Island Hopping

From La Paz we went to beautiful, relaxed, sunkissed, beachy Copacabana - and we didn't even have to take a flight or learn Portuguese. We didn't go to That Copacabana. We went to the small, charming Bolivian lakeside town of the same name that is nestled between two hills on a peninsula in Lago Titicaca, the biggest high altitude lake in the world.

The trip from La Paz to Copa (as it is affectionately called by the locals) takes three hours and includes a time consuming little boat-ride since no bridge exists that would connect the roads on either side of the clear blue waters of the Titicaca. This is causing much frustration and just before we wanted to go, the road from La Paz to Copa was closed down for more than 2 weeks due to demonstrations for the building of the much needed bridge. Lucky enough we were among the first who could reach Copa – perfect timing!
 
Copa is very small and other than a couple of quite Plazas, markets and very tourist ready streets filled with bars and restaurants the town itself doesn't have much to offer. It is its lakeside position that makes it so popular with tourists. The clear, icy waters of huge Lago Titicaca glitter in the blinding sunlight, gently slopedhills with fields of Inca grains come down to the shores and in the distance snow-capped mountains are the icing on the cake of the picture-perfect sight. At the end of our first day we had a beautiful sunset over the lake and distant islands that we enjoyed on the water, outside the harbor, on a pedal boat - steering that old thing back into the harbor after nightfall was yet another adventure.

From Copacabana we took a (very slow) boat to the Isla del Sol – the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology and home to a couple of ancient Inca temples and the magnetic sacred rock, the Rock of the Puma. We landed on the northern part of the Island, in the tiny village of Cha'llapampa, from where we took a guided tour to the rock and the Chincana Ruins. From there we took the walking track across the mountaintops to the southern pueblo of Yumani that offers stunning vistas at every new corner. The way is only 8 km long but the altitude (4000+ m above sea level are no joke) and the burning sun took their toll and we reached our destination quite tired and just in time to take the boat back to Copa. On the way we stopped at another Inca temple, the beautiful but small Pilko Kaina, before we made our slow way back to town.

We left the beautiful country of Bolivia and its welcoming people the next morning to go to the big brother in the north – Peru. Our destination was Puno, a small, not very pretty but quite popular town, thanks to its port that connects the mainland with the famous floating islands of the Uros people.
When we arrived at the islas flotantes by boat, the colorful Uros-women welcomed us with songs in different languages and the chief of the island gave us a presentation of how his people build their islands (and everything else they need) from totora reeds.

Then we were shipped off to the main island on a traditional reed-boat – together with an approximate 1 million other visitors in more traditional reed-boats. We got a stamp in our passports and then went back on the motorboat to leave the Uros behind. One of the most shockingly touristic and commercialized places we have been to so far!

From the Uros we went further out on the lake to the (natural) Isla Amantani – a beautiful and calm place that, inspite of the many tourists that without doubt come here as well, kept its traditional and authentic feel. The island is made up of two steep hills and we had to undertake the first part of the climb just to get to the house of our hostfamily for the night. The family (Beatrice, her two younger brothers and her mother) lives in an idyllic, very basic house up on the slopes that overlooks the flowery gardens, fields and the lake with the panoramic mountaintops of Bolivia in the far distance. The fresh air is filled with songs of birds and the occasional donkey-cry and you can sit on a small porch and enjoy the warm sun on your face. A small paradise –if only for a moment.

Beatrice's house

Once the sun goes down or is blocked by a cloud it gets very cold and of course there are no heaters. Only very basic medical facilities can be found on the island – the next doctor and a hospital are in Puno, 4 hours away by boat. Most of the houses (including Beatrice's) don't have showers or running water. And the people are very poor, sharing a few rooms with the whole family, not having any furniture for themselves and mostly relying on the food they get from their own gardens. We only spend 24 hours on the island, so all the hardship didn't really become apparent to us – for us it was just a paradise.

Beatrice and her tourist family

One in which we were warmly welcomed. Beatrice was a great host with a constant big smile on her face, who offered very tasty food prepared by her mother, gave great advice for the choice of dress for the traditional fiesta that night and shared with us her way of life for one day. We visited the temple of the Pacha Mama, the god mother earth, for sunset, had a great party with traditional music, dance and dress at night and rose early the next morning to see Beatrice's brothers to school before we had to leave Amantani after too short a time.

