On Monday we had a delicious breakfast at Minuteman Pizza which was included in our room rate. Instead of the usual white bread rolls, dulce de leche, jam and instant coffee, we had real coffee, fruit salad, muesli, scrambled egg, home baked bread and pancakes with maple syrup. It was amazing. We spent the rest of the day walking around town and in the hotel reading and using the internet. At 7.00 pm we walked to the bus stop to catch our bus to La Paz. The first Bolivian town had been an interesting experience.
The first half of the road (if it could be called a road) from Uyuni to La Paz was not sealed and felt like it was corrugated. This made for a very bumpy bone rattling ride for the first five hours of the journey. At one stage the bus stopped and the driver and bus attendants got out and we heard hammering – so we started worrying about whether the bus would make it to La Paz. The road improved marginally after the first five hours and we managed to get a little sleep.
We were woken up by the sun streaming through the bus windows on Tuesday morning just as we were entering the outskirts of the city. La Paz is the world's highest capital at 3,660 metres above sea level, and is located in the valleys of the Andes. Our first sight of La Paz was spectacular – red brick buildings clung to the hillsides, spilling into the canyon and looming in the background we could see the snow covered Mount Illamani. The traffic was very busy and it took quite a while for the bus to get to the bus station. At the bus station we caught a taxi to the Hotel Rosario – a three star colonial style hotel that had been recommended by Chris from the Hotel Tonito. Our room was lovely with beautiful wooden parquet floors, and French doors opening out onto a wrought iron balcony overlooking the street below. From our room we could see the red brick buildings spilling down the surrounding hills and Mt Illamani in the distance. We had a shower and walked a few blocks to the Angelo Colonial cafe for breakfast. The cafe was like a small museum with beautiful antique furniture, old books, maps, musical instruments (including a guitar made with an armadillo skeleton), weapons, matchbox collection, chandeliers, cutlery, bank notes, paintings etc.
Much restored, we returned to the hotel past the numerous shops and stalls at the Mercado de las Brujas (Witches' Market) on Calle Linares selling all manner of local handicrafts and products. We booked an extra night at the hotel as we could already see that we loved La Paz and would need an extra day here. Then we walked around town and soaked up the amazing vibe of this unique city. The city's main plaza Plaza Murillo was a knockout with the city cathedral on one side and bullet-riddled legislative building on another. There were beautifully dressed guards by the doors and everywhere the traditionally dressed Bolivian women.
We had lunch around the corner from the plaza with a crusty piece of bread and diced vegies and cheese, followed by a hearty soup with pork, vegies and potato, and then a piece of roast chicken with salad and potato, all for 10 Bolivianos, or AUD$1.50!
After lunch we spent the afternoon walking up and down the hills, sometimes slipping on the well worn cobblestones. We walked along Calle Jaen which housed several museums and some beautifully preserved colonial buildings. Then we walked along the main street of La Paz and headed back to the hotel stopping for a brief look at the Iglesia de San Francisco with its intricately carved baroque facade and baroque altar decorated with gold leaf. The streets of La Paz were busy and colourful with dodgy spaghetti wiring overhead in many parts and balaclava clad shoeshine operators everywhere. This was slightly disturbing as you could not see their faces at all.
We had a rest and then headed out for dinner. We walked to Calle Sagarnaga, a touristy market strip full of handicrafts and souvenir shops, travel agencies, budget hostels and cafes. We had dinner at Luna's Coffee Restaurant Pub and then headed back to the hotel for an early night.
On Wednesday we had a lovely sleep-in and then a wonderful breakfast of juice, coffee, cereal, fresh fruit, fried eggs, toast and pancakes in the hotel restaurant. After breakfast, we spent some time with Turisbus, the travel agent attached to the hotel organising some transfers, tours and accommodation in Bolivia and Peru.
We walked back to the Witches' Market on Calle Linares and spent a couple of hours admiring the handicrafts stores with beautiful alpaca jumpers, scarves, hats, ponchos, gloves, scarves and shawls, silver jewellery with semi precious stones, leather handbags, belts and wallets, musical instruments and woven and embroidered wall hangings. There were stalls selling coca leaves, dried herbs, incense, soapstone figurines, brightly coloured candy offerings to the Goddess Pachamama (a kind of mother earth figure), dried frogs, dried insects and grotesque dried llama foetuses (some complete with fur) with horrible popping out eyes. To our relief we found out that the llama foetuses were not for eating, they were just good luck talismans to be offered to Pachamama.
We had lunch at The Star of India and the food was surprisingly good. After lunch we walked along the main street of La Paz and then we walked to the Plaza Murillo where a ceremony was being held to welcome the Brazilian Ambassador. There was a motorcade and a military parade with soldiers in red uniforms sporting bayonets. Then we went to the Museo Nacional de Arte which was housed in a beautiful eighteenth century three storey Andean Baroque style palace with a paved central courtyard and a fountain. We spent a pleasant couple of hours viewing the collection which consisted mainly of religious artworks.
