We were absolutely knackered from the Machu Picchu trip and the day wandering around Cusco that we had a relatively good bus trip. We went with Tour Perú because they told us we would go direct to Copacabana, Bolivia on the same bus and only stop at Puno to pick up new passengers. All for S./70pp... They lied! They didn't have enough passengers to fill the bus from Puno to Copacabana so they booted us off the bus at 5am and told us to wait for the next bus which was at 7am, bleary eyed and struggling with life we got some coffee and waited for the bus to arrive.
The biggest issue with many of these South American countries is the corruption and bribery. Everyone seems to be in each other's pocket. We stopped at a little place before the border so we could toilet, get food and exchange money "at a better rate than in Bolivia". We didn't have much Peruvian Soles left so we didn't bother.
The Peru immigration was pretty chilled, no questions just hand over your passport, a forms and stamp away. We crossed the border on foot and spent our remaining Soles on snacks and headed to our bus parked in Bolivia. Again, no issues with the immigration there and just had to wander to the bus to take the remaining 8kms to Copacabana. The U.S. Citizens appeared to have issues with paperwork and had to pay US$50 pp, from which everyone else (non Americans) is exempt from.
Shahn at the border crossing between Peru and Bolivia with the biggest bag of popped grain we had ever seen. It is a stable snack and cereal for the Bolivians, we later found out.
Arriving in Copacabana, a small and really chilled out town, we went in search of Wi-Fi and breakfast so that we could find a hostel room - conditions were that it had Wi-Fi, hot water in the bathroom, a bed and a lock on the door (for B.100 about A$20). For some reason they like to charge per person instead of for the room, so prices reflect this and can be confusing. We aren't huge fans of the haggling and find it embarrassing to barter prices.
We found Hostel Wari, in the main tourist street (Avendia 6 de Agosto) in Copacabana and were absolutely shattered, about 4pm and we went for a walk around the town, looked at the markets for a bit and enjoyed the sunshine and the view of Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigatible lake at 3,800m above sea level. It is famous for its' crystal clear and calm waters. We didn't even bother having dinner, we had a shower and were asleep by 7pm!
The shower at our hostel, live wires to the shower head which was quite unnerving.
The following day we took a passenger ferry on Lake Titicaca to Isla del Sol, it takes 2hrs to get there is they overload the boat with passengers and use a small outboard for the boat size. Beautiful green hills of Bolivia are seen during the ride over to the island across the stunning still water of the lake. We went to explore the island for the day, hike to the different Inca Ruins and wander the island.
We started the hike in Challa Pampa, went to the museum and paid the enrrance fee to start the walk. First up was the ruins of Roca Sagrada, Chinkana hill and the Cemetery of the Inca. We walked up the hill further along the Willka Thaki route walking from the northern section of the island moving south.
The most hilarious part of the hike from North to South was that at every "town" that is close to the hiking track adds a toll booth for using the trail, the money is used in maintenance and supports the community. We don't mind paying but stopping three times to pay was a bit ridiculous considering how small the island is. We were back in the boat by 3.30pm. We were suggested a place for dinner and are there, but unfortunately got quite sick from there and the following day we couldn't bare the thought of the 4-5 hour bus with feeling so poorly. We went for a walk around the town and found a shop that had handmade rugs and blankets which were of good quality but she was wanting over US$300 but we decided it was out of our budget. While there we met a lovely German lady who lives in Canada with her husband, later that night we bumped into them walking around so we went for dinner with them. Renate and Garth were good entertainment for the evening telling us stories about their life, kids and grandchildren, where they have lived and visited.
We got up early and made mission to the top of the hill which was a cemetery, as we had to check out of the hostel at 10.30am so we boosted up the hill, puffing and blowing our way up.
Stunning view so that was worth cardio!
As you can see, we travel very light! HAHA!
After we packed up our stuff and checked out, we got our well deserved breakfast of "muesli" (actually puffed wheat or rice as a cereal) with yoghurt and fruit. We did a full morning of research as best we could with the terrible internet connection.
We caught the bus at 1.30pm to go to La Paz, the bus had to stay within Bolivia borders so this involved a ferry crossing - Bus went across separately to the passengers. All up the journey ended up taking 5 hours.
* La Paz - 20th to 24th March 2016 *
We arrived into La Paz close to 6pm, and fortunately we had booked a room at York B&B for AU$33/night (expensive for Bolivian standards, but the cheapest we could find in La Paz) so we didn't have to roam the streets and figure out where we were, if it was safe or what we needed to do. We met a French couple at the bus station and shared a taxi to our accommodation because they didn't have anywhere planned. After we dumped our bags and sorted ourselves out we went with Francois and Maria our for dinner, beers and pool at a pub near the hostel.
