Potosí - One of the worlds highest cities...

Our journey to Potosí began when we realized (again) how much distance we needed to still cover...We needed to go that way anyway, and maybe we'd enjoy a bit of the silver mining town for a day or two...

Potosí, was at one point the richest town of the Spanish occupied Latin America.  It was also regarded as one of the biggest cities in the world, with the silver boom.  Nowadays, there are still many miners, and tons of tours operate out of here.  Did you know that Potosí is regarded as one of the highest cities in the world?  It sits at about 4,090 meters, or over 13,000 feet.  You can definitely feel it, that's for sure!

We took a bus from Sucre, which took 4 hours, fairly pleasant ride, mid-day.  Our friends Aoife and Luis, we met in La Paz were also in Potosi, and we thought of possibly planning our Uyuni tour together, for a few days down the road.  Turned out, we were heading in different directions, as they were going into Argentina after, and us to Chile...

We spent 3 days really not doing a whole lot in Potosi...Danica thought of possibly doing a mine tour, and we both talked about hitting up the hot springs, Ojo de Inca...

None of this materialized, and we ended up walking around the town, having a bite to eat a couple times, and hanging out in the hostel.  Our second night there, we met Juan, from Colombia, and figured out we were heading the same direction, and decided to head to Uyuni together, and find a good tour group.  That night, after a decent sized bottle of Singani, we headed to the main plaza to play some guitar.  It was way too cold for any of that, so a couple half-assed tunes ensued.  On the walk back, we met a few local bankers who just got off work, and insisted we join them in drinking a very sweet mix of some Bolivian liquor and juice...

The next day, the three of us jumped on a very uncomfortable bus to Uyuni, which took about 4 hours.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but it seemed as if everyone on the bus was ill.  Coughing, choking, hacking and sure enough, a woman vomiting in the back of the bus, made me feel quite ill also...To top it off, there were 4 or 5 small children running up and down the length of the bus, and touching everyone's things with runny noses and filthy hands.  Believe me, I am not a germ freak, but this was a ride from hell.

Once in Uyuni, we found a very cheap hostel for 25 Bolivianos/person, enjoyed a decent pizza in the town square, and figured we'd give it a day to figure out which tour group to take.  The next morning, after eating a very slow breakfast, we were approached by a woman soliciting a tour, that needed 3 more people...We walked to the tour office with her, sat down, and decided on it.  Not only would we not have to stay one more night in Uyuni, but it was leaving in one hour...

Sucre - an awesome city

Sucre, Bolivia is mild in climate, and semi mild in altitude, compared to the other spots we've been visiting...Our friends Mark and Carlie rented an apartment for about a month there, and we decided to pay them another visit. 

We took the El Dorado overnight bus from La Paz, which was very pleasant, and hassle free.  Pulled into Sucre at about 9AM, and began walking towards the center of town.  After the 3rd person's directions were wrong, we jumped into a cab.  The center of town, or Plaza 25 de Mayo, was really beautiful.  It was bordered by a huge colonial cathedral, and several shops and a nice park right in the center.  We hadn't got in touch with Mark and Carlie yet, and found Hostal Charcas, via our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook.

The hostel was mediocre.  We had a private room for fairly cheap.  That evening, there was a massive Mexican Mariachi party, believe it or not, on the deck upstairs.  Must have been someone's birthday party or something.  Full Mariachi band, equipped with horns and outfits.  Made me feel like we were back home.

We met Aoife and Luis, the Irish and Spanish couple in La Paz, and traded contact info.  Turns out they were also in Sucre, and we decided to meet them at their hostel just down the road for a night or two, which they had recommended.  "Pachamama" hostel, it was called, was about 5 blocks from our previous, and was one of the nicest hostels we've seen thus far.  It boasted a huge garden courtyard on the premises, and a really nice, clean, and fully equipped kitchen.  Our private room was very big, and airy, with a double window opening to the courtyard below.  They turned up later that evening, and we had some beers on our balcony table.

