From Bolivia Into Peru - Lake Titicaca From Both Sides of the Border

We left La Paz wishing we'd had a bit more time there, but also excited about the thought of a new country before too long. First, we wanted to stop in Copacabana, 7km from the Peruvian border, to see Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol.

Our bus to Copacabana - it got on its own little boat for some of the way!

We decided to treat ourselves again in Copacabana as we'd heard great things about a rather unusual hotel there, Las Olas. The hotel is made up of several 'suites' that are in fact little freestanding houses, all with very quirky designs. Our suite was the Sea Tower, three floors high and with a fantastic view of the lake from our top tower room. All the floors were circular and we even had a specially designed circular bed! We also had a little fireplace, which kept the place cosy during the freezing Copacabana evenings.

Our Sea Tower home in Copacabana

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3800m, and even before arriving in South America we'd intended to stay a night on its largest island, Isla del Sol (the Sun Island). However, it turned out this was not meant to be. Having been talking in La Paz about how we always have good luck with the weather, we appeared to have jinxed it... Storms, heavy rain and snow put paid to any plan to head across the lake by boat. The first time either of us have seen snow in August!

The Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabanca, in a very grey Copacabana

Despite the weather, we still enjoyed our time in Copacabana. We visited the town's basilica, which is very grand - completely out of proportion to the size of the town! The church contains a famous 16th century icon of the Virgin of Copacabana, the patron saint of Bolivia, who is traditionally worshipped on the 5th August. Although we were there a week later there were still queues and queues of vans and buses arriving from across Peru and Bolivia to see the icon. We also managed between snow showers to climb the steep hill behind our hotel, for a wonderful vista of Lake Titicaca and the town spread out below. This hill was another pilgrimage site, with stone crosses marking the stations of the cross and another icon at the top. Sadly though, everywhere was completely strewn with litter after a lot of people came up here for the festival on the 5th.

Looking down on Copacabana and Lake Titicaca

We decided not to waste any time waiting for the weather to improve and after two nights in Copacabana took a bus over to Puno, in Peru. Puno is also on Lake Titicaca and is the main entry town from the Peruvian side, so there are a LOT of tourists here! Quite a shock for us. On the plus side however, we have already noticed a dramatic improvement in the food here compared with any of the previous countries. It's great seeing dishes with sauces, spices, herbs... we are feeling quite positive about Peruvian cuisine!

The beautiful Lake Umayo, at Sillustani

Near Puno there is an interesting archaeological site at Sillustani; it is a hillside scattered with 'chullpas' - huge funerary towers or urns varying from around 4 to 12 metres in height. These stone, cylindrical structures were used as tombs by pre-Inca cultures from this region and then by the Inca themselves, dating from around the 12th to the 15th centuries. They are now in varying conditions, with some remaining almost perfect and others reduced to piles of rubble. There were other remains to see, including stone circles used by the Inca for sacrifices. The complex is in a beautiful location, on the shores of Lake Umayo where we even saw a couple of flamingoes.

Local ladies sitting outside one of the Inca chullpas

While in Puno we also paid the mandatory visit to the Uros Islands, which are artificial islands built entirely of reeds. Despite taking a ferry rather than taking a tour, the experience was still massively touristy - think floating souvenir shops. However, it was still worth doing to learn how the islands were built and to see what life is like for people living in such an unusual place. The islands are tethered but still move slightly with the wind and with the movement of people walking around; it felt a little like being on a boat.

Uros islands - reed islands in Lake Titicaca, near Puno

We are leaving Puno tomorrow for Arequipa, Peru's second largest city, and renowned for its cuisine.

La Paz - Not As Scary As You Think

We arrived in La Paz having heard tales of people kidnapped in taxis, fake police officers, bag snatching, etc. However, with a bit of common sense (don't just get in any old taxi, police officers should be wearing uniform...) we felt perfectly safe. We were staying in a more upmarket area called Sopocachi, outside of the traditional backpacker district, with plenty of good restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, we didn't get to try many of them - our visit was tainted by another bout of food poisoning.

The cable car descending into La Paz from El Alto

Having recovered after a day shuttling between the bed and the toilet, we braved going on a walking tour in the city centre. Although there weren't many stand-out sights, La Paz is a fascinating city to explore. It is situated in a deep valley, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, with buildings lining the vertiginous sides. Atop one side of the valley is a plain on to which the city extends; it has now been designated as a separate city, El Alto - the highest city in the world (4,150m). Lots of parks have great views across the valley. Unfortunately, they were all designed by an evil genius. Inviting looking paths wind down a cliff face, only to leave you at a high fence, with the next path that you want visible beyond, but inaccessible so there is no way to go but back up the cliff. There are also plenty of markets in the city, including the famous witches' market where you can buy love potions and llama foetuses among other outlandish things.

