November 9, 2011
Well we went out for breakfast in Copacabana and I order their "continental breakfast" which most of us would just call "toast with jam". We caught our 1:30pm bus on "Vicuna" tourist bus and after driving for an hour we were all told to get off and purchase a ticket for a boat ride which seemed a little confusing so we got a ticket for 1.50 Boliviano dollars (20 cents) and 15 of us jumped on a small boat and we were all given lifejackets as we watched our bus with our luggage down below getting loaded onto a separate flat deck boat and being carried across the lake by itself. On the outside seats of the boat there was me and 3 Germans sitting next to me and as the waves came crashing against the boat our backs would get soaked with super cold water. I had a bit of a burn on my back so the cold water was a bit of a relief.
We got to the other side and had to wait 10 minutes for the bus to unload and come over to pick us up. Some Bolivian man had two different types of Llamas (Alpacas?) so Elisha and I went over to take some pictures and the guy says "No! 5 boliviano dollars per photo" and I laughed and took the photo anyway and walked away and he kept calling for me wanting his money for doing nothing. If they have a sign saying that I might respect that but nobody can tell me I can't take a picture. I bought a couple plastic glasses of jello for 20 cents each. We boarded the bus and continued onto La Paz and got there at 4:30pm but spent another 30 minutes getting through the big city to our drop off point. A lot of the places on that street were full so Elisha guarded our luggage as John and I "sussed out" other hotels. "Sussing it out" is a popular Australian term basically meaning "assessing". So now you know what "sussing it out" means.
I went a few blocks to a place that "Pilar from Lima" had written down for me. Nothing special but they had Wi-fi and it was very popular with lots of backpackers here. My room is 9' X 6'. Very small but only $5US. John and Elisha got a nicer place that was 5 times more money but split between two people isn't too bad.
John, Elisha and I walked around La Paz on Tuesday night to find a place to eat for dinner. We stopped in at one store and there were dead, dried baby llamas for sale. It seemed very strange and we later found them everywhere around La Paz for sale and they are for "offerings" to the gods. Merchandise is for sale all over the streets and it is broken up into sections where if you want electrical or plumbing supplies then they are all located on one street and hardware stuff on another street etc...
We had dinner at a nice place that was similar to the roasted chicken place in Copacabana (like a franchise or something) and for $2.50US you get a heaping plate of roasted chicken, spagetti or rice with fried banana. I bought a 2 liter peach juice for $1.75US.
At 9am on Wednesday I met up with Elisha and John at their hotel and we went out in search of REAL coffee. When I arrived at their hotel they were having some coffee in their hotel restaurant but it wasn't very good coffee so I found a coffee place in my LP guide book that was just around the corner from their hotel in an alley called "Pepe's coffee bar" and they had really good food there and awesome coffee. I ordered fruit salad with peach yogurt and an omelette plus 3 coffees. I think I spent more than 2 nights worth of accommodations at Pepe's for breakfast. Pepe had books and games you could take from the shelf and in one of the travel books it talked about "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid" where most people probably remember the movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman based on the life of 2 robbers in the 1800's. Well the book said their last stand was in "San Vincent" which is a little town in southern Bolivia and unlike the movie says that after they had their shoot out with them the next day they found the 2 robbers dead and Butch Cassidy had killed the Sundance kid and then turned the gun on himself back in 1908.
After coffee we went back to a tour agent that seems like a good guy since we will be purchasing our transportation tickets out to the ancient site of "Tiwanaku" for tomorrow morning and while we were in there I asked him how to say "coffee machine" and he seemed puzzled for awhile and then figured out what I was talking about and said "Macina de cafe" but told us we won't find one in La Paz and then we told him about "Pepe's coffee bar" and he said that Pepe's would be the only one here. I will be frequenting Pepes alot while in La Paz. After that we wandered around to different plazas and came upon the presidential palace and legislative building which was adjacent to it and after 5 minutes there we see 3 security vehicles with their flashing lights on pull into the presidential palace with all 3 vehicles staggered with the 2 outside ones on the outside and the one in the middle probably with the president on the inside almost on the sidewalk closest to the door as they quickly ran him into the place.
While we had coffee in the morning we talked about strange creatures on the planet and I told them I had seen the strangest bird in the Beijing zoo 5 years ago that was probably over 5 feet tall with a big club on its head and didn't know its name and John told me it was probably a "cassowarry" bird which they have in Australia as well. After looking it up online it definitely looks like the thing I saw at the Beijing zoo. I remember looking at it and thought if it ever got out of its cage I would be running like hell from this giant bird with the big club on its head.
http://www.wild-facts.com/wild-fact-827-the-new-hip-look-among-birds-double-wattled-cassowary/
As we walked back to where our hotels are we looked around at the street vendors merchandise that is just so cheap. I bought a light which is also a pen for $2US in a metal case. Elisha was still feeling the altitude since her food wasn't digesting well so I told them I would meet up with them tonight for dinner and get our tickets for "Tiwanaku" tonight and will probably do that Thursday morning. I was thinking of joining them on a jungle tour in the north of Bolivia but I have seen most of those animals already in Iquitos and it seems like a lot of work for a few days so I have decided I will stay in La Paz for a few more days before grabbing a tourist bus back to Peru (Arequipa) and staying in Colca Canon for a couple days and doing that trek before heading back to Lima and finishing off the remaining week of my trip on the coast of Peru just north of Lima. Probably Trujillo and Chicalayo.