2 nights at Pachamama, and we didn't want to leave, but Mark and Carlie had come back from a hiking trek, and invited us to stay in their new apartment, also fairly close.  We checked out, and lugged all our stuff once again across the square, and into their place. 

Their apartment was awesome, small, but comfy, and with a great floral courtyard as well, and they were just as excited to be there as we were.  We would spend 2 more nights with them.  First night we made pizzas, and the second, Carlie made a delicious roast beef.  At this point it almost would seem as if we were following them, but really, we just have good, and similar travel plans...

Sucre had a very modern feel to it, despite not being able to find a cup of coffee at 7am...I loved the town, and would love to visit again someday.  It really felt as though in the 5 days we were there we really got to know the place, but it probably had a lot to do with the fact that we moved 3 times in that short visit.

Tiwanaku - Incredible ruins

We left our belongings in the storage room at the hostel, and checked out.  We were told that if you take a cab to the main cemetery in town, you will find a ton of collectivo vans that are heading to Tiwanaku.  The cab driver dropped us off at another location, not sure exactly where, ripped us off, and we were a little lost...

We found a travel agency office on a random side street that was offering Tiwanaku tours.  The guy inside was really nice, but told us there were no collectivos at the cemetery, and if we wanted to go, it would have to be through him, of course...Still don't know if this is true or not...

We had to wait an hour for his brother in the van to come get us...Then of course, we waited for more passengers...

A girl came for a ride, and the 3 of us were off...Once on the highway, and heading out of town, the van pulls over, and the driver climbs up onto the roof next to a big outdoor market, and starts yelling "TIWANAKU" as loud as he can for 25 minutes.  Sure enough, he gets some customers, and we fill the van.

About an hour and 15 minutes later, we were in the town of Tiwanaku, and got dropped off.  He said he'd return at 4:30 to pick us back up.

The site:

Unbelievable place!  I had been very interested in it since I had seen it on some documentaries a while back, and like Machu Picchu and Nazca, we couldn't really believe we were actually here!

A little history:

Tiwanaku, or Tiahuanaco,  is an archaeological site in Northern Bolivia, that dates back some 13,000 years.  It was home to a Pre-Incan people, who used some incredible methods of rock carving, and of course placement.  The site, while still not fully excavated, is home to 2 pyramids, some arch gateways, incredible rock walls, and monoliths.  Very impressive place to visit, and it's fairly cheap to get in; $80 Bolivianos.  There's also 2 museums onsite, and you basically have the run of the place to check it all out...

I'd seen documentaries on it, but it was unbelievable being there...It would be almost impossible for us to cut stone today like they did here...It leaves me thinking that, once again, we are extremely in the dark about our own history...

"Gateway of the sun"

 

After our awesome visit, it was back in the collectivo to La Paz, and just enough time to grab a bite to eat, grab our stuff from the hostel, and jump on a night bus to Sucre, aboard El Dorado...

La Paz

Only a 3 hour bus ride from Copacabana.  You could tell we were getting close, because all of a sudden the dust clouds, traffic, and well, mayhem began.  It was utter chaos as we were still only in the outskirts of town, and dogs, children, and elderly were running through traffic, in the middle of the road.  We started closing in on the actual city itself, and then began our descent into the 'valley' that the city resides in.  The backdrop is stunning, with the Andean peaks towering over, with their snow capped towers.  At 3600 meters, you really feel it...We began looking through our Lonely Planet for a place to stay for the night.

We found a place called "Adventure Brew Hostel," that sounded pretty awesome in text, in the book, but when we finally got there, it was a bit disapointing.  I think we need to learn our lesson about going on wild goose chases to find a brewery...

Lonely Planet ('2010), said it was a hostel with a microbrewery on site, and they have a fun atmosphere, with tours available and what not...

When we arrived, and checked in to a shitty dorm room, that at 3:00 in the afternoon had 2 girls sound asleep inside, we kinda realized what we were getting ourselves into...I assumed off the bat, that it was a younger party crowd, and that's what it was geared toward.

