Chilling out in Bolivia

 Peru was hectic with lots to see and lots of distance to drive; it is a very large country.  Our first week in Bolivia was the the the opposite of most of our time in Peru, it was like a vacation from this road trip.  In this blog we enter Bolivia and spend some time in the resort city of Copacabana before heading the the culturally important and strikingly beautiful Isla del Sol.  After relaxing on the island we decided to relax at a low(er) elevation and try our hand at mountain biking.  We thought it best to go on an "easy" mountain bike route so we tackled the famous Bolivian Death Road.

October 20^th – Goodbye Peru

Like all border days we woke up a little stressed.  Border days are unpredictable and we are always unsure if something will arise that will prevent our entrance into the next country.  Today we had real concerns over Rupert as we opted to not prepare any paperwork for him as everyone who had crossed in the last year or two was not asked for documentation.  This is a significant cost savings but if they do ask us, and we don’t have it, it may mean returning to Puno and spending a couple days getting the paperwork complete.  It’s a gamble but we were pretty sure Rupert, and by extension we, would be let in.

It rained almost our entire drive to the Bolivian border.  We only stopped to fill up our tank of gas as getting gas in Bolivia can be tricky (I’m sure we will explain[complain] all about this when we need to purchase gas in a week or so).  This also gave us the opportunity to spend our remaining Peruvian currency.

We choose a small touristy border with Bolivia that typically consists of bus dropping people off, where they complete their immigration and customs paperwork before catching a different bus to the resort community of Copacabana, Bolivia.  Very few vehicles cross this border meaning for those with vehicles the process involves checks and balances as well as police opening and closing defined barricades.

At the border... will we make it though?

Checking out of Peru should be easy, normally it involves going to the immigration person getting an exit stamp then submitting our temporary import permit for the vehicle to the customs officer, all of which takes at most 30 minutes.  However, we knew this would take a bit longer when we arrived to the border and the police officer there wanted us to present him with all our safety gear specifically a high visibility vest, an emergency safety triangle and a fire extinguisher.  We knew that this is a well known shakedown for bribes in Peru so we had purchased all this equipment previously.  After seeing all the equipment, the police then wanted to see our ”botica” (medicine cabinet) and inspect all of that.  We are unsure what would have happened if he had found something but thankfully everything he asked for we could produce.  Slightly more frustrating is the fact that international vehicles are immune to the laws associated with this safety equipment (unless it is required by law in the country the vehicle is registered in)as per Geneva Convention on the Temporary Importation of Private Road Vehicles (this is the international law that allows all vehicles from 99% of countries to drive, temporarily, in the other 99% of countries through a defined process and how we have been legally able to drive from Canada to South America).

The process with Immigration and Customs was everything we expected it to be and went as fast as we would have assumed, with one hiccup.  There seemed to be some confusion when Paul tried to leave Peru as the immigration officer could only find his land border stamp not his stamp from Lima airport.  There was more confusion for Paul as he knew and assumed the immigration officer would know that Lima airport doesn’t stamp passports anymore and being that many backpackers who fly into Lima use this border there was no way he hadn’t encountered this before.  We are sure this was not another potential shakedown but it did require Paul to do a lot more explanation than he thought necessary.  While Paul was dealing with officially exiting Peru Kendra dealt with the van paperwork, which was fairly simple. She found the Aduana trailer beside the burned out Aduana building and got the exit stamp on the permit, she and the van along with Rupert were officially out of Peru while they waited for Paul. The reason the Aduana/customs building was burned was due to protests in January of this year. We encountered many toll booths and a few government offices that were attacked by the local protesters in southern Peru.

We made it!!!

Once we entered no mans land and walked into Bolivia the Bolivian immigration was a breeze, we walked into the immigration office the border guard asked for our passports, which he promptly stamped then directed us out of the building.  No questions, no paperwork, nothing.  Customs took a little longer but it wasn’t stressful, thanks to the demeanor of the customs officer. The customs woman needed to find where the VIN was stamped on the body of our vehicle and when Paul said it wasn’t stamped anywhere (we only knew of it on our windshield which was damaged and illegible thanks to the dealership we bought the vehicle from, and on a sticker on the door) she said that that was fine but she wanted to do her own due diligence.  After looking at many youtube videos and schematics she informed Paul that it was stamped under a panel near the passenger sliding door.  Much to our surprise she was right and after a few more moments we were officially and legally driving in Bolivia.  We wish we had known this previously as our illegible VIN on our windshield always creates a few questions at all the borders.

