Copacabana…owwww.
Hey everyone!
Here’s the update. I am in Copacabana Bolivia right now. I crossed the boarder with a couple from Finland a couple days ago. The journey here was crazy. There were protests and road blocks from Cusco to Puno. The bus agency had not been running buses for 4-5 days and finally the ran one at night. We were all excited and it seemed there was hope. Little did we know we were riding into road blocks with no hope in sight to get to Puno. The bus left at 9 at night and we drove till midnight until we stopped. It was late so everyone on the bus slept until 6 or so in the morning. We all woke up and wandered around wondering what to do. A Israli and i walked down to the road block to check it out. After we saw it we decided it wasn’t that bad and we would walk to the end of the other side where there was other trucks and buses all stuck. Turns out there was more than one road block….about 4 more waited for us. We walked a couple miles and got on a bus that drove about 300 feet to the next block…we got out and walked until a small village where there was about 20 of us and we managed to convince two taxi drivers to take us for about one months rent for them. Once again it all seemed good until we ran into another block a 1/2 mile away. There we eventually convinced the people to let the taxis carry our bags while we walked about 3 miles. Down the road we loaded up into the taxi again…(there was 7 of us in the taxi not including the driver) We drove for a bit until alas the last road block. This was the biggest one and they said we could go through after some negotiating. As we started to drive they threw stones at us so we stopped. The let us go about 2 hours after that…..long enough for us to hang with the local kids and practice Spanish and Quechua. At first they were intimidating surrounding the taxi…about 15 of them. So after that we drove to a small town with a bus terminal that took us about 2 hours to another town where we got on another bus for an hour to Puno! made it there by 9 at night and happy to take a shower and have a bed to sleep in. That night about 20 of us all went out to have beer and pizza to celebrate making it to Puno. The strikes are still going on and no one can travel through…unless if they want to walk it like we did.
So i’m now in Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. A cute little town were we took day trips to an island and hiked from north to south with a lovely lunch on the ridge. After 3 nights here i’m ready to leave for La Paz in about 2 hours. It’s the capital of Boliva…huge and has access to a bunch of mountain biking, rafting and trekking in the Andes. I will probably stay in the capital for a bit doing day trips out of there. The plan is to head to Oruro, Potosi, Sucre and then the salt flats. I have a feeling wireless is impossible in Bolivia so whenever i can hardwire my lapitopie i’ll upload some pic’s. I have tons. But for now you get some words until i get to La Paz to do so.