Still excited to try a craft beer, we walked down from our dorm, and found the bar.  It was closed, and we had to walk a block down, to the 'other' location for a beer.  No problem, infact, the other location (newer part of the hostel) had a nice bar upstairs, overlooking the city.  Only problem was, the 'micro brewery' they advertise, is none other than "Saya," a local La Paz microbrewery, that we had gotten fairly familiar with while in Copacabana!  They don't do any brewing on site, and infact the owners, also own Saya.  They do have a good blonde, that's rather hoppy, but the other two (Amber, and Black), were awful.  My point, and advice to companies, is, enough of the false advertising...

Turns out, we stayed up in the sky bar till pretty late, and met some awesome people.  I spent the later hours conversing with a Spaniard, over the fact that our human history is completely wrong.  We went on and on about the ruins that cover our earth, and that the dates, and histories are not correct.  Not going to elaborate much on this blog, but maybe in the future...Example...TIWANAKU...

Adventure Brew was not all that bad, if you're looking for a dorm style party zone, but they did have a security guard at the door at all times, and the place was very secure.

Back to Copa for a few more days

After our day and night out on the beautiful Isla Del Sol, we returned to Copacabana from the Southern part of the island.  The boat ride was slow, just like on the way out there, but the weather was gorgeous.  We met a woman from Venezuela, and a man from Australia on the boat ride, and talked travel, and (her) mountain climbing ventures.

Back on mainland, we returned to our hostel "Sonia" for another couple nights, and decided to relax a bit after our long walk on the island, that sort of wore us out.

We found "Mauraz" restaurant right on the main strip by the lake, and had an excellent lunch there, for an excellent price.  We returned for dinner the next night, and really recommend them.  Apparently a newer place, they offer a bit of everything, and had amazing cappuccino's, which hooked us from the get go.

After doing some much needed clothes shopping, (I needed some pants, and found an awesome Bolivia football jersey), we found a little bar on the main strip as well, called "Nemos."  They offered a couple different micro beers from La Paz, in bottles, which were quite good, and we just threw it out there that we play live music, and wanted to know if we could jam there...

The bartender put us in for the following night, and we showed up at 6 to do a sound check with the guitars.  We came back at 9:30, and rocked the house.  From about 5 people there at the start, to about 60 or so when I looked up a little while later, we had a blast, and played for 2 hours.  It's been a while since we played for a crowd like that, and that was just what we needed to get back into the groove.  Hopefully more of that to come, soon!

We finished our set at about 11:30, hung around for a bit, and walked back to Hostal Sonia to go to bed...As we approached the hostel, it was completely boarded shut, with metal barricades.  Now, sometimes, a hostel will close the doors early, and come open up when they hear a knock, but after 20 minutes of banging and literally kicking the door, nobody showed...We were getting a little worried, for that was our home base, and housed all of our stuff, and I took out my knife and began to try and pick open the window lock.  No luck.  Tried prying it open as well with no luck, so we walked around the back side of the building, and found a very small window open, over the kitchen.  Danica climbed in with no problem, and I handed her the 2 guitar bags.  I am pretty tall, and it took me a bit of stretching and straining to fit, but I did it.  Absolutely ridiculous that at midnight, nobody is there to open the hostel door.  What a great way to ruin your business.  Thanks Sonia, you won't  get my good review!  Once inside, still, nobody heard a thing, and as we went to go upstairs we wanted some water and chips from the glass case...Locked, of course, and picking the lock was no use, neither was trying to find the key...Oh well.  We loved Copacabana, and it couldn't have been a better place to welcome us to Bolivia!  See you next time...

Another 2 days in Copa, and we must move on down the road to the famed La Paz...

Isla Del Sol

After a couple nights in Copacabana, we were anxious to get out on the lake and visit Isla Del Sol.

We booked a boat out there through our hostel "Sonia," and planned on spending a night on the island.

We awoke that morning to a heavy rain, and were a little weary of going, as we wanted to hike across the island...

A last minute decision to go, was rewarded by clearing skies, and overall nice weather for the whole day.