For those wondering about Rupert, just as we had read no one cared that he was there nor did they ask for any paperwork for him!  The person responsible for asking about the dog’s paperwork is the person searching for the VIN on the van and she didn’t say anything, even though seeing him multiple times.

After being in Peru for 2 months it was surreal to arrive in Bolivia.  Within a couple hours of driving around Copacabana we had the Bolivian currency in our hand, a currency we had never seen before, we had a new SIM card so we could use our phone in the country and we had vegetables, meat and cheese from the market.  By 2pm we had found a campground near the shore of Lake Titicaca and decided to do what we always wanted to do on a border day, relax.   We had successfully crossed into Bolivia and completed all required day 1 tasks so we knew it was time to celebrate.

 

 October 21^st – Drinks with a view

One of the most popular things to do in Copacabana is visit the Island of the Sun (Isla del Sol) the location where the sun was born in some pre-Hispanic cultures as well as hike to and or relax on various beaches.  As we are approaching the rainy season here the weather is a bit too cold for a beach day so we had originally thought to grab a boat to the Island of the Sun.

After a bit of research, we learned that the boat left every morning at 8:30am would return around 3pm and each crossing would take up to 2 hours.  No matter how we looked at it, if felt to do the Island of the Sun properly we needed to spend the night.  Thankfully we learned the boat to the island and everything on the island was dog friendly.  This issue we had is that we had a day or so worth of meat that would spoil if left in our van.  We also only had 30 minutes to pack to leave to the island so we decided to head there tomorrow.

After a filling breakfast we started walking to Copacabana where we realized that the community was far busier than the day we had arrived. As it was Saturday the community was starting to buzz with bus upon bus of Bolivians from La Paz coming to the Copacabana for a night away mixing with the already quasi large backpacker community.  There were numerous event centres as we walked into the community each of which seemed to be preparing for some sort of get together, at least one being a wedding.  The community itself was colourful and felt like a typical Peruvian town, in Bolivia, that invested in beautification.  Buildings were different colours and there was clear signage of where to go and how to get there.  After a bit of wandering we decided that what we would enjoy most was hiking up to a mirador that overlooked the lake as well as the community.

Saturday means Fireworks!!

The hike up was fine, steep in many spots but very popular with families.  There seemed to be numerous religious rituals occurring at different points of the hike with one group setting off firecrackers and pouring beer onto the ground while others would stop at some of the stations of the cross enroute and say a little prayer, potentially for the will power to hike to the top of the mirador (the hike started at the lake level which is 3800 meters above sea level).  Eventually we made it to the top and the view was definitely worth it.  There were even people selling beer at the mirador so we decided to splurge and buy a bottle and spend an hour enjoy the view.

We explored the other streets of Copacabana and by 3pm we were ready to head back to the van.  By the time we had returned a few other overlanders had set up camp where we were staying as well so before we knew it we were saying hello, swapping stories before we did some packing to prepare for our journey to the island.

 

October 22^nd – Tranquilo

We woke up this morning excited to make our way towards Isla del Sol. The walk to the dock took us about 20 minutes and the whole time we became more and more happy that we camped outside of the community.  The wedding and events had gone late with some attendees still sharing bottles sitting on the lake shore, all of which seemed very happy to see Rupert. 

The stairs to the community

We were a little unsure how our boat trip to the island would go, we assumed it would be similar to boarding a boat in the Galapagos where we had to line up then get our ticket checked.  This was not that.  Maybe it was because the morning boat was almost empty due to many people overdoing it the night before but it was a very calm process where the boat Capitan asked people to make their way to the boat, they turned a few of us away to get a new ticket since there were only enough people to run 1 boat instead of two, they took our ticket as we entered and found a seat.  Immediately Rupert was getting a lot of attention especially from kids who wanted to pet him, he definitely became the talk of the boat with many people curious about him and our journey here.

This is what we image a
Greek Island would look like

Before we knew it we arrived at Isla del Sol (Sun Island) and made our way to our hotel where we met an Australian couple.  We seemed to get along really well and before we knew it we had plans for drinks on the patio of the hotel we were all staying at and dinner plans together.

