South America, Days 22 to 25 - Stage 5: Puno, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia

Jackie standing on the viewing platform of the Condor Mirador in Puno, with fabulous views over Puno and Lake Titikaka. Brian went a little higher to get the photo

Day 22 Wednesday 

We had given ourselves a spare planning day, as on arrival in Puno we both felt so rubbish, but in reality we didn't need it. We'd booked the Peru hop bus to Copacabana, a night on the Isla del Sol, the Peru hop bus to La Paz, a flight La Paz to Sucre and 3 nights in Sucre. So a day to ourselves then.

There'll be a few steps up to the Mirador then. Being a bloke I counted them, 613 there were, plus a few very steep hills before we even started the steps. At 3800m, going up to 4000m altitude that's no joke! Did you know that at 4000m the air density is 66% of that at sea level. That means we have to take 1 and a half breaths for every one we take at sea level. No wonder we get out of breath so easily, hearts beat so much faster, breaths so much more frequent, meaning we have to stop often and walk slowly 

We started off early with a walk up to the Condor Mirador which wasn't very far, but was mostly up! A good view though. See our Relive video with more photos: click here. Having gone up the opticians road I decided it was a good idea to get some clip on dark shades for my glasses as the photo reactive ones never seem to go that dark. This wasn't as easy as it sounds, but mission accomplished we popped into a couple of churches for a quick look, though not the impressively domed one as the hearse had just arrived for a funeral!

On to the port then where we were looking forward to another trout lunch. This was easily sorted, though not as many of the restaurants were open as had been on the weekend we still had plenty of choice.

View from the top, Puno and Lake Titikaka. Unseen, 120km away is the other end of the lake in Bolivia. Out on the left, where that hill falls down into the lake is the location of the Uros floating islands

Lots of interaction with Peru hop in the afternoon about leaving our luggage in Copacabana, and where/ how to get Bolivianos ( not on the island) when , just thrown into the conversation was "just keep an eye on your email, there have been blockades today on the Puno to Copacabana road" hmmm. Though this has been going on and off for at least a year and was one of the reasons I was keen to do this trip and border crossing onto Bolivia with Peru hop.

Zooming right in as far as my camera will allow and you can see the floating islands. It's about a third of the way along from the left on the above photo

An evening beer was interrupted by a message saying we were all go, so we went and sorted our overnight bags and out big bags ready for collection at 07.30am.

Also zooming down into Puno, you might just be able to see the brown Cathedral and the Plaza with the yellow and red local government building. Our hotel is also visible on the extreme left, halfway down by a white building. We were very well positioned for seeing everything in the city 

Day 23 Thursday 

Up for breakfast just after 6.00 only to get an email saying that the blockade was back up, so we wouldn't be leaving at 8.00 but that they had it on good information that we would be able to get through if we left at 14.00. this didn't really gel with our research which said it was a 72 hour protest, of which this was day 2, though it had been clear overnight.

Picture obtained from the Ilave Facebook page showing the protests blocking the only bridge connecting Puno to Copacabana, Bolivia. Oh dear!

We weren't going to get to Copacabana in time to get the ferry to the island, so whatever happened we would have to book something else.

We'll go for another walk then, to another, lower viewpoint over the city. Here's the statue of Manco Capac, founder of the Inca empire who, according to legend, was commanded by the Sun God to emerge from the waters of Lake Titikaka. The ancient inhabitants of the Altiplano believed that the underground caves at this view point led to the Konconcho Temple in Cusco 

We went for a little walk to another Mirador, Cerrito Huajspata with a statue of Manco Capac, the founder of the Inca empire, just for something to do. Came across a couple of demonstrations in Puno, adding to our unease. Well, have a good lunch, just in case, not that we really expected to go.

Another fine viewpoint on this rocky outcrop

We did have to decide what to do, a night in Copacabana, and risk tomorrow's bus not arriving so no onward travel to La Paz or straight through to La Paz giving us two and a half days in somewhere we hadn't really planned to come as it sounds a bit scary!

Round to the left, zooming right in with my camera, was the first Puma viewpoint we visited on our Sillustani trip a couple of days ago

We were collected at 13.30, and taken to a big bus. We were told how to use the QR code to fill out the customs declaration for the border crossing, it all seemed to be happening. We decided to go straight to La Paz, well we have a flight out of here, so booked another night in the hotel. I had checked with the guide on the bus that we were going to La Paz, but I just checked again, having realised that despite our email exchange we hadn't changed our booking officially on the site. She was on the phone, so fingers crossed.

