Another overnight bus back to La Paz. This time no trouble from the passengers behind me, but a broken down bus and a 4 am move to bus #2 made for an interesting and relatively restless night. BUT that was my last overnight bus. We decided Wednesday should be a lazy day…giving us time to recover from Uyuni and prepare for Copacabana/Lake Titicaca. Plazas, chocolates, and a fantastic mirador (giving us a fantastic view of the city) made for a full afternoon. I’ll skip the part where we spent two hours on a bad side of town trying to get Shannon a replacement visa.
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| Plaza Murillo |
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| View from Mirador Killi-Killi |
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| Shannon and myself |
Thursday, Dec. 8th
An early morning to catch a bus to Copacabana, and we were off to Lake Titicaca! Lake Titicaca is located on the border of Peru and Bolivia, and sitting at 3,811 m (12,500 ft) above sea level, it is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. And by volume of water, it is the largest lake in South America.
We arrived in the early afternoon, checked into a nearby hostel, and ate a quick lunch. Complete with fresh trout from the lake. These two days in Copacabana (actually only about 24 hours) were intended to be slightly lazy, a time to relax and recover from a weeks worth of Bolivian travels…and that’s exactly how they went. We – Chantelle, Shannon, Shannon’s Bolivian manfriend Alexis, and myself – all wandered up and down the Copacabana beach, taking in the views and the sun, riding in swan boats, and doing a little shopping at the local market. We also made a pit stop at Copacabana’s cathedral.
It was late afternoon when we began our climb up Cerro Calvario, a local “mountain” with an easily accessible summit. Perfect place to watch the sun set over the lake.
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| Beautiful Lake Titicaca |
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| The city of Copacabana |
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| Watching the sun set |
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| Breathtaking. |
Friday, Dec 9th
On Thursday, we were blessed with perfect weather. Friday was a different story. Clouds and rain kept us in bed a little longer, but we eventually pulled ourselves up and made our way down the shoreline for some quality Lake Titicaca time. It was cold. And it was windy. But that lake is beautiful…so I didn’t mind donning my fleece and scarf to get a few “I dipped my toes in Lake Titicaca” pictures. Just one more lake to cross off my limnological bucket list! Next up on that list – Lake Baikal. (Zac Foster - you’re coming with me, right?)
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| Cholita on the dock |
Somehow Chantelle and I managed to waste (waste being a relative term) the rest of the dreary morning in a local café, discussing life, love, dogs, and travels. Then it was back on another bus and back to La Paz. A quiet night of picture sharing and facebooking and movie watching. We were too tired for anything else.
Saturday, Dec. 10th
My last day in Bolivia! So what’s a girl to do when her two travel buddies are both spending time with their mans?? Shop…obviously. Clearly I needed MORE alpaca gear. Can’t have too much alpaca. So I wandered La Paz all by my lonesome. Managed to score some great deals with the local market peoples, get one last and LARGE serving of the most delicious ice cream in the world, and stop at a local music festival and take in some tunes and dance with the natives. All while not getting robbed. That all made for a pretty grand day. Spent the evening packing and repacking and reorganizing and impatiently waiting for the Heisman announcement. RG3!!!
FUN SCIENCE FACT #26: The average person accidentally eats 430 bugs each year of their life. Nothing like a little extra protein.
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