One of the parks in La Paz, with fence-lined paths

La Paz and El Alto also have significant, if not majority, indigenous populations. The Aymara women in particular have a very distinctive fashion with long, wide skirts and brightly coloured shawls, topped with a too small bowler hat. These were introduced by the British when building the railways, and soon became an integral part of the culture. Unfortunately for us, it's not the done thing to take photos as they believe it steals part of their soul.

Buildings lining the valley wall up to El Alto

We spent one day outside of La Paz to see the UNESCO site at Tiwanaku. The Tiwanaku culture dominated the region for around 2000 years before the Inca arrived in the 15th century. We visited one of their largest religious sites, close to Lake Titicaca. It was mostly destroyed by the Spanish colonialists, but excavations have revealed grand pyramids, statues of heads protruding from subterranean walls and giant monoliths. It was a fascinating trip to see something of a less-celebrated, but no less influential, culture than the Inca.

Faces inset into the wall in Tiwanaku

We are coming to the end of our time in Bolivia now - we have a final stop in Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca before heading into Peru.

In the Jungle and Pampas (With a Butterfly Phobia)

We flew from Santa Cruz to Rurrenabaque, down in the lowlands in the Amazon Basin. It's a pleasant, if very touristy, little town right on the bank of the Beni River, and felt the most like Asia of anywhere we've been so far. The humidity, the motorbikes carrying four people, the bamboo bars, the wide, muddy river and the beautiful sunsets - we liked it! We didn't have long to explore Rurre though as we'd booked ourselves onto a 6 day trip to the nearby areas of jungle and pampas with Mashaquipe, a local tour company that came highly recommended by some travelling friends.

The tiny airport in Rurrenabaque

The first three days of the adventure were spent in the jungle, more specifically in Madidi National Park, a huge protected region including part of the Amazon rainforest.We were joined by a Belgian couple for these three days, forming a group of five with our amazing local guide, Ismael, who actually grew up in the jungle and was therefore a fount of knowledge about all aspects of jungle life.

Our guide, Ismael, with the boat along the Beni river

We travelled from Rurre by boat for around three hours to our base for the next few days, Mashaquipe Ecolodge. En route we stopped at a local village to taste fresh sugar cane juice - Ismael cut the canes with his machete and we pressed the juice ourselves using a rustic wooden contraption! The lodge was great: despite being in the middle of the jungle, it was a comfortable place, with a dining room, running water, mosquito nets and even electricity (from 6-10 pm each day). The food was delicious too - 3 course meals that were better than most we've had in Bolivia.

It's thirsty work making sugar cane juice

Over the next two days we spent most of our time walking in different areas of the jungle, spotting animals and learning a lot too about the trees and plants that local tribes use medicinally or for cooking. The craziest thing was possibly when Ismael extracted a maggot like white larva from a seed pod and ate it! In fact we tried the larvae ourselves later on, toasted, and they were rather tasty.

To eat or not to eat? Larva from a seed pod

We saw plenty of animals - capuchin monkeys, lion monkeys, squirrel monkeys and howler monkeys, a boa constrictor snake, plus a lot of birds and the footprints of jaguar, tapir and ocelot. The monkeys and birds were mostly high in the trees and Ismael was fantastic at spotting them; he could even make noises like most of the monkeys and birds to encourage them to come out. We spent quite a while following him through dense jungle in search of a peccary, or wild pig, that he could hear walking along nearby (none of us could hear anything!). Eventually we were rewarded by seeing not one but a whole herd of peccaries, around 30-40 of them, marching with intent through the jungle. Early in the morning one day we hiked up to a viewpoint at the edge of the cliff and watched the canopy emerge from the mists, with scarlet and green macaws flying by and making an incredible amount of noise.

Jaguar footprints

This boa constrictor snake appeared right next to our dining room!

View of the jungle canopy and Beni river below

Of course, the Amazon rainforest is full not only of animals but insects. Thus you can guess that it was quite challenging for me trying to cope with my phobia of butterflies and moths; we saw some of the largest butterflies I have ever seen. Fortunately Ismael soon got the idea of the problem and protected me from anything flying too close. He also cleared the dining room and bathrooms of moths every night! We also saw a huge tarantula and of course were hounded by mosquitoes and ants of all sizes. We were warned not to leave anything on the floor or we might find it in pieces later due to the industrious leaf cutter ants!

