(Nov 5, 2012)
On Monday we arrived in Puno which borders Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable lake in the world. Lake Maracaibo technically has a larger surface area but also has a link to the sea soooooo I'll leave it up to more pedantic people than me to decide which is the highest and largest lake).
Puno seemed to be pretty touristy too but we enjoyed our time there nonetheless. We took a day tour to the Islas Uros and the Isla Taquila which was a mixed bag. The Islas Uros are floating reed islands that the Uros people fled to escape the Incas. The islands don't really need to be inhabited anymore and are mainly kept alive through tourism. The inhabitants need to replenish the reeds that they live on roughly every 8 months. One thing I read (and I'm not sure if it's true or not), is that when there is a major argument between families, families are known to cut their houses away from the main island the pole themselves over to a different floating island to live instead. Whether or not it's fact, I thought it was pretty funny.
After Islas Uros, we hopped back on the boat for the 3 hour boat ride to the Isla Taquila. At this point we got annoyed because as it turned out we had basically spent 3 hours in the boat (and required a 3 hour return trip), to get to a glorified, overpriced lunch spot. Isla Taquila had effectively nothing other than restaurants that all served exactly the same thing at exactly the same price. We refused to eat at the restaurant that the guide took us to (we are not suckers) and decided to explore and see if we could find a different/more economical meal. At this point we learned that the restaurants worked on a rotation system and most of them were actually closed. We finally found a restaurant that offered the same fare as the tour guide's choice, but at a cheaper price. We think that we got away with not paying our guide's 'cut' and this felt like a victory.
The next day we left Puno to cross the border for Copacabana, Bolivia. We had planned on staying Copacabana for a night but instead decided to head to La Paz spur of the moment. After a few quick text messages with our couchsurfing host in La Paz, we were all set and hopped onto a much cheaper Bolivian bus for La Paz.En route, we were delighted to wake up to see the lake floating by outside our window. Still groggy from our nap, we eventually determined that our bus had driven onto a single vehicle barge and was being powered across the lake by a small outboard motor! From there we gazed out the window in awe at the expansive plains that reached to the base of jagged Andean peaks. It certainly felt like we were high up and it was a lovely introduction into this stunning country.
Our host in La Paz turned out to be a very nice guy named Daltry. Daltry works both in the life insurance business and also as a translator (English to Spanish).
We found Bolivia to be strange in some ways. Everyone is very, very friendly which belies the fact that Bolivia remains the poorest country in South America. As you would imagine, everything is tremendously cheap. We can eat an entire meal in the market for less than $1 and we splurged on our last night in La Paz for an extravagant meal to the tune of $14. Buses are roughly 15 cents and the two times we needed to take cabs cost slightly more than $1 per trip.
Contrary to all that, anything remotely touristy seems terribly expensive. For example, on our first day in La Paz we headed to some ruins 1.5 hours to the south. We were warned by some tourists just leaving the ruins that the museum had lost electricity so you couldn't enter it (and it was included in the price). We then learned that entrance to the ruins/museum was $12 per person. $12! This doesn't seem like a lot I know but you have to appreciate the sense of scale (in Peru, Robin grumbled about paying $50 for a ticket that allowed her entrance to 12 ruins!). We didn't have enough money with us so we decided to skip the ruins (after a brief glimpse over the fence) and went back to the town for an 85 cent lunch where we made friends with the owners of the cafeteria and Robin was schooled in the art of coca leaf chewing. It was quite a sight to see this little corner store-turned-restaurant packed with locals (and Robin), jovially chewing away.
La Paz was a pretty cool town built in a valley and from where we were staying downtown we could see the city lights twinkling on the steep slopes around us like vibrant stars. The city has grown so much it's climbed to the top of the valley and spilled over.
Our largest observation about La Paz (other than the delicious salteneas) was how badly it needed an overhaul of its public transportation system. The entire system is made up of small minivans (combis) that pretty much have free rein to travel on any route they see fit (or decide is the most lucrative). This means that you'll be passed by perhaps 3 combis PER MINUTE going to a popular destination but wait for 5-10 minutes for other routes. There are also SO MANY combis on the road it's ludicrous. Since each one can only transport 8 or so people, rather than one bus you'll have 7 combis (the city has about 3000 licensed combis in total). You can quickly see why this isn't really a clever system. It may be hard to change though since the combi driver union is very strong and has been savage in its defense of its system. Unfortunately not the best public transport system we've seen on our trip so far. Besides the combi redundancies, traffic in general is a nightmare and massive traffic jams in the middle of major intersections occurred in complex spirals. Let me tell you, crossing the street to reach the bus stops in the centre lanes was a challenge!
