Peaceful in La Paz

  La Paz, Bolivia
Thursday, January 31, 2002

The bus to La Paz, Bolivia was on time. This was a direct tourist bus similar to the one we took two days ago from Puno. We left the quiet Copacabana and rolled through some barren hills until we reached the Straight of Tiquina, a narrow crossing on Lake Titicaca that separates Copacabana from the rest of Bolivia. From the beginning, as we studied our Lonely Planet travel guide, we were puzzled as to how our "direct" bus can cross to the other side of the Lake without any bridges shown on the map. Other travellers on the bus seemed not concerned with this fact, is it just me? Will our bus "fly" across? So the mystery continued until we got off the bus at the shores of the Straight of Tiquina. We bought our passenger tickets that will allow us to be transported across. But what about our backpacks on the bus? And the bus itself? Few others among us wonder the same thing. We were told not to worry, so we left our backpacks on the bus and anxiously got on the ferry (along with our bus driver).

The crossing took less than 10 minutes. Afterwards as we stood on the other side waited for our bus, and more importantly our backpacks, to our astonishment, the bus was put on a raft and literally pushed across. I didn't expect this. I have never seen this. Our bus was floating on water, like an elephant crossing a river in Africa in search of greener pastures. We held our breath while dreaded the moment that the bus and all of our luggage would sunk to the bottom of Lago de Titicaca.



We took a collective breath when the bus was safely across, and on our way to La Paz.
the ride was smooth and straight, and after a couple of hours, we drove down a river valley and the panoramic view of the city was below us. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world situated at an elevation of 3600+ meters above sea level. The air was thin and cold as we got off the bus. We took the first taxi we saw (although not recommended in this city considering many robberies and kidnappings of tourists) and went to the first hotel in our guide. It was in a relatively safe district and had hot water (the most important factor in my mind).



La Paz is a densely sprawling city, poor by South American standards, and very cold at night. We did not plan to stay here long. So we visited some museums and shops on the main street of Avenida 16 de Julio where the upper class bourgeois of La Paz enjoy their deserved wealth. We asked about the possible train journey into Chile without any luck as the only train worth any consideration was expensive and still required a bus transfer once we arrived in Chile. We also had to abandon any hopes of visiting the amazing Salar de Uyuni as it was out of our budget and time. We promised next time when we are in South America we will definitely visit the famous Salt Pans.

We will cross into Chile tomorrow. I can not wait until we get to lower altitude; my coughs and headaches had been bothering me for a week and if worse symptoms develops it can be potentially fatal.