The Noisy but Industrious Bolivianos

So, we left Cusco behind and continued on the Gringo trail. The railway from Cusco to Puno is the highest in the world, and the bus overtook the sluggish, expensive train before the watershed at 4335m. We drank free sugary yellow Inca Cola to celebrate and try to relieve the light headache. Puno turned out to be very cold and, like lots of Peruvian towns, full of half finished ugly buildings. We didn´t stick around long, but did go on the lake to see the Yuvari - a London built steamship brought upto the lake across the Andes from the Pacific in pieces by mules (took 6 years). The ship ran on Llama dung, as there was no coal around here. Thankfully someone coverted it to run on diesel.


A trip around Lake Titicaca brings you into Bolivia. The first town is Copacabana, where boats leave for the Isla del Sol. This island is where Manco Capac, the first Inca (King), was said to have been born - or rather sprang from the sacred rock at the temple of the Sun. Now there is a good hot dog stand to commerate this event. The island is bleak and we walked from one end to the other using a map from a leaflet and thus not managing to find any more food until very late in the day. It´s no wonder Manco decided to head to Cusco to set up the Inca empire.

Just south of Lake Titicaca is La Paz. The coach descended into the valley and we found our way through swarms of people, buses, stray dogs and market stalls to somewhere to stay. This was probably because we decided to arrive on Friday night, but La Paz does not generally live up to its name. A search for good food next day took us to the markets. I managed to get some fried whitebait potatoes and ubiquitous Corn for a few pence and Lou found some bread and cheese, although obtaining change small enough to be able to purchase anything took longer than eating it. Bolivia ranks amongst the cheapest countries visited, and we had trouble spending the money left over from Peru, even when Lou started investing in pottery and Llama wool weavings offered insistantly by women in bowler hats.


The noise of the market on Sunday could only be topped by a dancing parade with a band, setting off fireworks at every road junction to ward off the aggresive traffic.

We escaped for a mate de coca (coca tea) and discovered a museum dedicated to Bolivia´s main industry. Apart from breaching the peace, Bolvians also spend a lot of time making top quality Cocaine from the rich supply of andean coca leaves. In the Coca museum we were taught what chemicals to use, and what the start up costs and risks of such an enterprise are. Here is a picture of their mock up jungle laboratory. I was glad to see them using only the best English made Hydrochloric acid for this process, pictured here.