Puno and the floating islands in Peru

The border crossing between Bolivia and Peru was the most organized one we ever had had. The bus trip from the Bolivian side of the Titicaca Lake to the town of Puno on the Peruvian side took only three hours and the bus was waiting all the people getting stamps on their passports. We even had an English speaking guide in our bus who was really helpful to find us a cheap place to stay in Puno. 

In Puno we did another day trip to the lake but this time to the unique floating islands. These islands are inhabited by people called Uros and there are around 50 islands which are all build using layers of reeds. These indigenous people have been living on these islands already centuries while first escaping from the Incas and nowadays there are about 100 people living on the islands and making living mostly from the tourism.

Even that the trip was a bit touristic the locals we met were really welcoming and invited us to visit their houses and even let us to dress up in their traditional clothes! These people were really friendly and curious also to know about us. Of course they were trying to sell souvenirs as well but in the end supporting their community is only a good thing. 

Puno as a town itself wasn’t anything special but we wanted to stay there another night and rather take a day bus to Cusco as we had heard that the night busses in Peru are not the safest ones. And a good night sleep in a comfy hotel bed was something that we still craved after all the activities we had done the past days. 

Copacabana - Lake Titicaca

After La Paz it was time to visit one more place in Bolivia before heading to Peru. We wanted to visit a small town called Copacabana on the world’s highest Lake Titicaca but the road there had been closed for weeks because of some strikes of local farmers. We were lucky enough that the road just opened when we wanted to visit the place and as we arrived to the town it was still totally empty and had hardly any tourists there. 

The bus trip from La Paz was only three hours but we actually hadn’t sleep at all the night the before so even this trip felt pretty overwhelming… So as we got our room in Copacabana we couldn’t be happier to sleep couple of hours before exploring the town.

In Copacabana we did a tour to the legendary island of Isla Del Sol which is said to be the birthplace of the whole Inca mythology. The boat there was the slowest we ever have had and it took almost three hours to even get to this island! On the northern part of the island we had a guided tour to the ruins where the Inca creation legend began but before even getting there we had to hike an hour in the hottest time of the day. Hiking uphill in those altitudes is never easy and even with the help of local herbs the hike felt pretty exhausting… 

 

After the ruins we took the boat to the southern part of the island and there again climbed up the famous Inca stairs which includes hundreds of stairs. So in the end of the whole day trip we were pretty tired from all the hiking and climbing. But there was no time to rest as we wanted to continue our trip to Peru already the same evening! 

 

The world's most dangerous road

The most famous tour in La Paz is definitely the biking tour on the world’s most dangerous roads and this was something that we wanted to experience as well! The tour started early in the morning and we drove with a van to the height of 5000 meters. On the top we got our gears and bikes and started to go downhill the road. It was freezing up there and just going downhill didn’t make us any warmer but the views of the mountains were incredible! 

The first part of the road was easy because it was a paved road but the actual death road was only gravel, really narrow and the drop over the edge was hundreds of meters! And the fact that it started to rain made the experience even scarier! Also there were waterfalls on the road and sometimes we had to cross little rivers. In the end we were all totally wet and muddy! 

 

The more down we got, the warmer it got and rest of the day it was actually really sunny and hot. Having the full layers of clothes didn’t make us feel the cycling any easier and some parts of the tour it was a total nightmare! And one part I almost wanted to give up while I got behind from the others and not being fit at all made me feel terrible in those altitudes. So when I finally reached the others I swore to Magda: If I would have known that this is gonna be this hard I wouldn’t have even done this! 

In the end we managed to finish the tour and a cold beer couldn’t taste any better! However, even that we had finished the cycling by then, the most dangerous part was still ahead – driving back the same way with the van as most of the accidents on the death road happen with a car! We did trust to our driver as we knew that there haven’t been any accidents with the tours for years but just looking over the edge from the window made us feel worried… But in the end we survived from the death road safely back to our hostel!

High altitudes in La Paz

When we were arriving to La Paz by bus, we could see the amazing views of this city which is located in the 3660 meters – the houses build on the hills, snowy peak mountains on the background, locals with their colorful clothes… We knew already then that we are going love this city! 

We were by now quite used to the altitude from the previous places but the fact that the city is full of hills made it difficult to even walk around the city without feeling out of breath. The sun also felt so strong that it burned during the day but in the evenings the temperature dropped again to freezing cold.

For us La Paz was full of amazing shopping and crazy partying. First of all, the city is full of different markets and you can buy anything you can ever imagine from there – coca leaves, dead lamas, traditional clothes etc. We could spend hours wondering around the small shops full of colors and warm clothes and everything was so cheap! 

The nightlife of La Paz is something that we never have seen before – totally crazy! We were staying in the most famous party hostel of the city which had open bar a whole day. Theme parties, free shots, happy hours, table dancing – this was definitely the best place also to celebrate Magda’s birthday! The city itself doesn’t have that many clubs or bars but the few ones are always packed no matter what day of the week it is. The city is also famous for its coca-use and hidden clubs where you can buy coca straight from the bar! There is even a coca-museum in the city which tells everything about coca and the use of it.

