Firstly we journeyed to Sun Island (an island on Lake Titicaca, Bolivian side) with a guide named Gonzalo. Yet another hike viewing ruins along the way (everyone has a ruin to show us and they all want us to hike 2 hours to get there - seriously, after Machu Picchu what could compare). We were rewarded with a traditional Andean lunch with a spectacular view... however the sunrise the next morning was even more so. the good old aussie solarhart panels were used to power the ecolodge.
Then onto La Paz the highest city in the world with the highest golf course, highest stadium, the highest hospital etc... (they were very proud). Although there seemed to be less poverty than Peru there were more beggars (interesting). We visited Tiwinaku - more ruins however this culture dates before Incan rule and is currently an archeological site which was fascinating to see the locals discovering historical evidence thousands of years old.
The shopping in La Paz was cheap and challenging - we are not the worlds greatest hagglers (Emma do you still want that necklace?) Witches Market - Struan bought an interesting love potion that Sophie refuses to let her open until she is back in Australia (currently sleeping with one eye open!). The markets also displayed dried llama feotus - these are used as offering to the sun god when building property (to be buried under the foundations) Sophie nearly vomitted at this sight and Struan wasn´t much better.
We have also purchased some dvds that we ´hope´are in english (many movies are dubbed in spanish) .... guess we´ll find out when back in Oz.
The local vino is very good over here and we are purchasing the odd bottle of red for about $5.00. We have all but given up on the pisco sours...
A Saga to Tell - We thought we would copy some photos onto a cd for safe keeping and left our 2g memory cards for downloading with a little girl in a kodak shop.... an hour and a half later we trundle in to pick up our disc when the little girl announces that there are no photos on Struans card and that there never was (she had previously told us that it would take 2 cds to download the photos)... well you can imagine just how upsetting that was... she then informed us that they ´may´be able to retrieved but it would cost more money (of course). We promptly phoned our english/spanish speaking Gonzalo (student lawyer - the poor girl didn´t stand a chance)... she emphatically insisted that there never where photos... we then went to another shop that recovered the lost photos (...4 hours later amid shop lockup at 9pm) and surprisingly there were photos of the silly little kodak girl!! she had taken photos of herself on Strus memory card and then deleted it... Can you believe it!! We left La Paz a little jaded..
