Lake Titicaca

Coca plants growing in Coroico in the Yungas

Flying out of Rurre I spent two nights in the Yungas region, which was a nice mix of lush forests but at some altitude which made it less humid than in Rurre. It was even warm enough for a swim in the hostel pool, my first swim in 2 months!


After a short stint back in La Paz I headed to Copacabana on the Bolivian side of lake Titicaca. Copa itself is nothing particularly special, a small resort tourist town, but it had cheap hostels, great fresh fish, and nice views over the lake.

Copacabana plaza

A day was enough to explore and meet up with friends from my salt flats tour and the next afternoon we took a boat to isla del sol, one of the largest islands in lake Titicaca at an altitude of around 4000m with stunning views and an important site for the Incas.

We spent two nights in a basic hostel in the community of Yumani and I trekked pretty much all around the island, getting frequently lost and seeing as many Incan ruins and landmarks as I could find (nothing was signposted). One was helpfully pointed out by a local as being in a neighbour's garden!

Ruins of Chicana, known as 'the labyrinth'

Almost didn't make it back before it got dark due to some very dodgy directions from an elderly local (or at least my very dodgy Spanish) but just made it back with 10 mins to spare. A lucky escape as I was genuinely preparing to knock on a strangers door.



After a rough boat trip back to Copacabana and a final night in Bolivia, I sadly said goodbye and crossed the border into Peru.

Rurrenabaque & the jungle

Having spent 2 months at altitudes between 2500 and 5000m I took a flight in a tiny plane to a Northern Bolivian town on the edge of the Amazon called Rurrenabaque at no more than 200m above sea level. Surrounded by banana trees and lush vegetation it felt more like Southeast Asia than South America as I've experienced it so far.

After one night in Rurre I started on a 5 day tour of the nearby jungle and pampas areas with a community-led eco tourism company with 2 nights in a jungle ecolodge, 1 night camping in the jungle and 1 night in the pampas grasslands.

By the end of the trip I'd seen 4 species of monkey including yellow squirrel monkeys and black capuchins, turtles, wild cats, two species of caiman, capybara, birds of paradise, beautiful macaws and more, although unfortunately no sighting of the elusive jaguar, just some prints from the night before which showed how close we'd been.

Potosi, the salt flats & La Paz

Since leaving Sucre less than two weeks ago I've been to Potosi, the world's highest city and once the richest city in the world during colonial times, frozen my arse-off on a 4 day tour of the Southwest of Bolivia including the famous Bolivian salt flats, spent 4 days in the world's highest capital city, La Paz, and flown to tropical jungle town Rurrenabaque where I'm sitting in a hammock writing to you all.




Miners working in basic and often dangerous conditions in Potosi

The Tio, God (or devil) of the mines 

 Highlights from Potosi were the money museum, where thy used to mint a large proportion of Spain's silver in colonial times (Meg - took lots of pictures of Spanish 8 Reales, screwpresses and rolling mills!) and the 5hr tour through one of Potosi's working mines by an ex-miner.

 

The salt flats tour from Tupiza to Uyuni was simply amazing (although freezing), with typical but beautiful Andean mountain scenery giving way to snow capped mountains, green Laguna's, flamingo filled lakes and miles and miles of salt flats at which we couldn't help but take the obligatory (but very fun) silly photos!







 

 

 

 On the last day, A 12 hr overnight bus took me straight to La Paz where I was lucky enough to stay in a great apartment with some friends from Sucre who are there for a month. I spent 3 days exploring the city including seeing llama foetuses in the witches market and lots of really interesting museums about the history of Bolivia and its people and ending with a trip out of town to the ruins of Tiwanaku, a pre-inca civilisation.

 

Cordillera de los Frailes

On my final weekend in Sucre I spent two days trekking in the nearby mountain range, the Cordilleras de Frailles, with a great NFP organisation called Condor trekkers whose vegetarian cafe in Sucre had the best tucamanas I've tasted so far, and probably the nicest staff. A group of 5 of us from my hostal joined with 4 others and two brilliant guides, Henry and Hugo, to make a really memorable last weekend with amazing Andean scenery and real dinosaur footprints! Although it also showed me quite how unfit I was at only moderate altitude (around 2500-3000m) and I chewed coca leaves pretty much continuously throughout day 2!

 

Sucre, Bolivia

I spent the first 6 weeks of my trip in Sucre, Bolivia, a beautiful colonial city set in the mountains. With 2 hours of Spanish lessons each morning and volunteering in a local orphanage with girls aged 6-13 in the afternoons, my time in Sucre went too quickly. Sucre is a hub for learning Spanish with lots of travellers staying for a couple of weeks or more so it was a great place to start off and meet people, some of which I hope to meet again along the way. I also had great kids at the orphanage, fantastic teachers at the NFP Fenix Spanish School and a lovely room in my hostal  La Dolce Vita (with yellow walls the colour of our kitchen at home) which all contributed to it being very hard to leave. And that's without even mentioning the amazing chocolate shop Para ti where I could get thick, delicious hot chocolate for less than 50p..

Traditional dress from Tarabuco