The last island we visited was Isla Taquile, whose inhabitants are famous for their long tradition of weaving. The men wear (in our eyes quite comical) colorful woolen hats that they knit themselves to show their social status while women wear special multilayered skirts and beautifully embroidered blouses to indicate theirs. We visited the islands main plaza, the handicraft center and took a walk along old Inka-terraces before we enjoyed the famous Lago Titicaca trout for lunch. A steep walk down the hill lead us back to the port and we left to go back to Puno.
The islands of Titicaca are all singularly beautiful and the people we met were friendly and welcoming – but the impact of the many tourist (including us, of course) cannot be denied. We sure hope the indigenous islanders won't lose their ways in this industrialization and can continue their traditions and customs in the future.

All downhill from here

We took a freezing night bus over the plains of highland Bolivia and when we woke up we caught our first glimpse of La Paz: the great city, nestled on the steep slopes of towering Andean mountains, welcomed us in the pale light of the morning sun. La Paz probably is the greatest sight it has to offer in its own. We spent two days wandering around the old city where the heart of the tourist action lies. There are old churches, beautiful park-like plazas with seas of pigeons to swim in, government buildings and palaces, handicraft shops in steep alleyways and the famous witch market where you can find everything you need for a good old shaman ritual, from llama-fetuses to all sorts of leaves and spices. The altitude of 3660m makes running up and down the streets quite a challenge and we happily made pit stops in some of the many bars and cafes along the streets to catch our breath, have some good food and watch football with the locals. We also took a city tour by bus, that isn't really recommendable, though. We saw all the sights we had walked to before and rarely got any interesting information. The only real highlight of the tour was a stop at a viewing platform above the city that offered splendid vistas of the city and its impressive surroundings of bare mountainsides, lush jungle valleys and snow capped volcanoes in the distance.

After having explored the northern, old center of La Paz in such detail, we also wanted to see the southern part further down the mountain. The climate is much nicer down there so that's where the richer people of La Paz have their quarters with modern shopping malls, big cinemas, wide streets and everything a real metropolis has to offer. We spent a night at the mall/movies, ate bad Mexican food in the food court, took fun pictures in front of famous bu
ildings – and soon got bored and went back to the poorer but so much more exciting higher areas of La Paz. We stumbled upon an amazing night market that appeared in the streets around our hotel and spend hours walking around there, trying more food and bargaining for stuff no one really needs. As sudden as the market appeared, it was also gone in a moment at quite a late hour.



If there is one thing La Paz is really famous for (other than its altitude, maybe) it's got to be the nearby Deathroad – the most dangerous road of the world. Every year, many people die on that winding, narrow gravel and dirt road that opens into the valley with vertical walls of hundreds of meters. A new alternative road for heavy traffic was opened some years ago and released most of the pressure, but still cars, trucks, motorbikes and mountain bikes share the road – the former to safe some time and money, the latter for a day of fun and adrenaline. We belong to the latter.

We took some time to find a reliable tour operator with safe bikes and good equipment and then took off to the La Cumbre pass at 4650m. From there, we started our 64 km downhill experience to the pueblo of Coroico at only 1200m – a rush in every aspect. The first part leads over the new good road, so speeds of 70kmh are easily reached. The landscape is breathtaking but much care must be taken since the normal traffic goes up and down the same road. After entering the National Park, the original Deathroad starts and from then on it's gravel, rocks, dirt, rivers and waterfalls you have to ride on/through at sometimes great speed. The temperature rises with every meter you go down and with it the pulse at every corner, that could hide coming vehicles or the next unrailed 600m-drop-down. An accident, that without proper gear could have meant serious problems, couldn't stop us from enjoying the crazy ride and after a whole action-packed day we proudly got back to La Paz with our new “I survived the Deathroad'-shirt. Downhill is awesome cool!

The Ups and Downs of Bolivia

Up

Other than a good dinner from excellent Llama meat and tasty Quinoa puree, Uyuni didn't offer much to keep us there so we left the same night – to go to the highest city in the world: Potosi. At 4070 m above sea level, this Unesco World Heritage City owes its former splendor and current fame to the silver that was first discovered in the Cerro Rico in the 16^th century. The city was once the largest and wealthiest city of South America and beautiful architecture, grand plazas and monuments still bare witness of that time. It is long over, though, as the silver has been depleted years ago. Nonetheless 50.000 men and young boys (mostly indigenous, very poor people from the countryside) still work in the mines today - under horrible conditions. Over the years, more than 8 million men died in the mines – the Cerro Rico is locally known as 'the mountain that eats men'.