Here we are on the bus heading to Bolivia approaching the bridge at Ilave that was blockaded. We were delighted to see it clear and we had no problems passing over it. Our guide on the bus was relieved too. During the day we had explored other options, there is a catamaran service across the lake to the Bolivia border that runs when this bridge is blocked. We'd missed todays as it left at 6:00am and there was unlikely to be one tomorrow. A night time taxi ride at US$145 was considered. Flights were out of the question as we'd have to travel back to Arequipa, get a flight to Lima and a connection to La Paz. Our best option appeared to stick it out and hope we got through. Thankfully we did, but at the expense of our visit to Copacabana and the Isla del Sol. Straight on to La Paz for us

The border crossing was very easy, stamp out of Peru (even though we weren't stamped in at the airport) show the customs declaration, and stamp into Bolivia. Change some money with the old lady by the side of the road, who appeared to give us a stunning exchange rate, and back on the bus with a new guide.

The arch is the Bolivian border that we had to walk through. Our bus and all luggage went separately

Short journey to Copacabana where the la Paz bus was waiting, only to realise how close we'd come to messing up. With us, as officially changed by the Peruvian guide, the bus was now completely full. It could so easily have gone horribly wrong, or cost us a second not used night anyway. But we were off.

We'd already had our passports stamped out of Peru by Peruvian authorities before we went through the arch. Next we went into the building on the left to be stamped into Bolivia, then the building by the sign to show our online customs forms that we filled in on the bus and we're in. Just wait for the bus to come through so we can get back on and continue our journey  

The only stop was at Taquina where we went across the straits on one ferry while the bus went across on another. Ferry for the bus is a loose term, it's absolutely amazing that vehicles ever get across, but it did, with all our luggage! Another few hours (we'd lost an hour with a clock change at the border) and we were in La Paz by 22.00. Dropped off at our hotel which happens to be in the same building as the Bolivia Hop office and into our second room. We rejected the first, it hadn't been changed, so we have a fab view but are right under the restaurant with its very noisy chairs.

This was the narrow bit of Lake Titikaka we had to go over in Bolivia to continue our journey. We all got off the bus and went over in an old motorboat, the bus had to get on one of those flat ferry boats to get across

Day 24 Friday 

Brian has woken up with a slightly dodgy tummy. I'm fine, but this is a little odd as the only thing we've eaten since lunch yesterday was some popcorn and nuts on the bus which we both ate. Perhaps it's altitude, though we are only 200m higher than Puno.

We finally got to La Paz and our hotel room in the Iskay Boutique Hotel and this is the view from our bedroom window on the 7th floor. We might have been tired, but the view in real life is astounding and captivating. What a city!

We have some plans for trips, but they depend on Brian feeling better so we've made enquiries at the booking office, I've swapped a book at the first book exchange I've seen, we've had a little wander, lunch and ATM and are just waiting for our 16.00 walking tour.

Next day out with Johnny our guide. First stop, the Witches Market

Johnny our guide was waiting good and early, as were we, having booked our tour for tomorrow.

Although it is a tourist attraction it's roots are in their ancient Pacha Mama religion and, above the door are dead baby Llama and llama foetus' that are used in the elaborate Challa ceremonies

He didn't quite look local and when he opened his mouth he definitely wasn't local. He was from Canada. We exchanged life stories in the 20 minutes before official start time. He'd been travelling through central and south America for a few years when he got stuck here for COVID. Nobody else turned up so we were the only 2 for this tour so weren't we lucky? 

A typical offering to be burnt at the challa ceremony. Each one is different and is made up following your interview with the witch about what you want from the ceremony, money, children, a girlfriend, relief from pain etc

He started off with explaining about the witches market, just round the corner and one of the main spots in La Paz. The further down you go the more touristy it gets, but at our end, the witches are still practicing. You make your appointment to either get your coca leaves read which sounds just like getting your tea leaves read, or you go and have a consultation to get a pack to give you everything you need for your burnt offering to Pacha Mama (mother earth). What goes into this depends on what you want, health, wealth, children etc. As requests get more serious so do the offerings, sweets, pretend money and real llama fetuses or real baby llama! Don't worry, they are not killed but are all natural deaths, they told us killing is not good karma for Pacha Mama.

