It was cold and raining as we travelled from the Bolivian border to the town of Copacabana (altitude 3,841m), located on the shores of Lake Titicaca and the air had that damp chill to the bone feel about it.
Our route from Lake Titicaca to La Paz is shown below including the main destinations we visited.
We had a free afternoon and despite constant rain, went exploring the town, backpackers festooned with plastic ponchos seemingly everywhere. This is definitely a tourist dependant town with mountains on multiple sides of it, an interesting church and lots of shops and restaurants to choose from.
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| Church in Copacabana, Bolivia |
We enjoyed a coffee in an indigenous run café filled with young people trying to get dry and/or warm around multiple heaters making this a popular destination.
The chill in the air kept increasing and next morning, the roads, lawns and parked cars were covered with snow, the temperature having dropped to -4c overnight.
Danilla, our guide for the next week let us know our itinerary had changed. We were scheduled to travel to the northern end of Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun), visit Inca ruins, climb to the top of the island and then hike south for about 4hrs to the other end of the island for an overnight stay.
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| Mud bricks are very popular for building homes in Bolivia |
“The north end of the island is closed to tourists” Danilla told us, including advising it was due to feuding between the northern and southern indigenous group over the building of a new hotel near Incan ruins.
Naturally we were so ‘disappointed’ at not being able to hike, more likely trek for 4 hours at 4,000m altitude. Oh well!
We also learned that things had become violent between the communities after the pro development one had laid foundations for the new hotel and somehow they were blown up by dynamite… so quite a serious feud indeed.
We were still visiting Isla del Sol though on one of the many boats taking hundreds of tourists waiting to go, but now we would also be going to Isla de la Luna (Island of Moon) on the way, then climbing to the top of the Isla del Sol and walking north to our eco lodge accomodation.
Whilst waiting for our boat Danilla said “I have never seen this before” and she had been guiding people here for years. There was snow not only covering the mountains around Copacabana but also covering the beach. Must admit, we had never seen snow on a beach before either!
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| Snow on the beach an mountains around Copacabana |
Each boat leaving port was packed with tourists, including large numbers sitting on the roof of boats, and without the benefit of any safety briefing we had no idea where the lifejackets were.
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| Leaving the snow clad mountains behind Copacabana being left behind |
As we motored towards the Isla de la Luna, Danilla shared some of the history of Bolivia when it fought the 'Battle of the Pacific' with Chile and Peru and lost its coast to Chile in 1904. Bolivia is now trying to get it back and maintains its navy in Lake Titicaca.
Below is a map showing our visit to both islands and the exploring we did whilst on them.
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| Our journey to the island in Lake Titicaca |
After an uneventful 1.5hr journey, we climbed to 4,200m altitude and spent 1 hr at Isla de la Luna, where Incans believed Viracocha, the creator of things in Incan society, commanded the rising of the moon.
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| Danilla and Rob climbing on Isla de la Luna |
Again the Inca skills in building were on full display whilst visiting the ruins of an Inca nunnery.
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| The Inca nunnery on Isla de la Luna |
The Incas we learned had 3 most fundamental beliefs to maintain their society – ‘do not be a liar, do not be idle and do not be a thief’ - which if you think about it are pretty simple and good!
Next destination, Isla del Sol, a location very important in Incan religion because it was here they believed the Sun god was born and might explain some of the feuding going on.
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| Boat arriving at one of the landing points on Isla del Sol |
Isla del Sol was full of tourists, including all the things required to support them like accommodation, shops and places to eat, an abundance of which we saw as we climbed what seemed never ending stairs towards the top of the island.
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| Small section of the stairs towards the top of the island |
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| One of the many cafes for tourists visiting Isla del Sol |
Again Danilla was very surprised to see un-melted snow across the top of the island, including on the nearly 600 year old Inca built paths we were using to reach our overnight accommodation - 1.5 hrs later at over 4,000m altitude.
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| Snow still on the path across the top of the island |
The location of this eco lodge was just stunning with magnificent views from the island and its various bays, across Lake Titicaca to the Andes on the mainland.
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| Magnificent view from atop Isla del Sol |
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| Inca terraces on Isla del Sol |
Very friendly indigenous locals who take the ‘eco’ part of their development very seriously, run the lodge, so much so there was no heating in our room and with temperatures down to -4c overnight, it was a tad cool, but very comfortable.
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| Part of the eco lodge we stayed in |
After a very pleasant overnight stay and meals, we walked back along the path, having to get out of the way of a group of donkeys heading to the lodge to collect the bags of other tourists staying there.
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| Ducking out of the way of donkeys |
We met Danilla and kept walking to the Inca ruins of Templo del Sol further south, before then making our way back down all the stairs again to catch a boat back to the mainland.
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| Inca ruins of Temple del Sol |
During our climb to 4,300m whilst driving out of Copacabana, we were surrounded by lots of snow covered mountains and could see both the large and small Lake Titicacas and the narrow 1km opening between them, which is where we had yet another interesting experience.
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| Lots of snow at 4,300m as we head to La Paz |
In front of us, as we drove towards the water, was a passenger bus and we were both trying to spot the ferry to take us to the other side. There were plenty of old looking moored barges but no ferry.
The bus stopped, all the passengers climbed out and then drove forward towards one of the barges with well worn thick timber planks laid out in front of it. The bus very slowly drove onto the planks and then even more slowly bumped its way onto the barge.