We separated ways so that we could each explore the southern half of the island where we decided to check out the community of Yumani before hiking up to the 2^nd tallest peak on the island where we once again relaxed for an hour watching the day go by.  Finally we hiked down to the Sun Temple which was a temple honouring the birthplace of the sun which is said to be on the island.  It was an amazingly preserved temple with multiple rooms with some areas being 3 stories tall with each of the lower rooms being built in a way to allow sun to enter.  It was definitely worth a visit.

By the time we had finished exploring the temple we were starving and thankfully there was a little restaurant near the temple that sold one thing, fresh fish fried.  It was so fun to watch the kids of the owner of the restaurant excitedly run to the lake where they were holding 20 or so trout try to catch our fish.  They generally seemed to see it as a game or challenge of who could get the fish the fastest. After 15 minutes we had hot fried trout in front of us and as you may guess the fish was amazing.

Fresh, fried fish!

The kids were so excited to
catch the fish

The hike back to the hotel was long and uphill but we were greeted by our Australian friends on our return and our promised patio drinks.  Before we knew it we were walking up to the a well rated restaurant located at a mirador where we purchase a few bottles of wine, watched sunset and talked and laughed until it was pitch black and the other patrons of the restaurant had all but left.  It seemed for us to be a perfect day.

 

October 23^rd – Trans-island trail

Isla del Sol is separated into two separate sections, a north section and a south section. Each of which have their own communities and culture and most interestingly these communities do not get along meaning for years at a time it is impossible to travel from the south to the north or vice versa and foreigners not being allowed to visit the north side of the island.  Lucky for us the intercommunity fighting has stopped for the last 8 months meaning we could visit the north side of the island. 

The North Island Labyrinth Ruins

What some visitors to the island do is walked from the South to the North and back which takes roughly 7-8 hours and consists of 20 kilometers.  Not only did we feel this was too much walking for Rupert but this was too much walking for us.  Luckily our friends suggested that we all take a private boat from the south of the island to the north of the island then walk back after seeing the historical sites in the area.  This seemed like a great idea so before we knew it we were on a private boat with another Australian couple who were hoping to do the same thing as us and traveling to the community of Challapampa. 

Lake Titicaca means Puma Rock in
the local language, this rock is THE Puma Rock the lake is named after

Look closely, the "pizza" face is
the face of the sun god.

The northern part of the island was definitely different from the southern part.  The topography was filled with white rocks and cliffs and many white sand beaches.  If the water was warmer we think we would have actually spent some time enjoying the beach.  Instead, we went to Chincana labyrinth of rooms and buildings all overlooking the water.  Not a lot is known about Chincana but it was a very interesting place to explore.  Just south of the site we found the sacred rock which the indigenous people believe looks like a Puma, we struggled to see it, but it is what Lake Titicaca is named after, Titi mean Puma and Caca means rock therefore Puma Rock in the local Guarani language.  Beside the rock is also the god of the sun which to us looked like a piece of pizza with a face on it and a stone table where llamas were sacrificed.

Crossing the Island

After a lot of exploring, it was time to walk the trans-island trail back to the southern part of the island.  Although the trail was long it was beautiful and we enjoyed delicious sandwiches halfway through our journey thanks to a local indigenous woman who was overjoyed that we were wanting to purchase so much food and drinks (because there were 6 of us).  As Paul spoke the most Spanish in the group he communicated with her the most and it was amazing how much she kept on thanking Paul personally for encouraging the group to stop for drinks and sandwiches even though everyone was quite hungry and thirsty at this point, so it wasn’t hard to convince everyone.

By the time we arrived back at the south island we were exhausted, mostly because of the sun and altitude, but we promised to all meet up again for dinner.  A few hours later we repeated our last night and enjoyed a great meal again, but this time with an additional couple.  It was a sad realization when we finally left the restaurant and said goodbye to all our new friends.  We knew we would be return to the van tomorrow and didn’t know how long it would be until we would have such positive social experiences for such a long period of time again.