Tarantula just sitting on a tree next to our cabin

Unfortunately Kev came down with a severe case of food poisoning again during day 2 and spent most of that afternoon and the next day in bed - we think it must have been something he ate prior to the trip, as the rest of us were fine. Thank goodness Ismael was brillliant and supplied us with antibiotics plus his own homemade herbal tea made from a leaf in the jungle. The latter was incredibly bitter but definitely and he was feeling a lot better by the time we arrived in the Pampas.

Capybaras grazing next to the river in the Pampas

The Pampas was a different experience from the jungle but still fantastic. The area is mainly wetlands and we spent most of the three days cruising along the river with Ismael and our new Canadian companions, looking for animals. While there is less biodiversity here overall, the animals are a lot easier to spot than in the jungle. We saw caimans, one 4 metres long, alligators, turtles, capybaras, more monkeys and best of all, pink Amazon river dolphins (yes, they really are pink!) The highlight was swimming among the dolphins; they were playful and curious and liked to play or to nibble your leg at times.

Squirrel monkey jumping across our boat

One of the many alligators in the Pampas

We were assured that the area in which we swam with the dolphins was not frequented by caimans or piranhas. One evening however we went to a shallower area and fished for piranhas using raw meat as bait. The Canadians caught a couple, but we failed - I did however catch a catfish of reasonable size, which we ate for dinner along with one of the piranhas.

Piranha for dinner - look at its teeth!

On the last day I had an interesting time - Ismael was worried about a couple of my mosquito bites and on examining them decided that they were not ordinary bites but had mosquito larvae growing in them - eurgh! He treated this by extracting nicotine from a cigarette and leaving the nicotine on the bites overnight. The next morning he checked and proclaimed the larvae were 'muertissimo' (very dead). In fact he extracted the head of one of the larvae. It was too small for me to see, but I'm sure he knew what he was doing...

Turtles basking in the sun 

Overall we had an unforgettable few days, regardless of illness, bites and butterflies. Waking up to the sounds of the jungle or Pampas, learning about living in the jungle from an indigenous guide, and seeing such a variety of wildlife was amazing . Furthermore, Mashaquipe give a large proportion of their proceeds to the local community - Ismael told us they are supporting 48 different families in the jungle at the moment -  and we were happy to be giving something back.  It's certainly one of the high points of our trip so far.

Our Pampas group, with Ismael and the boat

Exploring Inca Ruins Around Samaipata

After the Missions circuit, we decided to spend a few days away from the heat of the lowlands, in the higher valleys around Samaipata. This is a small village, but has become popular with tourists recently, particularly the hippy crowd.

The square in El Pueblito

We stayed in a small resort, as a bit of a treat to ourselves, outside the town on a hill with a wonderful view of the town and valley below. It's called El Pueblito, or Small Town, and is designed like a traditional village with themed rooms set around a central square. Our room was styled as a florist's, which meant fresh flowers and garden tools adorning the walls. Although slightly kitsch, it was something a bit different and a great place to relax.

Our room - the florist's - in El Pueblito

The main draw in the area is a UNESCO world heritage archaeological site known as El Fuerte, The Fort. It consists of a large rock protruding from a hilltop, used by the Inca and earlier cultures for religious carvings and ceremonies, and the accompanying village ruins. When the Spanish arrived, it had already been abandoned for some time, and they presumed it had been a fort, hence the name. Later research into the carvings on the rock suggests that it was of more religious significance; carved jaguars and pumas were symbols of power, while several large niches in the rock are thought to have held idols or mummified ancestors.

El Fuerte de Samaipata

We have now returned to Santa Cruz once again, before flying to Rurrenabaque in the remote north of the country for our first experience of the Amazon rainforest.

To Tour or Not to Tour in Eastern Bolivia

When Kev last wrote, we were just about to leave Sucre for Santa Cruz in eastern Bolivia. Santa Cruz is a big, very busy city down at an altitude of only 400m or so - quite a change from our last few weeks high in the altiplano. The weather was noticeably more humid and the city was partly flooded when we arrived, after heavy rains over the last two weeks. I think we will always associate Santa Cruz with grey skies!  There is very little to do in the city itself but we wanted to use it as a base for several activities in the area, beginning this week with the Jesuit Missions Circuit.