We liked La Paz so much that we ended up staying there for a whole week. However, partying almost every day took our tolls and next we wanted to go to a tranquil place to relax…

Couple words about Bolivia

After our crazy adventures on the salt desert we needed couple of days rest to recover from all the things that happened during the trip. We decided to stay couple of days in a small town called Uyuni, which was perfect for resting as there was actually nothing else to do!

 

(A typical local town in Bolivia)

 

This town is the main hub fro the trips leaving to the salt deserts so besides hundreds of tour operators there were some restaurants in town. There are something funny about restaurants in Bolivia, especially touristic towns like Uyuni, because all the restaurants seemed to have exactly the same menu and the food they offered is mostly pizza and pasta. Many times when we asked about something else like salad, they didn't have it even that it was on the menu. One morning we were looking for a place to eat breakfast and we ended up going to five different restaurants before actually getting our cold scrambled eggs served.

(Locals on the street)

Also the service in Bolivia has been the worst we ever seen. The waitresses seems to serve one table on a time from an order to the bill and when they have finished one table it is time to move to the next customers. This meant that if a restaurant was half full they didn't let more people to come to eat as they could not handle that many tables at once.

Also many people in Bolivia seem to believe that all the Western people like old techno music. So in many restaurants they were playing the worst hits from the 90's as loud as they could even in the mornings trying to get more customers to their restaurant without realizing that the music was actually turning the people away.

We also found most Bolivian people quite serious and we hardly saw anyone smiling on the streets. Even the children looked preatty sad. Maybe it was just due to the altitude...

Anyways after spending time only in the small towns of Bolivia, we wanted to see if the capital would offer us something better - an it did!

Salar De Uyuni - A real adventure

A jeep tour to the world’s biggest salt desert is a must-do adventure for all the travelers in Bolivia and that was something that we wanted to experience as well. We had heard many stories of bad tours and accidents with jeeps and got the advice of not chosing the cheapest tour as is not always the best option. And did we listen to this advice at all... No! We did choose the cheapest we could find from a small company for 3-day trip together with 3 boys from Israel and yes it wasn't necessary the best option for this tour... 

The first day we left early in the morning and we were all pretty excited about the coming adventure. Our driver Hernan was also our guide of the tour and we also had a cook called Norma with us the whole time. Overall the views of the mountains and the nature were totally amazing! We saw many lamas, flamingos, donkeys and emus on the way and later we even tasted the meet of the lama. 

All the time we were getting higher and higher and the altitude was getting pretty intense. The first night we slept in a place located over 5000 meters above the see level and during the night it was freezing cold!  The electricity in the house worked with water power and when the temperature dropped below zero also the electricity stopped working. Also all of us could feel the effects of the altitude sickness with a light headache and dizziness and even a small exercise caused our heart beating like crazy and it was hard to breathe. Also one of the guys got fever that evening and was pretty much sick the rest of the whole journey.

The next morning we woke up already 4.30 and after five we were already on our way to our first stop - the hot springs. Swimming in the hot water was something that we definitely needed to get warm after the cold night. So after the breakfast and the relaxing swim on the pools we continued happy our trip to the next stop. However, this was when the problems started… 

First of all our jeep started to overheat and we had to stop every 5 km to cool the motor down. After about 8 stops and without finding a solution to the problem we were getting pretty annoyed by the situation. The fact that our driver Hernan could speak only Spanish made the communication pretty hard and after couple of hour’s frustrating moments we were already giving up from the hope that we would get anywhere that day…  

In some miracle way we did manage to get to our next stop to have some lunch but we were many hours behind from our schedule. Hernan was also getting pretty nervous to get us to our destination that evening and he was driving like crazy! When the sun went down we still had couple of hours driving ahead to our last stop of that day and Hernan decided to take a shortcut to win some time but that wasn’t such a good idea… 

As we turned to another sandy road Hernan noticed that it was a wrong way and he made a U-turn to get back to the main road and of course we got stuck on the muddy side road! Our jeep was supposed to be a 4-wheel drive but of course only the back tires were working and getting out of the mud was not that simple as it should have been with a proper jeep. So there we were whole group digging mud from the tires and trying to find some sand to help the tires to move better in the middle of nowhere in a pitch-dark cold weather only with couple of flashlights to guide our way... Even our cook started to cry because the situation seemed too desperate..

The situation was something unbelievable but the fact that we were all working really hard together and getting our hands dirty really made the group to get closer. We don’t know how many hours we were pushing the car out of the mud but eventually we did manage to get it back on the road again and we couldn’t be happier to continue our journey! It was already close to midnight when we arrived to our last stop (we were supposed to arrive there at 5pm if on schedule) and finished our dinner with well-deserved wine and we could finally laugh about the situation. 

The last morning we woke up again before the sunrise and head to the main point of the whole tour which was the actual salt desert. The sunrise over the desert was something incredible and definitely worth of the whole adventure! The whole desert was massive and we got some cool pictures with the group before ending the trip in the noon in a town called Uyuni. This trip was something that we would never forget and it’s definitely worth of a story!