Next stop on a bridge over the main road through La Paz in its usual busy state. Below this road is a big river that flows through the valley in the centre of La Paz. As the city grew the river got more polluted from gold processing and industrial production, becoming very unhealthy. Space was also at a premium, so someone had the bright idea of covering the river over and making a big dual carriageway. It seemed to answer both problems. Incidentally, in the days of Spanish colonialism, when there was a river here, the wealthy Spanish lived on the right hand side, so the buildings are big and of European architecture with straight, wide avenues, on the left were the indigenous people who lived as they pleased, so are characterised by narrow, twisty roads

You then have a challa, a party, where everyone gets involved, knows what you want, makes offerings of coca leaves, sugar, cinnamon and alcohol at the four corners of the offering which is then burned to ash. This can take some time, depending on the size of your llama, even though it is completely doused in raw alcohol. The following day the ashes are buried to feed Pacha Mama and you hope your wish comes true.

This is Calle Jaen, formerly one of La Paz's exclusive streets in colonial times. The wealthy and powerful lived here

He spent ages explaining all this, I did wonder if we were ever going out, but he didn't want to be doing it in front of the shops. Really very considerate and very interesting. As it happened there were no consultations going on but we could walk past and take photos.

Murillo Plaza in front of, on the right, the magnificent Basilica of Our Lady of La Paz and, on the left the Presidential palace and government buildings, the old colonial building in front and the new high rise modern tower block behind

We continued down into the centre of the valley at the Plaza de Armas which is a work in progress. We assumed they were just beautifying or something but apparently the whole of the centre of the valley is actually a river they have built over which apparently is in danger of collapsing, so serious work is going on.

Inside the magnificent Basilica. Sturdy stone pillars with a huge dome, built in 1835

We then walked up through the colonial streets to Calle Jaen where the well to do used to live, passed the house of Murillo who started the first revolution, which actually didn't work, and he was hung in what is now Murillo plaza, but did pave the way for a second and successful freedom revolution not long after.

Fabulous altar and dome

We continued to Murillo Plaza where the government buildings are, traditional fronts but with huge modern extensions behind and going up. He then told us all about the political situation which lost me a bit. Brian is going to write this....

Looking back to the huge pipe organ

Brian's bit on the political history as told by Johnny, our guide. It's in green so, if you're not interested, skip to the end where the text turns purple again:

Our political history of Bolivia with Johnny centred around Juan Moralis a charismatic former president of Bolivia. He was born in 1959 and was the son of a poor indigenous coca farmer, but went on to become president, something that was unheard of.

To the left of the Plaza Murillo is the legislative palace, again, the old colonial building in front, the modern tower block behind

He was elected president in 2005 after spells in the military and trades unions and entered politics in 1995, working his way up. He had a working people's appeal and, on entering office he did a lot of good for the indigenous people, who number between 55 and 70% of the population, introducing new laws and making everyone equal under the law regardless of race or creed. Many of his reforms were hugely popular and moved the country forward. He was re-elected in 2009 and continued his work under great popularity.

Close up of the clock on the legislative building. It was Juan Moralis that ordered this, I've forgotten precisely why he chose to do it now

Things started to go wrong towards the end of his second term as Bolivia's constitution only allows a president to remain in office for two terms, so it should have been time for him to go. However, he went onto state television to announce he was going to put a vote to the senators to amend the constitution to allow three terms. It was very unconstitutional and rumours began to spread of fears of a repeat of the Venezuela situation where Hugo Chavez remained in power as a dictator and ruined the country. However his amendment passed in dubious circumstances, with rumours of senators being bought off, he stood again and was re-elected. His third term was relatively successful although rumours of corruption were now rife.

Me 'n 'er with the guards outside the presidential palace

Towards the end of his third term, it should have been the end for him, except he went on television to say that he has now only served one presidential term under the new constitution, the two terms before were under the old constitution so they didn't count. He was allowed to stand to another two terms he announced. This caused uproar as corruption and thoughts of a dictatorship were now rife.