We got to Potosi at night and caught our first real glimpse of the city the next morning – when we woke up to sunshine, mild temperatures and the old city center directly in front of the hostel. A beautiful, ornate cathedral, narrow alleyways lined with colonial houses and tree shaded plazas with springs and monuments awaited. The highlight were the people that filled the streets and places in a loud, colorful and chaotic tangle. Heavy women with beautiful faces, long black braided pony tails, colorful layers of clothes and bowler hats lined the streets to sell their fare. Teenagers in school uniform were talking about the latest music and fashion trends. Shoeshine boys (and men) offered there services to newspaper reading business people. And amidst this beautiful mix of age, culture and social stand sat three Europeans (we're still with Stephan from the Uyuni-Tour), enjoying an ice cream while leisurely people-watching. We found the beautiful side of Potosi right away – and we loved it! Even more so, of course, when we stumbled upon a great family run restaurant with local food for very little money. Great soups (with lots of fat against the cold), incredibly tasty potato-meat-salsa-rice-mixtures of every sort (with even more fat against the cold) and fresh fruit for less than two dollars are the standard lunch menu (almuerzo) in Bolivia and we soon became great fans!

Down

We got the chance to watch an incredibly touching documentary about the Potosi mines before going there. It is called 'The devil's miners' – if you ever get the chance to watch it, do so! It doesn't only tell you much about the Potosi mines but also about the harsh reality of every day life of most Bolivian people. The movie prepared us for our tour to the mines and left us very sensitive towards the miners' beliefs, rituals and lifestyle. The tour to the mines started at the miners' market, a little ways up the mountain from the city center. Very cheap fare is on sale here and only the poor buy their food, clothes and, sadly, medicine here. We bought gifts for the miners: Coca leaves that they chew on to gather strenght for their long shifts in the mines during which they neither eat nor rest, beer and schnaps that they drink to make their work more bearable and dynamite that they need for their daily work. Potosi is the only place in the world where everyone can simply buy dynamite and everything else needed to let it explode on a free market. The storage and handling of the explosives, coupled with the enjoyment of large amounts of alcohol is scary enough...From the market we went up the mountain to the working mine that we took a tour of. We met miners and drank with them while they made rude jokes about gringos in general and women in particular – and then we entered their hell. Inside the mines, the temperature was high, the air was thick with poisonous gases and dust and the low, narrow and steep shafts and rusty ladders made us crawl and climb (definitely a no-go-zone for all claustrophobes!). Somewhere in the darkness our guide gave us a couple of demonstration blasts from the dynamite we had brought. The explosions came from deep down below, as he threw the self made bombs into a deep shaft, but they were still incredibly loud, dusty and the shock wave hit us without warning in the dark. At the end of the tour, during which we learned a lot about the working methods and beliefs of the miners, we went to el Tio. The miners are mostly very religious men that worship a christian God above ground, but as soon as they enter the mines, God cannot reach them any more. In the hell of the mountain, they pray to the devil, el Tio. Every mine has a Tio-statue where the miners go to bring sacrifices - from coca leaves over cigarettes to Llama-blood - and bid for safe and successful work. The Tio actually came from the Spanish. They wanted the indigenous people to work in the mines, so when the local people refused to work there, the Spanish had to come up with an idea to make them keep going down into the mountain. They made use of the superstition of the locals and brought a statue of a horrible looking devil to them and told them that this was the god (el dio) of the mountain who would punish everyone who left the mines. The locals didn't have the consonant 'd' in their language, so 'el dio' became 'el tio' and nowadays it is long forgotten that it means 'God' but it is simply the devil of the Cerro Rico, the mountain that eats men.

The tour down into the dark mines was shocking and rewarding at the same time, as we learned a lot about poverty and what it makes people do. We won't soon forget how privileged we really are.