We left La Paz on Sunday to head to Potosi, the highest city in the world (4200 meters) and once the richest city in South America. Potosi is built on the slopes of the Cerro Rico (the Rich Mountain) where it's estimated that more than 137 million pounds of silver have been excavated since the 1500s. The mine has been pretty much exhausted but is still worked by 5000 miners that toil away in cooperative-owned mines. The miners have a life expectancy of 45-50 years (those that don't perish in mining accidents generally succumb to pulmonary silicosis due to all the dust from the drilling and explosions). In the cooperative we visited, of the 300 miners that opened it 26 years ago, 3 are left alive today
We decided to go on a tour of the mines which unfolded as follows:
We then packed them into the wall, lit them and then RAN to a gallery around the corner to huddle together with our lights turned off and count explosions. It really didn't feel like we were far enough away and at this point we didn't know that our guide actually continues to work with these explosives during his night shifts in the mine. As we huddled in the dark we felt the boom of the explosions shaking the ground beneath us before we heard the echoing sound. Let me tell you, it takes a while to get to 9 when you are counting in dynamite booms.
Despite the apparent disregard we had for our safety (seriously blowing up 9 sticks of dynamite underground....), we made it back to the surface safely. We're spending tonight in Potosi before heading on to the town of Uyuni tomorrow.
From Uyuni, we plan to book a tour of the beautiful salt flats of Uyuni before transferring to a bus that will take us to the north of Chile. Exciting!
On Monday we arrived in Puno which borders Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable lake in the world. Lake Maracaibo technically has a larger surface area but also has a link to the sea soooooo I'll leave it up to more pedantic people than me to decide which is the highest and largest lake).
Puno seemed to be pretty touristy too but we enjoyed our time there nonetheless. We took a day tour to the Islas Uros and the Isla Taquila which was a mixed bag. The Islas Uros are floating reed islands that the Uros people fled to escape the Incas. The islands don't really need to be inhabited anymore and are mainly kept alive through tourism. The inhabitants need to replenish the reeds that they live on roughly every 8 months. One thing I read (and I'm not sure if it's true or not), is that when there is a major argument between families, families are known to cut their houses away from the main island the pole themselves over to a different floating island to live instead. Whether or not it's fact, I thought it was pretty funny.
After Islas Uros, we hopped back on the boat for the 3 hour boat ride to the Isla Taquila. At this point we got annoyed because as it turned out we had basically spent 3 hours in the boat (and required a 3 hour return trip), to get to a glorified, overpriced lunch spot. Isla Taquila had effectively nothing other than restaurants that all served exactly the same thing at exactly the same price. We refused to eat at the restaurant that the guide took us to (we are not suckers) and decided to explore and see if we could find a different/more economical meal. At this point we learned that the restaurants worked on a rotation system and most of them were actually closed. We finally found a restaurant that offered the same fare as the tour guide's choice, but at a cheaper price. We think that we got away with not paying our guide's 'cut' and this felt like a victory.
The next day we left Puno to cross the border for Copacabana, Bolivia. We had planned on staying Copacabana for a night but instead decided to head to La Paz spur of the moment. After a few quick text messages with our couchsurfing host in La Paz, we were all set and hopped onto a much cheaper Bolivian bus for La Paz.En route, we were delighted to wake up to see the lake floating by outside our window. Still groggy from our nap, we eventually determined that our bus had driven onto a single vehicle barge and was being powered across the lake by a small outboard motor! From there we gazed out the window in awe at the expansive plains that reached to the base of jagged Andean peaks. It certainly felt like we were high up and it was a lovely introduction into this stunning country.
Our host in La Paz turned out to be a very nice guy named Daltry. Daltry works both in the life insurance business and also as a translator (English to Spanish).