The cathedral in Santa Cruz - the Pope visited here a week before we arrived

There are a number of villages within a day's travel of Santa Cruz, all founded by Jesuit missionaries in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and all with unusual, very beautiful Jesuit churches. Six of these were collectively designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in the 1990s and the route round them is known as the Jesuit Missions Circuit. Tour agencies offer a 3 or 4 day tour for around 450 US dollars. To tour or not to tour? It didn't take us long to choose to go it alone.  But now we had to negotiate the local transport, which is notoriously slow and unreliable in this region (hence why most travellers opt for the tour!).

The viewpoint in Santiago de Chiquitos

While the tiny village of Santiago de Chiquitos, is not officially part of the missions circuit, we had been recommended to make a stop here to enjoy the natural beauty of the surrounding area. We stayed in Santiago's only hostel, which also serves as a restaurant as well as an art exhibition centre. The hostel had a lovely garden with toucans frequenting one of the fruit trees. We climbed up to the viewpoint just out of town and were rewarded with glorious views of the Tucabaca Valley below - a sea of trees. During this walk we saw one of the largest butterflies I've ever seen; those who know me well can imagine my reaction. We also hired a local guide who took us though the jungle to visit two amazing caves, one with rock paintings and one with a lovely waterfall.

The church in San José de Chiquitos

From Santiago we moved on by bus to San José de Chiquitos, arriving in the late afternoon in time to see the church. Unlike those later on the circuit, this church was the only one to be built of stone. It was huge, with four main buildings stretching along one whole side of the village square. The cloister-like corridors around a central garden had walls adorned with paintings in the characteristic Jesuit style. We stayed in a very basic hotel and were up at dawn to catch the only bus of the day to San Ignacio de Velasco, our next stop.

The church at San Miguel - all of the others, apart from San José, are in a similar style

The local bus to San Ignacio was interesting - 6 hours bumping along the red, dusty, unpaved road, stopping to pick up more and more people and more and more cargo, including several crates of (live) chickens. From San Ignacio we spent a day with a driver taking us round the three other Jesuit villages nearby - Santa Ana, San Rafael and San Miguel. All of these churches were lovely, and very representative of the Jesuit style: carved wooden columns; adobe walls painted white on the inside and then decorated with simple floral motifs, mostly in reds and oranges; ceilings of reeds or bamboo; wonderfully carved wooden pulpits decorated in gold; and magnificent altars covered in gold, silver or mica. Perhaps my favourite was San Rafael, where the interior paintings also included angels playing various instruments.

Inside the churches at San Rafael and San Miguel

The next leg of the trip, up to Concepción, was to be the most challenging. There was only one bus a day from San Ignacio and we duly got on it at 11 am. At 12.30, the bus broke down, literally in the middle of nowhere. There were no other buses due until the evening, so we were all given (some of) our money back and then left to wait hopefully on the side of the road in the heat and the dust. An hour later, Kev and I ended up getting a lift with a few other people in a huge lorry, with him in the back while I was squashed into the cab. The truck dropped us at the nearest village, 25 km away, and after a lot of waiting around and negotiating with a bus company office, we finally procured ourselves a minibus to Concepcion, where we arrived around 6 pm. Only 3 hours later than planned, and ironically, this all worked out cheaper than the original bus!

Waiting for a lorry to come along

We were able to look at the church in Concepción in the evening before mass, and the atmospheric lighting at this time almost made the long journey to arrive this late worth it. The next day we had a smooth journey to nearby San Javier, the last of the circuit, and back to Santa Cruz.

Made it! The final church in San Javier

The whole experience was a challenging one, but certainly far more rewarding and eye-opening than a tour would have been. We saw no other tourists on the buses, but got to travel as the locals have to and experience the difficulties of living so remotely with so little transport. We had time to see all the churches for ourselves, as well as seeing the rest of the villages, eating in local restaurants and speaking only in Spanish. We even worked out that we saved a third on what the tour would have cost, despite spending more than twice as much as time. Once again we've learnt that the easy option isn't always the best one.

Surviving the Bus After Trekking the Cordillera de los Frailes

We spent a long time (for us) in Sucre - a whole week, which was dedicated to brushing up our Spanish skills. We each had a private teacher (which is affordable in Bolivia), and feel that we made a lot of progress. We certainly feel more confident conversing with people now.

Sucre - our home for the last week or so

The real highlight of our visit to Sucre, though, was a 4-day trek in the nearby Cordillera de los Frailes. We organised it through a local agency, and spent three full days walking before returning by local bus on the final morning. We were joined by a friendly English couple, Steve and Harriet, and the fantastic local guide, Zulma, to make 5.