 

October 24^th – One final hike

There was one viewpoint that Kendra wanted to see before leaving the island, but since the boat to Copacabana left at 10:30 am we had to wake up early to do it.  It wasn’t clear how to get to the viewpoint, which was located at an abandoned house or hotel (we never were able to find out for certain).  In the end we guessed we had taken the wrong turn meaning we had to hike straight up a mountain through terraces of grazing sheep and llamas before finally getting to the building.  The viewpoint, marked by an old building offered 360 degree views of the island and was definitely worth the sweat to get there.

There are no vehicles on the island,
this is how goods are transported

The boat ride back to Copacabana was less enjoyable then our trip to the island, but this was because so many people were returning with us back to the mainland.  Rupert, as always, made a friend and ate enough treats to the point we didn’t think he needed lunch.  When we did return to the island we split up as we knew Rupert would take a long time to walk the couple kilometers back to the campground and we needed to gather a few supplies for the next few days (food, water, money, etc.).

Although we debated leaving Copacabana we decided to stay instead and get an early start tomorrow.  We had made friends at the campground and wanted to share our insights about Peru with a few of the campers.  Many overlanders do not have positive memories of Peru and have been quite negative about there experiences in the country and although it is not our favourite country on this trip we were able to share our experiences and excitement for those going north.

 

October 25^th – Ferrying the van across Lake Titicaca

Although we did a lot of relaxing in the Copacabana area we decided to continue relaxing in the community of Coroico known for its love of hammocking.  We knew today was going to be a long day of driving (at least 5.5 hours) so we said goodbye to everyone we met in Copacabana and started our drive east.

Many overlanders have had issues when trying to cross Lake Titicaca via the ferry system but we had no issue, in fact we were charged the correct amount with most overlanders staying they were charged an extra 20 Bs ($4 CAD).  The ferries themselves can only hold two vehicles and definitely don’t instill a sense of safety but they did the job and got us across the lake.

Only two vehicles per ferry,
no passenger allowed on buses

The remainder of the day was spent driving, we only stopped to cook some Kraft Dinner for Lunch, however by later afternoon we arrived in Coroico.  We did a lap around town to hopefully find a laundromat but couldn’t find a thing.  It was also a town we realized we didn’t want to drive in, there was no parking and every speedbump scraped the bottom of the van to the point we were worried it would damage a part of our exhaust.  Our campground was perfect for our needs, and best yet it even had a pool.  The temperate climate of the community was such a nice change from what we had been used to in the last few weeks that Paul couldn’t wait to jump into the pool and take full advantage of the warm weather.

It did cool down at night but not enough to prevent us from enjoying the evening outside of our van under our awning meaning we spent the night enjoy the evening warmth while playing some games.

 

October 26^th – The most dangerous road in the world

Although Coroico is known for rest and relaxation there is one tour that has nothing to do with it, mountain biking the most dangerous road in the world.  The most dangerous road in the world, also known as the Death Road or the North Yungas Road which used to cause up to 300 drivers to fall off its cliffs each year resulting in almost 100 deaths a year.  Thankfully a new road was built and now unofficially the route is only used by mountain bikers, although some cars choose to still drive the road much to the annoyance of tour companies. 

A long way down if
you're too careless

Although nervous as we haven’t done a lot of mountain biking we met our tour operator a man named Milo who loaded our bikes and safety gear into a van and drove us up to the top of the death road.  Most tourists will do the tour from La Paz but Milo has a lot of issue with these tours as they tend to be full of tourists (sometimes over 16) with minimal experience on any form of bike and only one guide.   This lack of regulation has resulted in, on average one cyclist a year dying.  Milo assured us that his tour is maximum 3 people with the tour van following behind us for safety. 

The tour was great and although our view was not as great as some others may  experience due to wildfires in the north of the country we had a great time.  We also lucked out by doing our tour from Coroico as we got to the death road first before all other tourists from La Paz so we had the road to ourselves and were not competing with other cyclists.  Even Rupert got to do the death road as we had mentioned we had a dog when we booked the tour and Milo allowed us to keep Rupert in the van following us since it would be unsafe to leave Rupert in our own van due to the mid day sun where it reaches above 30 degrees.

Celebratory ice cream

Kendra getting a lift

After such an adventurous tour we celebrated with ice cream before returning to the campground to relax by the pool and lounge in the hammock.  All in all it was a great day!