And up again

After our time in the highest city in the world, our next stop naturally took us back down, but only in altitude. We went to the old capital (and still the judicial capital) of Bolivia, the 'white city' of Sucre. The Unesco World Heritage city dazzles with beautiful whitewashed colonial buildings, flowery plazas, cafes and hip bars galore and chaotic markets for great local food – so no one can really argue that this was another Bolivian 'Up'.

In addition to that, the beautiful landscape around Sucre has a lot to offer to fans of outdoor activities – and we chose rock-climbing. So yes, it went up and up and up. It was our first time climbing and it went really well. We had a lot of fun with our guide and almost made it up every wall and way she proposed to us. Where one of us failed, the other was able to make it – so it was a very successful and proud day.

In Sucre, not only we went up a wall, though. Millions of years ago, hundreds of different species of dinosaurs roamed the region around Sucre, that, back then, was located at the shore of an ancient lake. The footsteps they left were conserved and, when the landscape changed and the Andes began to form, they were pushed upwards. When a cement-factory found the biggest amount of dinosaur steps that has ever been found in the whole world by accident, they found them on a vertical wall. 

Today, a small theme park with a museum and movie-room for introductory films about the dinosaurs and their distinction is formed around the steps, that cover a huge wall. The longest dinosaur trail ever found is located here. You can see steps of 1m diameter from giant herbivores and interpret the speed of the three-toed carnivores, that were on the hunt along the shoreline. It's a fascinating sight! And once you're finished with the dinosaur steps, you take a look back into the direction you came from (Sucre) and see the city in its photogenic surroundings – rolling mountainsides and valleys, colorful vegetation and moon-landscapes and beautiful Sucre in the middle of it all. What a great view!

4x4 to Bolivia

4x4 to Bolivia

The Andean Plateau and the rugged landscape we went through on our way from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama had fired up our appetite for some high altitude experiences. So we decided to go from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia via the Altiplano by 4x4. We went with the tour operator Estella del Sur that we found to be quite reliable and ended up on an awesome trip through an extraordinary part of our world with a great (though a little rough) guide and driver and 4 extra cool new friends from Germany, France and Switzerland. We got to see high-altitude lagoons of red and turquoise, swim in clear, hot pools with unmatched vistas, cuddle llamas and watch flamingos in their thousands, lose ourselves in the endless whites of the Salar de Uyuni and stay in remarkable places like salt hostels and bare bone shelters in the nowhere. Our bodies managed the altitude well (places on 4900m above sea level aren't made for getting there quickly) and we adapted to the low temperatures faster than we'd thought. In the end, these three days must really be told in pictures, though...

Accomodation on over 4000m altitude

 

 

 

 One very unique

fact about the tour:

You always 

had a great view!!

Sunrise at the border to the water covered part of the Salar de Uyuni

 

 

Easter Outing to San Pedro

We started our Easter weekend with a bus ride from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama on Good Friday. The ride took 13 hours but never got boring due to the amazing landscape we went through. We left Salta at 7 am and went further north to San Salvador de Jujuy before we started climbing up the Andes, that we had to cross to get to our

destination in northern Chile. On the way we went through the Quebrada de Humahuaca with its famous colourful mountains that look like a painter spilled all his colors – amazing scenery. Further up we reached the highest point of the journey at around 4200 m above sea level at the Paso Jama and left Argentina through a windy border post somewhere in the middle of the Andes. Right there we witnessed a lonely procession of the cross by about 10 indigenous people that climbed up the rugged mountains, carrying a small wooden cross. What followed in Chile was a high plateau with different salares, lagoons and otherworldly rugged landscapes and vistas of smoking volcanoes before we got to the Atacama Desert and the little oasis that is San Pedro. When we reached the Chilean border post a little outside of town the sun was just setting and the Andes mountains turned flaming red for a brief moment before it turned dark very quickly. And with the darkness came the cold.

San Pedro is a very touristic place in the driest desert of the world. Dusty roads with low, white buildings made of earth form the village around a small plaza with a little church and some trees that offer shade during the extreme heat of the day. At about 2400 meters above sea level and the surrounding landscape that offers no protection from winds and no means to store the heat of the sun for the dark hours it gets seriously cold at night. Luckily enough, every second store sells products made of Llama-wool. Socks, hats, pullovers, gloves – you'll never go cold again after a shopping tour through the main street of San Pedro.

