Visit to Bolivia

Our last big travel day included in the tour - getting from Puno to La Paz - turned out differently than every other one of Marcos's Peru/Bolivia tours, and he's done more of them than anyone else.

A few days earlier, Marcos had hinted that there might be a logistical issue with the trip, but not to worry, he was working on an alternative routing. Once he got the details confirmed, he told us what was going on. Thursday was the Feast of Corpus Christi, a national holiday in Peru just as it is in many largely Catholic cities and/or states; Saturday would be June 21, the Winter Solstice, and a holiday for the Quechua and Aymara people, so somebody had to come up with a reason for a three-day holiday. Apparently some groups in Juli, where we were to pick up our hydrofoil ride, had decided to stage a protest to do with mining, which is very big in southern Peru. It wasn't necessarily a sure thing that they'd disrupt our bus ride, but it never hurts to have a Plan B. So Marcos had come up with one. It was later proven to be a good idea, as the road was in fact blocked for a couple of hours.

Rather than a bus ride to Juli and then taking the hydrofoil around part of the lake to Sun Island, Bolivia,  and then on to Huatajata where we would meet the bus to La Paz, Marcos had arranged for us to take a hydrofoil ALL THE WAY from Puno. Even the locals don't usually do this, so we had an extra special trip.

So we climbed aboard a boat similar to the one we had toured on yesterday and chugged slowly across the end of the bay, not even reaching Puno. We rafted onto the hydrofoil (our luggage was all stored and tarped on top) and everyone transferred boats. Then we set out, past the totora reeds and into the main part of the lake. The trip to Sun Island took about 2 hours even though we were travelling at 25 knots or so, a little choppy but not too bad, much like Lake Simcoe on a nice summer day.

Sun Island is the largest island in Lake Titicaca, located in the Bolivian side. It is said that Sun Island is THE origin of the Inca, the place from where Inti, the Sun, sent his son Manco Capac, and his daughter Mama Ocllo, to create a kingdom to rule the people. They eventually settled in Cusco and established the Inca empire with Manco Capac as the first Inca.

On the water

Looks sort of like the islands in Georgian Bay

No, those are NOT clouds. That's a mountain
range in Bolivia

View from our lunch spot

Our hydrofoil

After yet another climb (we were getting really good use of those walking sticks) we were rewarded with an outdoor lunch.

Pasta Potato Veggie Soup - delicious!

Main course, including white corn, potato,
trout and a quinoa pancake

With some of our fellow travelers

We weren't bereft of wildlife here, either. Two of the locals -

These two are owned by the people who have the house/restaurant
where we had lunch. Some of the very few cats
we saw on this trip

As well, we caught a glimpse of the world's biggest hummingbird. We had heard that the largest one is about 5 inches from head to tail and couldn't quite fathom one that size. We were all enjoying dessert when all of a sudden, Marcos jumped to his feet and started pointing and shouting, 'There it is! The biggest hummingbird!!' Apparently the colourful tops of our walking sticks had attracted it, but not long enough for anyone to be able to get a picture. It certainly was huge!

Once back on the hydrofoil we had another 90 minutes before we reached Huatajata and another brief stop to visit the Limachi family. Not exactly a household name, unless you happen to belong to the Heyerdahl household - as in Thor Heyerdahl who sailed the Kon-Tiki and the Ra II across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the 1970s. The boats were built by the Limachi family, right here on Lake Titicaca. They have a replica of the Ra II in their small museum.

One of the Msrs. Limachi paddling out to meet us

The Ra II. Hard to imagine this boat sailing all the way
across Lake Titicaca, never mind an ocean!

Part of the herd. We still have trouble telling
the llamas from the alpacas!

Then we were on the way to La Paz. On the way we learned about the history and economy of Bolivia and how it has been changing in the past ten or so years. Despite the improvements being made, over 70% of the economy is of the black market kind, since many people live in rural areas and trade locally, not so much avoiding taxes as living outside of the organized economy of the big cities.

Rural living in Bolivia

A small 'storefront' in one of the outlying towns

We were in for yet another surprise when we arrived at La Paz, or should we say to El Alto, the 'suburb' where the airport is located. This is what La Paz looks like from there:

Yes, that is a cable car, and yes, the city looks really, really far down in that valley. Some believe that the valley is actually the crater of an extinct volcano, and it is really easy to agree with that assessment. From where we were standing, downtown La Paz was about 2,000 feet below us. The cable cars are a recent innovation, cutting travel time from areas like El Alto to downtown from an hour and a half to 8 minutes! There are two more cable car lines being built to further reduce traffic congestion from other areas. And they could certainly use the help!!

After settling in with the first night in our hotel, on Saturday we headed out for a city tour.

The Bolivian State Building

The cathedral. They had just been celebrating the
anniversary of the Bolivian Police with a service inside.
Don't think we could have been any safer!

In the plaza (Gustavo said, if you don't like
pigeons, don't go there), a woman and
her daughter feeding the birds

Some of the colonial architecture

The House of the Green Cross. People used to
think they saw ghosts and spirits in this little
square at midnight. The Green Cross that is
lit up at 12:00 is meant to keep the bad spirits away
so people can celebrate happily all night.

Should we use knitting needles or a crochet hook???
We have no idea how they keep track of
all of these wires!

We next visited the Witches' Market, so called because many of the stall and shop-owners were women who sold herbal and natural remedies for all sorts of ailments, and so were, of course, called witches. Nowadays there are still some weird things being sold but many shops sell regular products, textile and knitwear and souvenirs.

Herbs, teas and natural remedies

Across the way, icons and statues

Blankets, scarves, water bottle holders
and even guitar cases!

We stumbled into this little courtyard
where we bought a couple of small
souvenirs

Our final daytime excursion visit - and the one where we finally relinquished those walking sticks! - was to the Valley of the Moon, an area still within the valley of La Paz.

Yes, he is standing up there on one foot! There
are crazy people everywhere!

We even caught a glimpse of the world's highest golf course. The best photo we could get was a bit of fairway through the trees. At this elevation, even Monica could hit a 300 yard drive, and Larry could hit straight!

Finally, we had an impromptu concert by our local guide Gustavo and the fellow who had been playing the panpipe up on that pedestal when we arrived (who has very impressive balance!)

Our farewell dinner included a private tour of the Museum at the Church of San Francisco and dinner at a local restaurant nearby. We couldn't resist closing the blog with a wonderful photo of our fearless leader, Marcos, in some authentic conquistador gear:

Some final observations on this amazing adventure: There are sites in these countries that have to be seen to really be understood, and Machu Picchu is one of them. Even after reading a number of books we weren't prepared for the real thing. The environment in general is so completely different than what we sea-level dwellers are used to that we never really got used to it. Of course, having colds certainly didn't help much, but the thin air and the extreme dryness started to affect almost everyone on the tour by the last few days. Physiological issues notwithstanding, we visited places that we didn't know existed, and discovered ways of life that have been perpetuated for hundreds of years by people who are quite content to live with the land, not just on it, using up its resources. The genuine welcome and friendliness of all of these people is something we will not forget.

This has been a once in a lifetime trip, and we hope you have enjoyed following our progress.