4th Stop: Bolivia

On Tuesday July 13th, we boarded our 10:00 bus in Cusco and were headed to Bolivia. The bus ride was long and cold, like always, but the border crossing itself was rather smooth. We arrived at the border early in the morning, in the frigid cold air and were escorted into a small van, that would take us to immigration. Along the way we made random stops picking up locals, some of which were school children heading into town, others being farmers, fishermen and field pickers wanting a lift. At one point we had double the amount of people that should fit comfortably in this little van. I almost felt like it was a game to see how many people we could cram in it! It was quite comical! We arrive at immigration. After making multiple copies of our passports/proof of vaccinations and paying $130 for a visa (which only Americans have to pay), we are sent on our way. We continue driving a little further in the van, passing llamas, sheep herders and pigs on leashes along the way. Before we know it we are in the beautiful town of Copacabana, enjoying great views from our comfortable hotel room! Everything is very cheap in Bolivia so we were able to get a rather nice hotel for a cheaper rate than we had paid elsewhere for dorm rooms in hostels. It was rather nice to feel as if we were splurging, but really spending close to nothing! We had a delicious breakfast at a little cafe and then spent some time exploring the city, shopping and looking for boats to take us to La Isla del Sol or Island of the Sun, on Lake Titicaca.

I instantly fell in love with this city! I had been so excited to spend time on Lake Titicaca, and arriving here and seeing the glistening blue water was amazing! For those who don´t know, Lake Titicaca, located on the border of Peru and Bolivia is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, sitting 12,500 feet above sea level. It is also the largest lake in South America! It is filled with floating islands and breathtaking views of the the water and snow-capped mountains behind it. I had planned on visiting the lake last time I was in Peru but it didn´t happen, so this time I made sure it did! We hopped on a boat in the afternoon and relaxed as it carried us for 2 hours, landing us on La Isla del Sol! The island was beautiful, offering great views of the lake and surrounding landscape. We spent a few hours here and then headed back to Copacabana via boat. We arrived back in town just in time for sunset so we decided to have dinner along the shore at a little fish cafe, eating trout, which is their best local catch. Despite the lingering group of homeless dogs begging for food, the view from the restaurant was amazing and the food was delicious. After dinner we strolled through the ¨touristy¨ part of town, doing some shopping and stopping for cheesecake and hot chocolate, then headed back to the hotel to plan our next couple days and get some sleep! (Happy Birthday Bud!)

After a night of great sleep we woke up to an amazing continental breakfast, which we haven´t seen much of in our travels... normally it´s bread and butter, if anything, and then headed out to catch a bus to the capital city, La Paz. The bus ride was beautiful, as we drove right along side the lake and mountains for much of the time, seeing some wildlife along the way. There was one point of the bus ride that completely caught me by surprise. The bus came to a stop at the edge of the water. I assumed it was just a rest stop, however, soon found out that at this point there were no roads to actually cross the lake, so.... the bus and the passengers must cross the river to get to the road on the other side. Everyone had to exit the bus and hop on a ferry, as the bus was driven onto its own ferry and taken across the water as well. It was quite comical. Only in South America would this happen! Not much surprises us here anymore!

After getting back onto the bus on dry land, we drive a couple more hours and then arrive in La Paz. We walk around to multiple different hostels, trying to find a place to stay for the night, but cannot find anything! Everything is full! We were planning on only staying one night anyway, and then taking a 3-day tour through the salt flats in southern Bolivia, so we decided to just drop our bags off at a random hostel and spend as much of the day as we could seeing the city; then we'd hop on an overnight bus. We took a guided, double-decker bus tour of the city, as this seemed to be our best option to see everything the capital had to offer in such a short time. It took us up to an amazing viewpoint where we could see a panoramic view of the city; the view was breathtaking! I think I took 100 pictures here! We ended our tour back in the city center, grabbed some dinner and headed back to the bus terminal to get a bus to Uyani, where we would start our 3 day tour the next morning.