It was at this time that Johnny, our guide came to live in Bolivia and he remembers election night very well. Everyone was glued to their TV's watching the results. The winning candidate must get at least more than 10% of the vote over their opponent and, as counting continued, it was apparent that they were neck and neck with no clear leader. Suddenly all TV coverage was blacked out and only regular programmes were available with no news of the election. 24 hours later it was announced that Juan Moralis had won!

A short video of the changing of the guards outside the presidential palace

This caused extreme anger in La Paz with riots and killings as the country descended into violence. He took office but, as the situation in the country deteriorated the police went on TV to say they no longer supported him. Sometime later the army too went on TV to say they no longer supported him. Realising his situation was now untenable he fled the country to Mexico, leaving the country leaderless.

A right leaning politician was the next in line to become president without an election and she took office and tried to undo a lot of the equality laws Moralis had brought in. Immensley unpopular she too was ousted and is now in prison. New elections were called where a socialist president, like Moralis was elected so he was thus allowed to re-enter the country where, until now, he has kept a low profile. 

Plaza Sucre aka San Pedro Plaza. The unassuming building through the trees is the infamous San Pedro prison. See Jackie's text below 

Fresh elections are due next year and Juan Moralis has put his name forward as the next president and will appear on the ballot paper. There is huge unrest in La Paz, and probably the rest of the country at the prospect he may 'win' and become president again as he is regarded as a very corrupt man with delusions of becoming a dictator and draining the country's limited wealth for his own ends.

We are quite intrigued and will definitely be watching the results of this election next year. It's a lesson in how easily a country can descend into a dictatorship through one charismatic leader who craves power. Adolf Hitler was another such character and, without naming any names there are more modern examples.

Our second walking/bus/cable car tour of La Paz today with Veronica, our guide for the day. This is Laikakota viewpoint with fabulous views of La Paz

One more stop after this was to Sucre (our next stop and official capital of Bolivia) Plaza, more commonly known as San Pedro square. Called this because of the unassuming building on one side that is San Pedro Prison. One of the most lawless prisons on earth. Guards don't go beyond the courtyard, the whole place is run by the prisoners! Top prisoner takes the papers of every new prisoner and asks them where they want to be assigned. Do they have money to buy a room, bedding, food? If no they are down one end spending nights cuddling together on the floor in the corridors, if yes the world is their oyster. It's a town in there with restaurants, laundry, cocaine factory..... You know, the normal stuff.... There is also a school as the rich prisoners also have their wives and children in there with them! 

Johnny then went on to tell us about Thomas Mcfadden, an Englishman, who became the subject of a book called Marching Powder.

This is looking straight south from the viewpoint, towards the posh end of the city

This is the synopsis of that book from Amazon: San Pedro is Bolivia's most notorious prison. Small-time drug smuggler Thomas McFadden found himself on the inside. Marching Powder is the story of how he navigated this dark world of gangs, drugs and corruption to come out on top.

Thomas found himself in a bizarre world, the prison reflecting all that is wrong with South American society. Prisoners have to pay an entrance fee and buy their own cells (the alternative is to sleep outside and die of exposure), prisoners' wives and children often live inside too, high quality cocaine is manufactured and sold from the prison.

Thomas ended up making a living by giving backpackers tours of the prison – he became a fixture on the backpacking circuit and was named in the Lonely Planet guide to Bolivia. When he was told that for a bribe of $5000 his sentence could be overturned, it was the many backpackers who'd passed through who sent him the money. Written by lawyer Rusty Young, Marching Powder – sometimes shocking, sometimes funny – is a riveting story of survival..

Looking back up the valey and there are houses built in every conceivable space. The black building in the centre is the new legislative building and the grey tower above it is the new presidential building. The horizon on the left marks the beginning of a new (30/40 years old) city of El Alto. The airport is up there at 4000m from which we'll depart tomorrow on our flight to Sucre

The book unsurprisingly was very embarrassing for the Bolivians and has been banned here. Although the tours were stopped, the cocaine factory closed down, and the bribing of guards by prisoners to let them out for the evening or weekend or whatever else they wanted also stopped, it appears that all that has actually changed is the tours, everything else is as it was!

