Woke up
sluggishly, but in time for a good sunrise over the lake. Last
night's sunset was amazing as well. Lake Titicaca is so beautiful. We
got our stuff together and decided to get breakfast. Eggs with bacon
and bread and banana/yogurt juice. My stomach is angry today. About
the 5th time I've had the “traveler's diarrhea”. Nothing too
serious that would hinder the trip very much, but it takes a little
out of you. Culprit: probably the ice in the drinks last night.
Anyway, we shopped most of the morning. I got an alpaca sweater,
gloves, a magnet, all for about Bs 110 ($16). Totally worth it. I
could have haggled better but I was sick of shopping. We got our
stuff together and met the bus a few blocks up from the hotel. Not
the most comfortable, the seats a bit narrower, but the ride is only
3.5 hours this time and the ticket was about $4. Breakfast was $2.
Copacabana is so cheap. Bolivia is the poorest country in S.A.
Partially b/c they have no coast. We had to stop after about an hour,
get off the bus b/c the bus would be too heavy. The bus drove onto a
ferry to cross the lake and the people rode in a boat separately.
Started getting
near La Paz, the outskirts: shithole. Pardon my language. It is very
poor. It looked like 10 miles straight were under construction slums,
there are torn up roads, half finished buildings, trash, people doing
laundry in the creek, and after that, miles of more slums.
Supposedly, La Paz is the fastest growing city in S.A., just ahead of
Lima, growing at 1.5 million a year. Crazy. It gets even crazier.
There are farms all over and brownish easy going hills that just jump
right into snowcapped mountain peaks, with seemingly little elevation
change. It's very weird and hard to describe. The city of La Paz is
built at about 13,000 feet, the highest capital in the world. It
looks crazy. All the buildings are red brick, blending in with the
mountains, and it is vast. Houses cover the hills and valleys on an
impressive scale. Beautiful.
We got off the
bus, looked at a map and got a cab to recommend us a hotel. We arrive
at the hotel, check in and walk around the city for about 2 hours.
There's a big festival going on in the main streets and there are
thousands of people lined up along the main street. We heard there is
a police protest for wages and the plaza we walked toward first was
completely blocked off by cops in riot gear and there are protestors
camping out in tents in the plazas. The people are a mix here. There
are the traditional looking women with the hats and blankets around
their shoulders, but now there are a lot of “regular” looking
people as well, influenced by American/European style. We walked by
the gay pride parade, not sure if the whole festival is for that, or
if it is just a part of it. We walked down through a park and back up
to find food. Steps! It's like Macchu Picchu again! So many steps at
high elevation, we have to stop after a flight or two and breathe for
a minute, and there are steps everywhere. I am starving, so we pick a
random place and it turns out to be pretty good. I got a Coke b/c
they didn't have water and ordered a beef tongue and potato dish. We
hit up an English pub for Mark to have a beer on the way home and
found out the soccer championship is on tomorrow and not Tuesday like
we thought. So we'll probably be hanging out at the pub again
tomorrow. Wires. The power lines are insane here. There are about 50
power lines coming off each pole and it looks completely
disorganized, just all wrapped together with no separators. The dogs
seem more energetic and well fed. I found out the Salt Flats I really
wanted to go to are usually a 3-5 day tour, it's a 10 hour ride just
to get there. So we may not be able to do it. :( We'll see. I'd love
to try and pull it off, but right now, time for bed...
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