 

Even Rupert enjoyed the
Hammocks

October 27^th – A nothing day

After so much hiking and exploring over the last few weeks we had planned to spend the day around the pool reading and relaxing however the weather had other plans.  Instead of the warm sunny weather we had seen for the past day and a half in Coroico it rained, hard.

We kept on hoping for the rain to stop even watching a half season of Better Call Saul in the van but it only let up a little bit.  We were almost ready to leave Coroico when we learned the campground in La Paz we wanted to stay in was full and wouldn’t be available until Sunday.  Although we were conflicted about it we did, in the end decided to stay another day in Coroico and relax.

By the mid afternoon the rain did stop and we did make our way to the pool with some boardgames in hand but it wasn’t the warmth we had hoped for.  By evening we ventured uphill into the community for dinner which was nice (we even found some craft beer), but it was not the relaxing nothing day we had envisioned.  It wasn’t a bad day, just not the day we had hoped.

The brewery made us feel like
we were in someone's living room

Nothing better than board games,
wine in the warm jungle evening air

 

October 28^th – Halloween?

Visibility was terrible

Once again it was pouring rain so we quickly cooked breakfast, loaded up the van and made our way out of Coroico. 

Our plan was to try to get gas for the first time in Bolivia which we have heard can be difficult.  The government of Bolivia subsidizes gas for its residents meaning Bolivians only pay around $0.70 CAD a litre, and have enacted laws stating that foreign plated vehicles are not eligible for the subsidy.  The problem is that there is no way for most gas stations to charge us the unsubsidized rate (roughly $1.75 CAD) meaning they will just turn foreigners away.  Some will sell you gas at a marked up price and pocket the extra while others still have tried to work with the government to put in systems to properly charge foreigners but will then run out of gas.  This results in a patchwork of options meaning foreigners have to search and expect to be turned away often.  We had read of a gas station 5 km outside of Coroico that sells gas to foreigners at the subsidized rate so we were curious if we would be successful. Although we were nervous and were asked for our Bolivian residence card, after a short discussion we had a full tank of gas.

The drive to La Paz was incredibly stressful due to a bike race down the highway and through the death road.  It also seemed, due to the race most tour companies bringing tourists from La Paz opted to just make their customers bike down the highway meaning we, among other drivers were dodging bikers who seemed uncomfortable with their situation.  This was made exponentially worse as the rain had caused fog resulting in next to no visibility.  Sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if a biker died on the road today.

Rupert's required PPE for
riding the Gondola

Llama fetus's sold at the
Witches market

We did arrive in La Paz and were surprised at how metropolitan the city was, although the roads leading to the city were in pretty poor shape the roads and infrastructure of the city were great.  The most defining aspects of the city is its mountains and valley complemented by its public transportation system, a series of 10 gondola lines that encompass the city.  We decided to book a hotel in one of the hip areas of the city, close to a gondola station, and after a bit of tight parking we were finally done driving for the day.

Walking up colourful Calle Jaen

We decided to explore the tourist area of the city well known for its Witches Market and colourful streets.  Due to all the Gondolas we felt we needed to take the public transportation system especially since we had read it was dog friendly, unfortunately for Rupert, he had to be muzzled. Rupert hated it.

We found ourselves continually saying wow on the teleferico/Gondala as we soared over offices and historical buildings and before we knew it we were exploring the Witches Market known for selling llama fetuses and the colourful buildings of Calle Jaen.  We can easily say we were very impressed with La Paz.

We were surprised to see so many kids in Halloween costumes and street vendors selling candy to parents who would then give the candy to the kids.  We guessed because it was the Saturday before Halloween that many families were doing Halloween festivities today.  It was amazing to see the road lined with candy, Halloween costumes, decorations as well as face painters painting peoples faces.  Sorry everyone, we decided against get our faces painted.

Gondola public transportation at night is amazing

We would have nothing bad to say about La Paz if not for one thing, they are not very dog friendly.  This is the first place since leaving the United States where many of the restaurant’s said dogs were not allowed, and even though they didn’t have a sign that didn’t allow Rupert in meaning our original dinner plans changed until we found a restaurant with an outdoor patio.

We returned to our hotel via a different gondola line and once again were wowed by the city, especially now that the sun had set and the moon was full and rising above the city.