The last bed in town was booked over the Easter weekend so there were herds of tourists, us being part of them. Consequently we joined them in exploring the astounding surroundings of San Pedro via different tours:

We got up really early on Easter Sunday for a tour to the world's highest thermal field at about 4300 m, the El Tatio Geysirs. After leaving at 4am we got there at around 6:30, when the sun wasn't quite up yet and it was still cold enough for the geysers to look their spectacular best. We ran around the amazing field with tons of steaming and spitting geysers for about an hour, at a temperature of -8°C. After long debate last summer, we had d
ecided not to take warm clothes and carry them around through tropical countries and summer until we'd get here – so this was the first test for our onion-idea of just layering all the thin clothes we have, should the need arise (our San Pedro Shopping was limited to a hat and gloves by budget restrictions). It was okay-ish, but still needs perfection for when we get to really cold places...We had an improvised breakfast at the spot (the coffee would have warmed us up if it wouldn't have been cold the moment you poured it into the mug) and then went to a nice thermal pool where we could take a quick swim. The water was murky and not really hot hot (about 25°C) and the freezing air made the decision to actually get our of your clothes and into the water really hard. But the steam, the beautiful vista of spitting geysers surrounding you and the sun that finally made it over the mountaintops got us going and we found ourselves in the pool with tons of other tourists a little later – it was really nice for a moment, before the water got too cold and we had to get out of the pool again... Let's call it an experience. On our way back to San Pedro we stopped in a small mountain pueblo to see how the few people that once lived of a nearby mine are now getting by with serving tourists very tasty fried empanadas con queso y jamon, making a good deal of money by offering banos to them and keeping some llamas for wool and meat.

After a good afternoon sleep we spent the night on another tour – a brilliant one! We went stargazing in the Atacama desert. The tour took us out of San Pedro to a really dark place in the middle of nowhere where we were welcomed by a Canadian astronomer who really knows his stuff. The tour started with a really long and detailed but amusing explanation of the night sky and how humans in all stages of our history saw and understood it. Amazing stories
were told about how mankind very slowly started understanding more and more about our solar system, the galaxy and the universe and how they used it in their everyday life. Then we got to look through ten telescopes to see ten different amazing objects in the sky. We were blinded the brightest sky in the southern hemisphere, Sirius; we realized that the next star out of our solar system, Alpha Centauri, is actually two stars that are very close together; we saw Saturn with his ring and moons as if it was painted on the sky; we were amazed by different gas nebulas that we could see because they were illuminated by baby stars that are forming inside of them; we marveled at the beauty of the Jewel Box, a group of very colorful stars in our galaxy that look like gemstones on the night sky; and we looked as far away as to the amazingly formed Sombrero Galaxy (guess what shape it has...). At the end we got the best hot chocolate in a long time to warm up and ask all the questions that were on our minds. It was a great tour, and it will probably be a while until we can see a stary sky as clear and bright as the one we saw that night.

 

On the last day of our Easter weekend in San Pedro we went on a tour to the famous Valle de la Luna, the Moon valley. It is very close to the village, but when you get into the canyon it's like entering another world. Bizarre rock formations covered under a mantel of minerals and coupled with giant sand dunes make up this most arid place in the world, meaning that life is almost impossible here. It's position between the high Andes and smaller mountains to the west make for the harsh climate that formed this beautiful, otherworldly place in millions of years. We walked around, learned a lot about the geological reasons for the look of the valley and about the mountains and volcanoes we saw on the horizon. Then we went to the Valle de los muertes to watch the sun set behind the mountains to the west, creating spectacular colors on the rolling sand peaks of the Valle de la Luna and, even more so, on the scenic mountaintops of the Andes. What a view! The changing of the colors on the Andes went from glowing red to dark purple and greenish blue when the sun was finally gone. And when the Andes stopped looking impressive (color-wise), the sky just got started with its fiery show.

When we got back to San Pedro after this, we went out for an Easter dinner with two friends from Aachen, who are also traveling around this beautiful piece of our big but very small planet earth. What a great gift to see friends on this day, in this unlikely place. We had a good, very calm night with lots of talking and laughing and if it hadn't been for the cold of the night, we might have kept standing in front of our rooms and kept talking until it got light again.

In the end, our Easter-Outing to San Pedro was a short but very intensive and memorable visit to the Atacama desert and Chile – go and do the same next year and you won't be disappointed.