View from our hostel window, the power line cables are pretty classic.
The following day we ventured out after the hostel breakfast of bread & jam with cereal, yoghurt and banana. We needed to find some tour companies that would give us comparative prices for the Salt Flats, Amazon Jungle and more pressing, the Death Road Biking tour. While on the tour finding mission, we wandered the La Paz historic center, see the Witches Market - complete with lotions, potions and dead llama feotus (they are dried out and buried under house foundations for good luck), as it was a Monday there were no Museums open so we missed out on those but fortunately we have been through a few in the past few weeks. We also missed the El Alto markets due to them being on a Thursday & Sunday, they are huge and take up the middle of the main street for many kilometers.
After much investigation we decided we would go with "Ride On", a newer company that charges Bs. 450 pp (they were given glowing recommendations from Rob & Gilly, Machu Picchu tour couple from England). We were picked up the next day for the tour complete with 7 women and Michael. The girls were awesome, they rode very well despite the earlier nerves and we all had an enjoyable day. The tour was well run with driver, Hugo; two guides, Damien and Joel - all three were incredibly professional, knowledgeable and well trained.
We started the bike ride at La Cumbre at 4,670m above sea level and biked down to Yolosa which lies at 1,109m. The total ride covered 64kms, the first section was on asphalt and pretty comfortable going down, we then went onward down the actual "Death Road" - known this because it is the world's deadliest road, between 1996 and 2006 there was an average of 230 people being killed on that road every year alone. In 2006, a new asphalt road was opened and now the main road is used primarily - though many locals still use the (Death) Yulnas Road. We were genuinely impressed that they used the road for so long especially considering how vertical the cliffs are and how many landslides and slips cover the road, despite the fact it is still technically a functional road. We really enjoyed our day trip with Ride On Biking Bolivia!
The fearless girls on the Death Road Tour: Alexandra & Rose from Quebec, Canada; Kal & Laura from NZ; Rose from Cairns, Australia and Nicola from England.
Shahn all geared up down the first section of asphalt road.
The group on the edge of the cliff.
Shahn in the pouring rain.
Michael during a rest stop, putting on our rain jackets.
Shahn biking through a waterfall over the road.
Kal and Michael behind her going through the waterfall.
The weather wasn't ideal but it was still fun sitting with leg hanging off the edge of the cliff
Shahn & Michael (far left)
Death Road complete - all smiles and thumbs up!
Beers, biting midgies and a "free" t-shirt.
Guides with us at the end of the bike ride.
Next day we we were a bit tired and sore from the biking and we needed to decide what tours we were going to do, unfortunately that usually takes up a significant amount of time and research so we found a cafe with wifi and set to figuring out the game plan for the next week, especially since Easter weekend was falling right in between tours and flights to Rurrenbacque. Fortunately we managed to come up with a game plan for the week so that we can see everything we need to in Bolivia.
* Uyuri Salt tour - 25th March 2016 *
We managed to organise a day trip to Uyuri with the help of a tour company, Adventure Wheels. The girls there booked us an return overnight bus from La Paz to Uyuri, the Salt Flat Tour, flights return to Rurrenbacque and the Jungle & Pampas tour (for AU$800pp for an 8 day inclusive duration).We took the night Cama (160° reclining seat) Bus to Uyuri at 9pm and arrived at 4.45am (two hours earlier than anticipated) to hoards of people wanting you to book tours, hostels and cafes for breakfast - when you are barely functioning as you have slept poorly and in a foreign town, we were coerced into following a lady to her cafe alongside dozens of other bleary eyed tourists at 5am. We shared a breakfast table with a nice German chap, while we were given our breakfast and figuring out the rundown of the days events.
Michael went to the Expediciones Tres Gignates office to see if there was anyone about. An A4 note with our names in the window helped the situation. We met with the Driver and guide, José whom told us to drop our bags and go kill the 2.5hrs until the tour begins at 10.30am. So we wandered off to the markets and to the local museums which had several quite well preserved mummies in display. At 10.30am we met back at the office and discovered our nice group of six - us, a Argentinean couple, Validia & Leo and a Australian couple, Erin & Carl.
After some fluffing about by the tour company, we left at 11.15am finally to explore the Train Cemetery, a local market and then entered the beautiful Sal del Uyuri (Salt flats of Uyuri). We enjoyed the salt flats, the sunset was beautiful and the couples in the tour were awesome, it was a hugely long day as we climbed back into the bus at 8pm headed back to La Paz.
We stopped at this dead train museum along the way, literally hundreds of trains and trainable storage that has been dumped in the desert. Was a bit weird!