The Cordillera de los Frailes

Each day of the trek showed us something different: the first day took us to 2000 year old cave paintings; the second day to a huge, ancient volcanic crater with a village in the middle; and the third to 65 million year old dinosaur footprints. The best thing about it, though, was to spend all of that time walking amid stunning landscapes. Each new turn in the road, collapsing bridge over a river or vertiginous path alongside a waterfall brought new hues in the mountains shaped by millennia of different layers of rock.

Coloured rock lining the way

The final day took us back to Sucre in only two and a half terrifying hours. Having walked around the cordillera, we now needed to cross back over the mountains. The rickety local bus struggled along the barely wide enough unmade roads, with a cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other side. Occasionally there were trees bordering it, which may have broken the fall if the bus driver made a mistake. Luckily, he didn't, and we have survived to tell the tale before flying to Santa Cruz tomorrow.

Hiking in the cordillera

Silver Mines, Sucre, Dinosaur Footprints (And Don't Go To The Top Restaurant On Tripadvisor!)

Having spent one night in the very mediocre town of Uyuni following our salt flats tour, we proceeded north the next day to Potosí. This is a mining town that at 4070m is the second highest city in the world (the highest, El Alto, is also in Bolivia).

Iglesia de San Lorenzo de Carangas - one of the many churches in Potosí

We had heard a lot about Bolivian buses and boarded with some trepidation, but this bus ride at least wasn't too bad at all - we certainly had a lot worse in Asia. All the locals get on buses laden with blankets, clearly in the know about how cold it's going to be, we thought. I duly wore thermals and several jumpers, but actually, the bus got really hot and we sweltered in t-shirts for the whole journey. The scenery was incredible and we tried to enjoy this rather than thinking too hard about the huge drop down a cliff on one side!

View of Cerro Oro, the mine in Potosí

Bolivia is a refreshing change from Chile and Argentina in that it is far less westernised. Coming into Potosí, we passed busy outdoor markets, open trucks full of oranges, street stalls selling dubious looking snacks, etc. Everything is far less ordered than Chile and Argentina, with interesting, slightly puzzling things going on everywhere you look. The country also has a high proportion of indigenous people and the ladies of the altiplano region have a very characteristic style of dress: long skirts, usually with tights or legwarmers and sandals; apron; a boater style of hat, with two long black plaits of hair; numerous shawls; and a colourful sling across their back, often carrying a baby but apparently used for anything and everything. You really see a whole different culture here: it feels like travelling properly again, rather than being on an extended holiday.

The square and cathedral in Potosí

We spent three days in Potosí, which is a pleasant place to stroll around, with a plethora of colonial architecture and churches with intricate carvings. It is a world heritage site and an important town historically due to its silver mining heritage. During colonial times, the hill behind the town (Cerro Rico, or 'rich hill') was Spain's main source of silver and in Spanish there is still a saying 'vale un potosí' (to be worth a potosí, i.e. a lot!). We visited the Casa de la Moneda, Potosí's first mint, where silver coins were minted first for the Spanish crown and then for independent Bolivia until the 1950s. Native people and African slaves worked in the mines and in the mint, in atrocious conditions. We were told that the amount of silver extracted in Potosí in colonial times would have been enough to build a bridge of pure silver between there and Spain - but that you could also have built the same bridge with the bones of the people who died.

In the Casa de la Moneda, Potosí

In Potosí we visited a French restaurant that was highly recommended on Tripadvisor - an error, it turned out, as both of us and our Swiss friends came down with food poisoning. This necessitated an extension of our stay in Potosí,  but we are gradually getting better and have now moved on to Sucre, Bolivia's consitutional capital and another world heritage site.

Eiffel tower lookalike, in Parque Simón Bolívar, Sucre

Sucre is a beautiful city, with characteristic white buildings from the colonial era and numerous churches and museums. We've visited the Casa de la Libertad, where Bolivia's declaration of independence was signed in 1825, and walked around the pleasant park (with odd Eiffel tower replica). We've also been to see some 68 million year old dinosaur footprints, and the associated theme park with life size dinosaur models. Pretty cool - there's a steep limestone wall with the tracks of three types of dinosaur clearly visible. They'd originally have been flat but due to plate movements now look like they are walking vertically up the wall.

Dinosaur footprints

Sucre is proving  a great place to chill out and continue recovering from illness.There's a lot of expats living here so we've found several excellent cafés and even an English pub, where we watched Chile win the final of the Copa America last night. We have now signed up for a week's Spanish classes and then a 4 day trek, so will be here and around for a while longer. Our Swiss friends are pressing on to La Paz this evening though, so we're on our own again...