We found Bolivia to be strange in some ways. Everyone is very, very friendly which belies the fact that Bolivia remains the poorest country in South America. As you would imagine, everything is tremendously cheap. We can eat an entire meal in the market for less than $1 and we splurged on our last night in La Paz for an extravagant meal to the tune of $14. Buses are roughly 15 cents and the two times we needed to take cabs cost slightly more than $1 per trip.
Contrary to all that, anything remotely touristy seems terribly expensive. For example, on our first day in La Paz we headed to some ruins 1.5 hours to the south. We were warned by some tourists just leaving the ruins that the museum had lost electricity so you couldn't enter it (and it was included in the price). We then learned that entrance to the ruins/museum was $12 per person. $12! This doesn't seem like a lot I know but you have to appreciate the sense of scale (in Peru, Robin grumbled about paying $50 for a ticket that allowed her entrance to 12 ruins!). We didn't have enough money with us so we decided to skip the ruins (after a brief glimpse over the fence) and went back to the town for an 85 cent lunch where we made friends with the owners of the cafeteria and Robin was schooled in the art of coca leaf chewing. It was quite a sight to see this little corner store-turned-restaurant packed with locals (and Robin), jovially chewing away.
La Paz was a pretty cool town built in a valley and from where we were staying downtown we could see the city lights twinkling on the steep slopes around us like vibrant stars. The city has grown so much it's climbed to the top of the valley and spilled over.
Our largest observation about La Paz (other than the delicious salteneas) was how badly it needed an overhaul of its public transportation system. The entire system is made up of small minivans (combis) that pretty much have free rein to travel on any route they see fit (or decide is the most lucrative). This means that you'll be passed by perhaps 3 combis PER MINUTE going to a popular destination but wait for 5-10 minutes for other routes. There are also SO MANY combis on the road it's ludicrous. Since each one can only transport 8 or so people, rather than one bus you'll have 7 combis (the city has about 3000 licensed combis in total). You can quickly see why this isn't really a clever system. It may be hard to change though since the combi driver union is very strong and has been savage in its defense of its system. Unfortunately not the best public transport system we've seen on our trip so far. Besides the combi redundancies, traffic in general is a nightmare and massive traffic jams in the middle of major intersections occurred in complex spirals. Let me tell you, crossing the street to reach the bus stops in the centre lanes was a challenge!
We left La Paz on Sunday to head to Potosi, the highest city in the world (4200 meters) and once the richest city in South America. Potosi is built on the slopes of the Cerro Rico (the Rich Mountain) where it's estimated that more than 137 million pounds of silver have been excavated since the 1500s. The mine has been pretty much exhausted but is still worked by 5000 miners that toil away in cooperative-owned mines. The miners have a life expectancy of 45-50 years (those that don't perish in mining accidents generally succumb to pulmonary silicosis due to all the dust from the drilling and explosions). In the cooperative we visited, of the 300 miners that opened it 26 years ago, 3 are left alive today
We decided to go on a tour of the mines which unfolded as follows:
- First you're equipped with rubber boots, heavy duty pants, heavy duty coat and a hardhat complete with light.
- You're taken to the miners' market where you purchase gifts for the miners such as coca leaves, 96% alcohol (that's percent not proof...), cigarettes or ... ... ... ... ... dynamite.
- You're then taken up to the mine entrance where you take one last look at the sky before entering the claustrophobic, low tunnels. The tunnels are full of water (we guessed it comes from the moisture in the air being pumped in) and you follow the mine cart tracks while ducking straining wooden supports and other head hazards.
We then packed them into the wall, lit them and then RAN to a gallery around the corner to huddle together with our lights turned off and count explosions. It really didn't feel like we were far enough away and at this point we didn't know that our guide actually continues to work with these explosives during his night shifts in the mine. As we huddled in the dark we felt the boom of the explosions shaking the ground beneath us before we heard the echoing sound. Let me tell you, it takes a while to get to 9 when you are counting in dynamite booms.
Despite the apparent disregard we had for our safety (seriously blowing up 9 sticks of dynamite underground....), we made it back to the surface safely. We're spending tonight in Potosi before heading on to the town of Uyuni tomorrow.
From Uyuni, we plan to book a tour of the beautiful salt flats of Uyuni before transferring to a bus that will take us to the north of Chile. Exciting!
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