We headed back in the direction of the hotel stopping to admire the facade of Iglesia de Santo Domingo which instead of the usual Catholic art, had carvings of pineapples, tropical vines and parrots.
On the way back to the hotel, we walked through Mercado Lanza, one of the main food markets of La Paz selling all manner of fruits, vegetables, juices, dairy products, breads and canned foods. There were numerous stalls selling sandwiches, soup, salteñas or empanadas, juices and full meals. We stopped to try some chicken and pork chicharron (deep-fried) at one of the stalls. We decided to give dinner a miss and just snacked on a couple of empanadas and some Pringles which we had with some Argentinian Santa Ana 2008 Malbec in our room.
After another hotel breakfast on Thursday, we headed out for the day. The weather was so perfect for walking, clear sunlight and cool air. We walked past the Iglesia de San Francisco and had a good look at its baroque facade in the morning light. As well as the usual Catholic sculptures of saints, the facade had carvings of native looking faces, exotic vines and bunches of grapes.
We walked on to the Museo Nacional de Etnografia y Folklore which had a beautiful collection of textiles, masks, feather headdresses, masks, ceremonial clothing and weapons and ceramics in another colonial building. After we left the museum, we made our way up the canyon towards a lookout. On the way we stopped to visit the Mercado Yungas. It had the usual fruit, vegetables, meat and cooked food and fresh juices sections. From here it was a short but steep climb up several flights of stairs to the Mirador Killi-Killi, where we had 360° views of La Paz. The thousands of red brick houses built up the steep sides of the canyon never ceased to amaze. Then we walked across the city and down to the Parque Mirador Laikakota which also had panoramic views of the city and contained a children's playground as well.
We were pretty hungry by this time as it was 2.30 pm so we made our way down to a bridge crossing the canyon to the main street. We walked up the Prado and stopped at the Plaza Hotel for lunch.
After lunch we decided to try and visit the San Pedro Prison. On the way we walked past the Parroquia de San Pedro de la Nueva Paz, a small Mediterranean-looking whitewashed church near the Plaza Sucre. The Plaza Sucre was surrounded by temporary fencing and so was one side of San Pedro Prison, the largest prison in La Paz. Unlike most prisons, inmates have jobs inside the prison, rent their accommodation, and often live with their families. The rules are enforced by elected leaders with the guards remaining outside the forbidding walls. Stabbings are commonplace. There was a large queue outside the prison entrance so we gave up any notions of going in. Keith attempted to take a couple of photos but one of the guards saw him and insisted that he delete them.
We walked back to the hotel via the Witches' Market again, debating whether to buy leather handbags, belts, wallets and woven wall hangings and post them home. The handicrafts here were so cheap that you wouldn't lose much if the package went missing in the mail but we decided to sleep on it.
We spent all Friday morning walking up and down Calle Sagarnaga and the Witches Market buying souvenirs and gifts. We spent quite a lot of time looking for a primitive red and black weaving of animals and devils from Sucre we had seen in the museum yesterday. Keith got a new wallet and belt and Suzie got a new handbag. Then we spent a long time searching for a matching hat, scarf, and gloves for Suzie in vain. In the end we went back to Angelo Colonial for a delicious lunch. After lunch we went to the post office where the package was weighed, forms completed and the package marked with a prominent "Do not return to Bolivia". After that we were free to walk up to the Plaza Murillo to enjoy watching the crowds and the lowering of the flags by a red uniformed guard of honour. We walked to the museums on Calle Jaen where we saw the Museo Costumbrista Juan de Vargas with displays of colonial costumes and models including a prisoner being quartered. Then there was the Museo de Metales Preciosos Precolombinos with a collection of gold, silver, copper and bronze artefacts. Finally there was the Casa de Murillo which was a restored colonial house with furniture, paintings, textiles and ceramics. We left the museums and walked to the Sol y Luna restaurant for dinner. We walked home and stopped in the hotel shop to buy a matching alpaca poncho and hat for Suzie. We'd spent most of the day shopping and posting gifts but it was great to just soak up the atmosphere of La Paz. We packed up because tomorrow morning we were leaving for Copacabana on Lake Titicaca on a pre-organised trip of five days taking us through to Cusco.
We woke up early on Saturday and had breakfast before heading out of La Paz on the flash Turisbus. We drove up at first out of the canyon and onto El Alto or Altiplano, the flat plateau overlooking La Paz. We drove through several towns with markets and people building houses out of mud brick. It looked quite poor with rubbish and mangy dogs everywhere. We drove through plains of yellow grass with some sheep and cattle grazing. Snow capped volcanic peaks were visible on our right as we drove north towards Copacabana. We came to the 800 metre Straits of Tiquina crossing Lake Titicaca at its narrowest point. We crossed in a little ferry with the minibus coming over on a separate vehicular ferry. Then we were off again climbing up mountain slopes with great views over the lake and its islands. The sparse slopes had very little soil but even so there was the occasional cleared space and ancient rock terracing. On some slopes were donkeys and sheep grazing with their Bolivian shepherds. We wound down out of the heights to Copacabana town beside the lake. We checked into our room with marvellous views of the lake and Isla del Sol in the distance.