What a stunning tour with such a different outlook than we would have got from a native. Only problem, it's a free tour with tips, how much to give him? See our Relive video with photos: click here

Just following on round to the right from the previous photo to show how the city is built into a river valley

Day 25 Saturday 

How can our tour this morning possibly compare to yesterday? Oh well, we've paid our £14 so we might as well go. We arrived at our meeting place and met a couple of guys from Belgium, very easy to talk to. Then our guide Veronica turned up. She was expecting 2 more but after giving them 5 minutes we started without them. First stop, the witches market. Our hearts sank, not because we went, we were expecting it, but because she didn't explain anything half as well as Johnny did. Oh well. Then she had to dash off to find the third couple, but that was fine and we all hopped on our bus. Off to Murillo Plaza for a much more traditional look round than we had with Johnny, we went into the cathedral, watched the changing of the guard outside the presidential palace, and were told nothing of Bolivian politics!

A short stop enroute to sample saltenas. There they are in the cabinet. You can have spicy or normal. We had spicy, but they were a bit weird, very sweet pastry and a gravy inside that was guaranteed to end up down your front!

She did explain about the river, though according to her there are 364 rivers and tributaries under La Paz which does make it amazing that it hasn't washed away. We drove through the colonial section we'd walked yesterday and up to a view point which was well worth a look. That was our city tour, part one of the trip. 

Jackie trying the cinnamon ice cream (or as we know it, sorbet, there's no cream in it, just water and cinnamon!)

Part two was Valley de la Luna, renamed by Neil Armstrong from Valley of the cactus. We had a couple of stops enroute for snacks, firstly for saltenas, a pasty thing that has quite a lot of gravy in, so there is a knack to eating them, nibble off a corner and suck out the gravy, if you are no good at eating saltenas you are no good at kissing....! Although we both quite liked the filling we didn't really like the pastry which was a bit disappointing. We then stopped for cinnamon ice-cream which was actually a sorbet which I enjoyed more than Brian did. It's things like this though that really make a tour much more enjoyable.

Valley of the moon. What a strange place. It looked like mud that had been eroded by water, but it was in fact slightly harder than that 

We arrived at Valley de la Luna to find that the temperature had gone up hugely. It was a really weird landscape which didn't look that sound, but it's been there a long time. A few minutes in we came to a junction with a choice of 15 minutes or 45 minutes. Guess which Brian picked? Off we went, though I'm not sure everyone else would have picked 45,  we did it in 30 and I think everyone enjoyed it.

There we are, the nice grandfather! Can you see him?

Part 3 of the trip was cable cars. There are 10 lines with 26 stations which were completed only 10 years ago. It makes absolutely perfect sense when you look at the layout of the city with La Paz in the bowl and El Alto 400m higher. The steep, narrow, winding streets are hideously crowded, unsafe and full of pollution.

Going down

We went on two of the lines, the green and sky blue, which seemed to take us a really long way giving us amazing views all the way. I'm just glad I didn't see the lightening just ahead, though I did feel the wind!

Turtle Hill? No, we couldn't see it either!

The closest we got to politics on this tour was the Chollita lady in our second car, she had no English, so we are not sure how much Veronica translated, but we definitely got the impression that Juan Morales is not the popular choice next year!

You and I. Well, it had to be done

As if to prove the value of the cable cars the bus was stuck in traffic so we went to have a little look and the market before being dropped off at the Plaza de Armas from where she was taking the third, late, couple back to the witches market that they missed! A second really good tour that complemented yesterday's totally.

Veronica explaining about the medicinal qualities of the plants

A quick drink and cake and we are hoping that Brian feels well enough to go for a curry tonight!

We're on a bridge and we're looking straight down through the bridge into a very deep hole. Looks nothing here, but it went down a long way

Mother moon? That big rock apparently precariously perched on top of that mud tower

Now there I think you can get more of an impression of depth. Don't drop your camera down there!

Onwards through the valley of the moon. The Belgian chap in front was a lot of fun

Don't look down!

We don't get many photos together, so when the offers there...

Back to La Paz and this was the first of the cable cars over the city, the green line

There are ten cable cars, built by Doppelmayr, a Swiss or Austrian manufacturer of ski cable cars. Total cost of it all was about US$700,000,000

But it makes perfect sense in a dense city built in a valley with steep sides. That's one of the pylons taking very little space and causing the minimum of disruption

You just might have cable cars drifting past your eighth floor window, but hey. They look nasty storm clouds and it did rain, but not until the evening

Heading down to the station, we got another lift up to a market where we met our bus and headed back to our hotel