The boat tickets out to the north part of the island were 25 Bolivianos/person.  Very cheap.  If you choose to go to the southern part, it's only 20.

We chose to get dropped off on the Northern part, and hike across the island to the south, and spend the night.

The Island was gorgeous, as its placement is shapely, with the massive Lake Titicaca all around it, along with several other scattered islands nearby and in the distance.  We arrived at about 10:30 AM, found a little spot to have a decent breakfast, and began our hike.  It's overall about 8km from the north to south via the trail.

About 40 mins in, we came to the first area of ruins, that was pretty impressive, but honestly, not a whole lot to see.  We probably "ruined" it for ourselves having just come from Machu Picchu!  Either way, the walk was really nice, and quite exhausting, seeing as though we already were at a very high altitude on the lake, and a bit higher on the island.

We reached the south part of the island in the late afternoon, and found a hostel up on the hill overlooking the lake.  70 Bolivianos for a private room.  Considering how touristy the island was, there was hardly anything open for dinner, but we found a spot with some good Trout, and hit the sack.

Isla Del Sol was a very touristy place...There were 4 times along the trail across the island we were stopped to pay a fee...It was very cheap, but it reminds you how touristy it is!  I'm so glad we went to the island, and highly recommend walking across it, the scenery is gorgeous!

Bienvenidos a Boliva!

We did a little research on buses from Cusco to the border, and further...

The hostel we stayed at in Cusco had a travel agency next door, and the owner recommended talking to them...Turns out they book buses to Boliva from Cusco, and we found out they go "direct" to Copacabana as well, where we wanted to go.

We purchased our tickets for 70 Soles/piece, and jumped on the bus that night, from the Terminal Terrestre in Cusco.

The company was called "Trans Salvador" and as we boarded, we found it to have the most comfortable seats of any bus thus far!  Being a night bus, we were pretty excited to get some sleep, and we did just that.

I woke up at about 5am to the sun rising over Lake Titicaca near the border.  It was incredible.

(photo hardly does it justice...)

All of a sudden a woman came up to us and said "Copacabana?"  Turns out we were the only ones heading there, and the bus wasn't direct, as it was ultimately heading to La Paz...

We were then dropped off in the middle of the desert, and waited for a bit until another bus pulled up, and dropped off about 6 more people also heading to Copacabana.

We then all boarded a collectivo van, and headed to the border, which was about 20 mins away.

Bolivian Border Crossing for US citizens:

I feel this info I will input here will be of much help to US citizens crossing into Bolivia...

We had been trying to research this for some time, and always got different answers about cost, and what is needed to enter Bolivia.  One web page stated it was $180/person to enter Boliva, while a fellow traveler told us it was only $75.

As of the date of this post, Bolivian officials charge US citizens $135 CASH.  You may not use a credit card, and no, they do not accept Bolivianos nor Soles.  We were prepared, as we found an ATM in Cusco that dispensed US cash.  We entered the border crossing at about 7am, and there was hardly anyone there, so it went fast.

Also, they DID NOT ASK for our Yellow Fever vaccinations, which we did have proof of.  Not sure if we'll need them as we exit into Chile down the road, but it wasn't required for us to enter, as we thought otherwise...Still glad we have them though...

We had to fill out the normal immigration form that everyone needs to do, and also a VISA form, that only took about 5 minutes.  They stamped our passports with a Bolivian entrance stamp as well as a sticker, valid for 5 years, saying we paid.  90 days is the length of time we got, just like every other country so far.  Very simple it was, and a lot easier than we thought!  Hope this helps!

On the other side of the border, we jumped into another collectivo van, with the other 6 people crossing, and were in Copacabana in about 10 minutes.

Copacabana is a gorgeous, awesome little town, with the lake in the background.  It's a little touristy, bot not 'in your face,' and very enjoyable.  We met Mark and Carlie for breakfast that morning,  and took a sunset cruise with them, out onto the lake. Besides being dirt cheap to charter a boat, Titicaca has proven to have some of the most incredible sunsets, ever!