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| Bus negotiating its way onto the barge |
Now it was our turn to drive onto the same barge, the planks bucking up and down a bit as we did. “Are the passengers getting back on the bus?” I asked Danilla. “No, they will cross in a small boat” she replied and sensing my next question, “but we will stay in our car and cross on the barge”.
Didn’t quite understand this but it was to no avail anyway as the barge departed, its reasonably small outboard working hard as we headed to the other side. I got out to watch and was warned to be careful where I stepped so as to avoid falling down between the planks supporting us!
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| Barges heading in reverse to the side we came from |
Safely across, despite having to backtrack to the landing point due to the wind pushing us sideways, we continued our journey towards La Paz for the next 3hrs along some very interesting and at times, bumpy roads.
They were widening the roads with a lane of new road on either side of the old road, a gap of about 30cm between them. Our driver moved from old to new constantly depending on road conditions ahead, a good jolt happening each time we did.
Finally we reached the outskirts La Paz, the highest administrative city in the world at 3,650m altitude and its ~900,000 population. It is again, typical of South America, built around and within a large valley, with many houses seemingly hanging on the side of steep, eroded and unstable looking valley folds.
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| Where we went in and around La Paz |
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| The city of La Paz |
As we descended into the city proper, we soon discovered we were entering chaos. The traffic was chaotic, the road system is chaotic due to mostly very narrow streets and even the behaviour of the pedestrians was chaotic.
Above us were cable cars called Mi Teleferico, the highest operating cable car system in the world, covering vast sections of the city on 11 different routes determined by colours like red, yellow and so on and built to try an overcome traffic congestion based delays for the residents. It is planned to expand the system to 30 different routes in future.
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| The red line of the Mi Teleferico |
There are very few large (normal) passenger buses in La Paz, again due to the width of its roads but there are literally thousands of Trufis, or small passenger vans, which stop anywhere to pick up passengers, adding to the traffic congestion.
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| Trufis in La Paz |
By now you might be thinking we were not overly impressed with the city so far, funnily it was quite the opposite, La Paz is a city with enormous energy and quite fascinating.
There is also a very interesting cultural display happening all the time between the modern and indigenous residents of the city with the latter mainly showcased by women wearing their famous bowler hats and brightly coloured dresses with up to 5 thick petticoats underneath them… apparently.
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| The 'locals' with bowler hats and lots of colour |
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| Layers of petticoats worn - 5 layers in a city, 3 layers at home |
British railway workers introduced bowler hats into Bolivia in 1920 and they are now worn with pride, especially by the Aymaran women, perched atop their long black braids of hair, shawls over their shoulders, which are also used to carry babies or goods and again those brightly coloured dresses. The other indigenous group in La Paz are the Quechua people.
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| Market located on the streets of La Paz |
We enjoyed a day tour visiting Moon Valley, where we could walk amongst the spires made from conglomerate based soil, eroded by seasonal rain into many weird shapes, then into the historical centre square where some of Bolivias’ former Presidents had been executed, one hanged by using a lamp post.
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| Moon Valley |
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| Main square in La Paz |
Large bullet holes sprayed across the walls of one building in the square were the result of fighting during the rebellion of 2004 and on the House of Congress, ‘The Clock of the South’ runs backwards.
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| 'The Clock of the South' which runs backwards |
Our tour concluded with a stroll along the oldest road in La Paz, Jaen Street, created in the 18thcentury and then finally with a walk through the ‘Witches Market’, where locals buy goods used as offerings to Pachamama or Mother Earth, which happens every year, including using dried lama foetuses.
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| Dried lama foetuses for offering to Pachamama |
We undertook 2 other tours around La Paz whilst there, the first being a visit to Palca Canyon with the imposing Mururata Mountain as its backdrop. We were dropped off on a dirt track outside the canyon and then started the most fabulous 2hr walk to and then through it.
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| Dirt path heading into the canyon with the impressive mountain as a backdrop |
Danilla constantly shared her knowledge of this incredible place as we followed a small stream and during the entire time, we did not see another person. At the end of the walk we simply sat amongst nature, enjoying a packed lunch and some breathtaking scenery.
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| Heading into the canyon |
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| In the canyon and the little blue shape in the middle is me |
About 2hrs drive west of La Paz is Tiwinaku, a very historical site originally inhabited around 1,500 BC and then between 300 BC and 300 AD it became a religious and cosmological centre within current day Bolivia as the Tiwinaku people expanded their presence and influence.
During our visit to Tiwinaku we climbed up onto what is regarded as a pyramid and saw many structures built using stone, similar to but not as elegant as the Incas and significantly older.
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| Part of the pyramid at Tiwinaku |
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| Pre Inca stonework of the Tiwinaku people |
There is also an underground temple, other large religious sites and a number of large stone structures built in line with the longest and shortest days of the year. The Tiwinaku were regarded as a very artistic and intellectual culture… thinkers not warriors.
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| Part of the 'underground' temple |
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| Some of the intricate ancient carving in Tiwinaku |
We finished our visit in La Paz before heading towards the Bolivian amazon area with a free day of roaming through more of the intriguing chaos of the city, enjoyed additional cable car rides above it and had lunch in a very quirky restaurant.
Bolivia was so far beginning to offer many interesting experiences, but we have a lot more to see and do so until the next post… go well!
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