bolivia 2 [eng]
hello dear friends
far away from you all, i am now in the brazilian amazon and drove the last four days with a steamer from the triangle of leticia / tabatinga / santa rosa to manaus.
for the pictures i would like to say thank you to ross and lea again.
here you can now read what happened to me in my second week in bolivia. it goes to la paz, the highest capital in the world and the lago titicaca. enjoy
At seven o'clock in the morning the bus came to pick us up. In total we were twelve touris and fourteen with the two guides. We have breakfast after about 1 hour bus ride on the summit and at an altitude of about 4700m
then we drove about 12km down the asphalt all in a row. super nice to travel so relaxed, you do not have to step.
then the actual death road began. in breathtaking speed we whizzed along the stark slopes, knowing that we better should not make mistakes if we want to experience the evening. We made a little stop at noon, ziplining is really great. after the gorge, we drove on the roof of a delivery van, back to the start of the zipline, here in Bolivia this is not a big thing.
The path leads us through several streams into the city of Yolosa. I would like to know, how fast we ride down this track. fortunately we took double suspension bicycles. but it is very powerful on the hands and the back.
the guides were great, both professional downhill bikers and powerful experienced, first class english and one of them is even a doctor, so he can intervene in case of emergency, when something happens. that happens here more often, if you do not face the whole action with respect or too much fear.
this is the link to the agency we booked in, if you want to do the tour, ask for thomas.
We arrived in the small village at the foot of the mountains and we had a good beer.
That was the route. We started at 4,700 m and finished the route at 1,300 m.
By bus we drove to the hotel to fill our bellies and take a dip in the pool.
and here's the video that might give you an idea of how crazy it all was:
back in la paz after three hours drive over the new road replacing death road, we exchanged the contact details with thomas, he is the guide of the tour and has done the best job. We made a short detour to the witcher's market, where the prepared animal parts for the pachamama victims are sold. Unfortunately, everything was already here and we did not see any llama babies or other shit. But when the market is open,it looks like this photo of a traveling friend.
At the hostel we packed our suitcases to drive in the morning to Copacabana. alex joins us, so we're now 4 in league, lea, alex, ross, and me. paula goes to explore the northern bolivian jungle.
today was one of the most beautiful days of the entire trip! Thank you
The bus picked us up at seven thirty. the three-hour trip towards titicaca lake was impressively rocky.
We stopped to take the boat across the lake to the other side.
In Copacabana, which is at about 3,841m, we left the backpacks at the hostel and went to a great fish menu for 20 bolivianos, so about 2.50 €.
in the hostel we felt comfortable and organized the next days, we will stay one more night, because today we can not go to the isla del sol. In the afternoon we went for a walk and saw the sunset at Cerro Calvario.
alex made a little fire and ross did a nice speech to geography hours, he enjoyed in his youth in the czech republic. he just loves history and he loves bolivia. me too of course.
We went to an Italian restaurant and the pizzas we ordered tasted great. For dessert we had coffee and chocolate salami, a specialty here.
When we left the restaurant, we saw a young man staggering drunk across the street, he fell and his head hit the asphalt as he reached the bottom. lea reacted first-class and went to help him, but he was unconscious. We looked at his head and Lea picked him up and put him on her legs. a soldier went by and went to ask for help to move him or bring him to the hospital. While waiting, the boy woke up from time to time. Soon after, a family came by to recognize him and tell us where he lived, which was only two houses away. suddenly he woke up and alex and lea brought him straight to his door. someone opened, said: ok, thanks and closed the door again. When we came out of the house, the military was back, lea told them the story and they thanked us. in the hostel we just had a quick hot shower and we went to bed.
We had our breakfast at the hostel and they want to ask us more money, because we asked again and again for bread, since we were not full. I do not think we paid the difference, the breakfast was crap.
We left to do the laundry and get the morning bus tickets. We also bought the tickets for the isla del sol island today and alex, lea and I went shopping. ros has to watch every game.
After having eaten a menu near the harbor, the boat took us to Isla del Sol in the afternoon.
We had one hour to go to the village and return, very tight schedule. So we just had a quick coffee and enjoyed the view.
Climbing up the mountain at this altitude is like half a marathon, when we return to Europe and get back to sealevel, we will be super fit.
We made another stop with the boat at another point of the Isla del Sol, to see the ruins of the Sun Temple.
When we got back to Copacabana, we got clothes from the laundry, left the things in the hostel and went to dinner in a restaurant, where we ate like kings.
Before going to sleep, we packed our things and planned something for tomorrow.
we got up at seven o'clock in the morning, checked out and went for breakfast to the only restaurant that apparently was open near the harbor. with full belly we picked up the things from the hostel and drove by bus to puno.
Four of us passed the border and so we had an hour less, in Peru it is an hour earlier.
When we arrive, we are looking for and find something to eat. After wandering halfway across town, Lea asked a girl and we went to the harbor, because there are a lot of restaurants.
except for the harbor area, there is not much to see.
)!
after dinner we stayed at the wifi, as there is nothing to explore here, to visit the so-called floating islands, islands of boat grass, you need at least one more day. when it was time to pay, ross tried his master card because he owes us money for the last few weeks. At this point, I would like to point out a great app, it is called cost-split and offers the possibility of all the expenses and transfers that you have in group travel so constantly, in a good overview. It's so easy to see who should pay next and you also get rid of the terrible ticket / bon economy that otherwise prevails in portmonee. this helped a lot, because you can easily manage 6 people and several currencies are set.
well, ross unfortunately could not pay with his card and he did not know what to do. we paid lea, alex and myself in cash and ross wandered half an eternity into the city to find a toll-free atm.
Then we all went to the center to get money. on the way we bring the postcards to the post office. we had seven postcards, they only had six stamps. but at least they had stamps in this city.
on the plaza, alex was asked for a few pictures with him, the little beauty. After a walk we went to a pizzeria that chose lea, she is the best when it comes to picking restaurants before we return to the bus station. In the end, puno is not that ugly. in the bus we had the best places, first row panorama with cama sitting.
that was everything from the end of the world again, I hope you have fun in the sun and are a lot at the lake or festivals, because the or I miss here.
love
Pauli
my current contact information:
mail: [email protected]
Phone: +56 9 4116 6539
whatsapp: +54 9 11 2693-6601
blog: https://steemit.com/@schningelnatter