Travel from Puno to La Paz

South America Day 21

We woke up in Puno to rain, but it was more serious this time. We were so lucky to catch Lake Titicaca on a couple of clear days. Our exit from Peru was a rather dreary trip on a bus alongside Lake Titicaca.

Copacabana

The border crossing was a bit odd. We had to go to the Peruvian border control point and get our passports stamped. Next step was to change our Peruvian currency for Bolivianos. We then had to go back to the bus, grab all our belongings & hike them half a mile up the road to the Bolivian control point. It was all a bit of a hassle with the intermittent rain.
We then boarded another bus (well a small van really) for the short drive to Copacabana. Not the Copacabana Beach everyone would be familiar with in Rio de Janero, Brazil. This one is at the water's edge, but the water in this case is Lake Titicaca. When we arrived we left our gear in the foyer of some hotel & set off to explore the town & find some lunch. The only thing that was remotely interesting was this church. The markets around them are almost exclusively to sell offerings for the church.

Kerri, Emma, Gemma & myself stumbled upon a quiet little restaurant for lunch. The food was really quite nice. Simple but fresh. As we left to head back to the hotel where our bags (and new bus) were waiting for us, the heavens opened! It was serious this time. We were completely drenched and no rain jacket or poncho was going to help. The streets were turned into river torrents. We made it back, but we weren't exactly dry...We boarded our new bus with another group & set off for Lapaz, the business capital of Bolivia.

At some point we had to cross the great lake at a narrow straight to avoid a long detour back through Peru. The trick would be getting the bus across. We all got off the bus and crossed the straight on the small boats pictured. For boats this size you would expect some sort of inboard engine. Nope. Little 20hp outboards that we'd attribute to a small run-a-bout or tinny.

We made it OK, but our bus didn't look quite so safe. You can just see it toward the back of the photo above.

This is how our bus crossed and probably the reason we were made to get off and take the ferry boats. These dodgy little barges didn't look stable at all. I was thankful that I'd taken my passport and valuables with me. The bus made it, but it was interesting all the same.

Apolobamba Range

About half way to La Paz we saw the Apolobamba Range for the first time. It's what I'd thought the Andes were meant to look like. We were following along the spine of the Andes mountains. This range is well over the 6000m mark as the snow caps will attest to. On the other side, the Amazon jungle 6km below.

La Paz

We reached the outskirts of La Paz. It looked pretty much the same as the other bigger cities we'd been to. At that point we were around 4100m above sea level. We drove past the airport which is one of the highest international airports in the world at 4061m.

Not long after, we took an exit & descended some 300m to the heart of the city below. The city centre & the more affluent areas (in contrast to most places in the world) are at the lower altitudes. This is due to the altitude. The lower the altitude, the easier it is to breathe & the healthier you tend to be. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 3660m. (Note that La Paz isn't the capital of Bolivia, but the business & administrative capital. No, I don't quite understand the difference either.)

As we neared the city centre, the traffic went from busy to mad! It was just like Lima. Eventually we came up to a round-a-bout that had 7 streets entering it. It was basically at a standstill. We sat in the bus for a good 20 mins half way across the intersection. It turned out to be only a few blocks from our hotel. It was an experience.
That night was all a bit sad. Our tour leader, Roberto was also leaving us. His job was done & he was about to back track from where we had come from that day & then on to Arequipa. He was going to spend some time with his family before starting another tour in a few days.
Our friends Emma & Gemma were also leaving us the next night. They were about to wing it from then on. They were planning to do the salt flats & Bolivian dessert like us & then going to Argentina.
On the positive side, we were gaining two replacements for the girls & a new tour leader. Corina & Sandra (the replacements) were from Switzerland. When I asked them whether they were German or French speaking Swiss, they told us "We speak both, but we are from the Italian speaking valley near the border".
Interesting. They were a little bit older than the throng of English 20 something girls on the tour which was very welcome in my books. More on our new found friends later.