We had a delicious lunch of trout from Lake Titicaca in the hotel restaurant. After lunch, we sat on the terrace overlooking the lake, and had a look at the small museum and handicrafts shop in the grounds of the hotel. At 3.00 pm we met Mauricio and went for a walk around town through the markets and then to the Moorish style Basilica de Copacabana. It had a very large courtyard which Mauricio said was for the benefit of the local Indian population who were uncomfortable with worshipping inside such a large building. Inside the cathedral was an ornate Andean Baroque altar painted lavishly in gold leaf. Outside the front of the cathedral were several vehicles decked in flowers – this was for the Blessing of the Motor Vehicles ceremony. The owners were throwing alcohol, rice and flowers at their vehicles. There were also stalls selling miniature houses, shops, cars, trucks, buses and even piles of banknotes – a Bolivian tradition for the blessing of miniature objects and a prayer for those material possessions. Next to the cathedral in a small annex, was the Capilla de Velas (Chapel of Candles). On a large stone bench in the middle of the chapel were groups of candles burning. The tradition is to have one candle for each member of the family – some groups had as many as twelve candles! The chapel was black with smoke and there were pictures and writing in candle wax on the walls. After Mauricio left us, we walked down to the lake shore and then we climbed up the hill behind town for a view of the lake in the afternoon sun. On the hill were the Stations of the Cross and we noticed that some pilgrims were stopping at each station and praying earnestly. At the top of the hill we got views of the lake and boats returning from the Isla del Sol. We returned to the hotel and saw sunset from the terrace and tried a Bolivian cocktail called a "chuflay" which was like a gin and tonic. We did our chores and then had a great dinner of trout and llama at the hotel restaurant with a bottle of La Concepcion Cabernet Sauvignon 2008.
After breakfast in the hotel restaurant on Sunday, we put one of our backpacks into the luggage room and then walked with Mauricio to the lake shore where we got a small boat which took us out into the lake and to Isla del Sol. It was a gorgeous day and the lake looked flat and calm with the blue contrasting with the brown of the islands and peninsulas. Some boats used cheap diesel which produced the most incredible black smoke. We threaded our way through a narrow gap in the peninsula rock and admired the amazing terracing that was evident all the way up steep slopes on the mainland and islands.
Our first stop on the island was near a temple called Pilkocaina. There, we handed our backpack, Mauricio's daypack and Suzie's daypack to a short Andean Aymara lady called Catalina. She tied our backpack and Mauricio's daypack into a large sheet which she then swung onto her back, picked up Suzie's daypack and then set off at a cracking pace up the stony path to the Ecolodge La Estancia, a 45 minute walk away. We felt really guilty because she seemed so small, but we were assured that there was a donkey waiting at the top of the hill to help her. Once we had offloaded our luggage, Mauricio showed us around the ruined stone temple. As it was built against the steeply sloping hillside it had multiple levels. It had elements of Inca construction like stepped lintels, niches and false doors and elements of Tiwanaku construction like trapezoid windows and doors. When we climbed above it, you could see that the complex was exactly symmetrical, with the left hand side mirrored on the right. Then we got back on the boat and cruised north to Challapampa, one of the largest villages on the island. We wandered past the village beach boasting pigs resting in the shade of a boat, sheep, goats and cattle drinking from the lake and donkeys checking the rubbish bins. We walked upwards on a clear track with the views of bays, beaches and headlands changing all the time. We reached Chincana temple complex after a couple of hours. It was a larger complex with spectacular views over the lake and surrounding terraced hillsides. The small rooms and doors were labyrinthine and the complex was separated into a large storage area on one side and a large ceremonial area with a row of niches on the other. Nearby was the sacrificial stone table where the Inca creation legend began. We walked further north up and down the hilltops running along the spine of the island until we stopped at a small eucalypt forest at 3.00 pm for lunch. We were seriously hungry and gobbled our lunch before continuing on. We branched off from the main track and headed across a hillside terraced with small fields. We could see that ash had been mixed with the earth as a method of fertilisation. As we approached the village containing the Ecolodge La Estancia we saw many donkeys, pigs held in small stone hutches, and fields of fava bean plants. We arrived at the lodge at 5.00 pm and enjoyed a cup of tea in the restaurant. The lodge was set high up on a ridge so we had a view over the fields below, and across the lake to snow capped mountains in the distance. It was a spectacular sunset from our cabin window as we did our daily diary and photo sorting. We watched some hummingbirds amongst the flowers beneath our window and two types of sparrow eating grass seed. There was a procession of people and livestock winding up from below as the sun sank behind us lighting up the Isla de Luna and the Andes in front of us.
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