Eventually we made it to the famous Salt Flats, where it was hot and dry with crazy glare from the white of the salt.
A tractor literally in the middle of nowhere
Found a New Zealand Flag outside the Salt Hotel.
* Rurrebacque - 26th March to 1st April *
A forty five minute flight is meant to be the best alternative to the bus (18-48hrs in bus route, weather and traffic dependant). We booked our flights together as even though it is low season, it was Easter too and we needed the flights to line up with our timeline. The flight was delayed from 11.30am to 3.30am but we were also late departing. We were both allowed 20kgs checked baggage and 10kgs carry on but we didn't really need that much for 7 days so we left a few bags at the luggage storage at Airport, after a miscommunication dispute over the price for 6 days storage we managed to store half our stuff at the airport and take the other half with us.
Michael took some photos and sent them to his cousin, Matthew who is an aircraft engineer - his message back was:
"Ah the metroliner, or as others call it the "death pencil". Shit it's seen better days, props seem to have a bit of erosion, but you can see they have repaired the seal on the prop heat so I imagine they are at least doing a bit of maintenance, and Amazonas has never had any major incidents so it's probably OK. Hard to say without seeing it in person... From those pics I would probably be a bit nervous, that aircraft was built in 1993" - so as you can imagine we were pumped for the return flight!
We found a lovely hostel for the night (prices were cheaper than La Paz too) and got our laundry done because we were running low on essentials, then set off for a wander around town to see the river and how the town is set out. We found our tour companies locations and had a chat with them to make sure everything was organised, La Paz had booked the tours the wrong way around so they fixed those for us. We wandered to the Funky Monkey for a beer, some free Caipirinha's (because we had a referral from a tour company!) and played a couple of games of pool then realised it was 9pm and we should find some dinner! We found a local place and got some pizza, there were a group of street kids who were hanging around wanting food and money, there was a group of 6 kids there ranging in ages of 8 to 12. Quite sad.
View from the hostel room (fourth floor)
The Bolivian Armada, actually though!! On a very fast flowing river.
We left the next morning for our three day Jungle tour in the Amazon Basin. After our jungle tour was completed we went back to the same hostel we had such a comfortable stay for a great price. We were absolutely filthy from the mud and general dirtiness from a couple days without showering, so we had wonderful hot showers and got our washing done again as we needed to wear the same things for the Pampas tour.
We were clean, wearing fresh clothes and feeling pretty good. Sent some emails and messages, went to a walk around Rurrenabaque then decided we would eat at El Nomadico, we had the most amazing fish curry based off a local Bolivian dish they had been tweaked. The owner, a Sydney guy whom had been living in Rurrenabaque for almost 10 years, was very chatty and he gave us the recipe for the fish dish that "keeps the business afloat, people keep coming back for it!".
We left the next morning on the tour for the Pampas, a collection of rivers which are home to many animals and birds but more famously, the pink river dolphin. We did the three day tour with Dolphins Travel Bolivia. After the tour we arrived back to the office at 3pm and our flight out of Rurrenabaque was scheduled for 5.15 pm. I went to the Amazonas office in town to double check it was all fine with no delays. The lady at the office was given our passports and said flatly and firmly, "Your flights are delayed".
I replied, "Oh, really? To when? It's the last flight of today right?"
She ignores my questions then picks up the phone, talks to someone in rapid Spanish for over 10 minutes, not acknowledging me at all, then puts the phone down while flicking our passports back at me.
"Flight is at 5.15pm, be there an hour beforehand." She says before looking back at her computer and ignores me from there. So we were fine to take the flight back to La Paz and we didn't lose an extra day. Winning!
Michael looking pleased with his coca leaves, baking soda and tree bark (Chamyro ?spelling), along with some nuts fresh from the market
Flight back to La Paz was uneventful thankfully, we were jammed in the back three seats of the same plane and pilots that flew us in. We arrived to La Paz safely but almost instantly were struggling with the altitude, Michael was lethargic and very disoriented while Shahn was suffering from extreme flatulence from altitude (yes, it's a thing!) causing cramping with pain also while being lightheaded.
We collected our stored bags from the airport and then took a taxi to the bus terminal, in search of a night bus to head to Chile. We found we couldn't do a night bus due the boarder not being open overnight, so we found a hostel nearby to stay and managed to get an excellent night sleep, hot showers and self serviced laundry. We booked our 1pm bus tickets to Iquique, Chile with Trans Salvador Bus (Bs 150pp) and then got a dinner, by 9pm we we exhausted from the altitude change and looked forward to a sleep in and a decent rest.
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