Well we went out for breakfast in Copacabana and I order their "continental breakfast" which most of us would just call "toast with jam". We caught our 1:30pm bus on "Vicuna" tourist bus and after driving for an hour we were all told to get off and purchase a ticket for a boat ride which seemed a little confusing so we got a ticket for 1.50 Boliviano dollars (20 cents) and 15 of us jumped on a small boat and we were all given lifejackets as we watched our bus with our luggage down below getting loaded onto a separate flat deck boat and being carried across the lake by itself. On the outside seats of the boat there was me and 3 Germans sitting next to me and as the waves came crashing against the boat our backs would get soaked with super cold water. I had a bit of a burn on my back so the cold water was a bit of a relief.
We got to the other side and had to wait 10 minutes for the bus to unload and come over to pick us up. Some Bolivian man had two different types of Llamas (Alpacas?) so Elisha and I went over to take some pictures and the guy says "No! 5 boliviano dollars per photo" and I laughed and took the photo anyway and walked away and he kept calling for me wanting his money for doing nothing. If they have a sign saying that I might respect that but nobody can tell me I can't take a picture. I bought a couple plastic glasses of jello for 20 cents each. We boarded the bus and continued onto La Paz and got there at 4:30pm but spent another 30 minutes getting through the big city to our drop off point. A lot of the places on that street were full so Elisha guarded our luggage as John and I "sussed out" other hotels. "Sussing it out" is a popular Australian term basically meaning "assessing". So now you know what "sussing it out" means.
I went a few blocks to a place that "Pilar from Lima" had written down for me. Nothing special but they had Wi-fi and it was very popular with lots of backpackers here. My room is 9' X 6'. Very small but only $5US. John and Elisha got a nicer place that was 5 times more money but split between two people isn't too bad.
John, Elisha and I walked around La Paz on Tuesday night to find a place to eat for dinner. We stopped in at one store and there were dead, dried baby llamas for sale. It seemed very strange and we later found them everywhere around La Paz for sale and they are for "offerings" to the gods. Merchandise is for sale all over the streets and it is broken up into sections where if you want electrical or plumbing supplies then they are all located on one street and hardware stuff on another street etc...
We had dinner at a nice place that was similar to the roasted chicken place in Copacabana (like a franchise or something) and for $2.50US you get a heaping plate of roasted chicken, spagetti or rice with fried banana. I bought a 2 liter peach juice for $1.75US.
At 9am on Wednesday I met up with Elisha and John at their hotel and we went out in search of REAL coffee. When I arrived at their hotel they were having some coffee in their hotel restaurant but it wasn't very good coffee so I found a coffee place in my LP guide book that was just around the corner from their hotel in an alley called "Pepe's coffee bar" and they had really good food there and awesome coffee. I ordered fruit salad with peach yogurt and an omelette plus 3 coffees. I think I spent more than 2 nights worth of accommodations at Pepe's for breakfast. Pepe had books and games you could take from the shelf and in one of the travel books it talked about "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid" where most people probably remember the movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman based on the life of 2 robbers in the 1800's. Well the book said their last stand was in "San Vincent" which is a little town in southern Bolivia and unlike the movie says that after they had their shoot out with them the next day they found the 2 robbers dead and Butch Cassidy had killed the Sundance kid and then turned the gun on himself back in 1908.
After coffee we went back to a tour agent that seems like a good guy since we will be purchasing our transportation tickets out to the ancient site of "Tiwanaku" for tomorrow morning and while we were in there I asked him how to say "coffee machine" and he seemed puzzled for awhile and then figured out what I was talking about and said "Macina de cafe" but told us we won't find one in La Paz and then we told him about "Pepe's coffee bar" and he said that Pepe's would be the only one here. I will be frequenting Pepes alot while in La Paz. After that we wandered around to different plazas and came upon the presidential palace and legislative building which was adjacent to it and after 5 minutes there we see 3 security vehicles with their flashing lights on pull into the presidential palace with all 3 vehicles staggered with the 2 outside ones on the outside and the one in the middle probably with the president on the inside almost on the sidewalk closest to the door as they quickly ran him into the place.
While we had coffee in the morning we talked about strange creatures on the planet and I told them I had seen the strangest bird in the Beijing zoo 5 years ago that was probably over 5 feet tall with a big club on its head and didn't know its name and John told me it was probably a "cassowarry" bird which they have in Australia as well. After looking it up online it definitely looks like the thing I saw at the Beijing zoo. I remember looking at it and thought if it ever got out of its cage I would be running like hell from this giant bird with the big club on its head.
http://www.wild-facts.com/wild-fact-827-the-new-hip-look-among-birds-double-wattled-cassowary/
As we walked back to where our hotels are we looked around at the street vendors merchandise that is just so cheap. I bought a light which is also a pen for $2US in a metal case. Elisha was still feeling the altitude since her food wasn't digesting well so I told them I would meet up with them tonight for dinner and get our tickets for "Tiwanaku" tonight and will probably do that Thursday morning. I was thinking of joining them on a jungle tour in the north of Bolivia but I have seen most of those animals already in Iquitos and it seems like a lot of work for a few days so I have decided I will stay in La Paz for a few more days before grabbing a tourist bus back to Peru (Arequipa) and staying in Colca Canon for a couple days and doing that trek before heading back to Lima and finishing off the remaining week of my trip on the coast of Peru just north of Lima. Probably Trujillo and Chicalayo.
