The first day
there, our hosts, Martin and his wife Sisi, took us to their country
home, where they made us an amazing asado. Martin brought his parents
domestic assistant and their spaniel, who was actually named Mini Me!
I was also so grateful for a good meal, because Bolivian food is not
something someone from San Francisco can easily adapt to. It's
mostly chicken and rice, pork chop and rice, or some variation.
Martin made us barbeque chicken and sausage. There was an avacado
salad, a cheesy rice dish, and potatoes. It was amazing! Then the
clouds rolled in, and we went home. That evening Martin and Sisi
drove us around town so we could see it at night. Then they took us
to the mall and we had coffee.
We spent our days
in La Paz walking around, visiting a couple museums, eating, etc.
We also had internet in the apartment, so we spent time uploading
pictures, emailing, etc. I tried to call Mom, but as always, the
connection was bad.
In La Paz there is
a jail where a British man was jailed for five years for trying to
smuggle cocaine out of the country in 2000 and wrote a book about his
experience.. He became a “tour guide” at this very, very strange
jail, where prisoners lived in apartments which they had to purchase
when they entered the jail, with their entire families. There were
restaurants and shops in the jail as well, because the prisoners
needed to make money. The Lonely Planet guide book used to list this
jail as a thing to do in La Paz, because the British man was running
tours. However, today, Lonely Planet does not advise it. But Jesse
and I had both read the book and wanted to at least see the outside.
The jail is on a square, so we just sat in the square and watched as
women and children walked in and out of the door. There were other
backpackers there watching too! The book is going to be a movie with
Brad Pitt, apparently, if it's made.
We finally left La
Paz after 5 days and headed to a small mountain town called Coroico.
To get to it, you have to take the road that replaced the famed
“death road.” The replacement road was pretty freaky too, as
it's really really high, with lots of corners. There were three
little girls sitting in front of me on the minibus, and one of them
had a black and white cat in her back pack. The cat sat on their lap
sleeping the entire trip. And when we got to Coroico, she zipped it
up entirely in her backpack!
In Coroico, we
stayed at a resort/hostel on the side of the mountain. We were
camping. The campsite was pretty nice, with a nice fire pit and
covered table. There were two German guys camping next to us, who we
ended up hanging out with the next two nights, cooking meat on the
fire and drinking rum and cokes. They had purchased motorcycles in
Sucre, and so they took us on the back of their bikes to see some
nearby waterfalls. It was pretty freaky at first, but I got used to
it. They are planning on riding all the way up through California
with the bikes. They are both mechanical engineers, so were able to
work on them when they broke down.
There were
horrible sand flies in Coroico, and we got bitten up. And the bites
itch and leave awful marks.
We were in Coroico
over Easter weekend, which, for Latins, is a week long celebration
called “Semana Santa.” Trying to leave town on Monday to go back
to La Paz was not easy. Everyone had left the city to go to the
towns for a getaway weekend. During our efforts, we met a couple
from New Zealand who we joined forces with to hire a taxi to get to
La Paz. It was a mini van. We went back along the same road, and
after a couple hours we were back in La Paz. Sophie and Oliver took
us to the hostel they had stayed at, and it was pretty nice. We
booked a tourist bus for early the next morning to take us to
Copacabana, on the border with Peru. Then we went out for dinner,
and they took us to a great restaurant they knew, where we got a
massive leg of lamb for about $6 USD. It was amazing!
We were up early
and the bus picked us up at our hostel (such luxury!) and it took us
a few hours to get to Copacabana. At one point we had to cross part
of lake Titicaca. We had to get out and buy tickets for the boat,
ride this tiny boat across, while our bus was put onto a barge and
ferried across.
We got into Copa,
and the four of us found a decent hostel and went to eat. We were
there to see Isla de Sol, which is an island in Lake Titicaca that
the Inca believed the sun god was born on. We booked our tickets for
the next day, but it was pouring and pouring, so we decided not to
go. Sophie and Oliver just left town, but Jesse and I wanted to see
the island, so we waited until the next day, which was beautiful.
While we were on the island we saw the two German guys from Coroico!
We knew they were going there, we just didn't know when.
We had planned to
stay the night on the island, but because of the weather we didn't
get to. So the tour was kind of rushed. We went to the north part and
took a walking tour of the ruins. We walked along an old Ampaya-laid
stone pathway. The Ampaya were living on the island before the Inca
showed up. Then we got to the rock, where the Inca believed the sun
was born. There were ruins of an old temple there too. And under
the water, near the island, were the remains of another temple, which
Jacque Custeau had discovered. The lake had risen over the years and
buried the temple. Then we had to sprint back down to dock and take
the boat to the south part of the island, where we climbed up some
huge Inca steps, which the villagers still used as a functional part
of their city.
We got back to the
mainland, had dinner, then got a drink with the German guys. They
told us their crazy story about trying to get to Copacabana. Their
GPS had them go through Peru. When then entered, they didn't do the
paperwork for their bikes, so they thought they'd just sneak back
into Bolivia, then do the paperwork when they went to go back into
Peru. Seriously. This is what they thought. So when they went around
the chain to get into Bolivia, of course they were caught by the
cops, who kept them waiting and waiting in customs, until finally,
they hinted that they would let them go if they gave them money.
They wanted $100 USD, and since there was a sign on the wall that
said “No Corruption Here,” the German boys were not having it.
They got away with 40 bolivianos. So crazy.
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