We arrived in Cochabamba nice and 'fresh' after our long nightbus from Santa Cruz and settled into our hostel room. An important point to note before we move any further is that much of South America seems to see 24 hour hot water as a selling point for their hotels and hostels, something that in Europe we mostly take as a given. It is also important to be aware of the fact that in most cases they exagerate, if not outright lie, with regards to this! So after refreshingly 'hot' showers we headed out to explore the city. The conclusion, very pretty in areas, a frustrating number of sights closed at weekends and a very hectic market definitely best tackled in covered footwear! The next day was Palm Sunday and we awoke to an eery quiet hanging over the city. Normally bustling with traffic, an art that South American cities seem to have perfected, we walked out onto streets that could have been taken from any Apocolyptic horror movie, if it wasn't for the families on bicycles! Apparently motorised traffic is restricted to a few emergency vehicles on this religous day, and so we had the privilege of sharing a very special day with the population of Cochabamba. Unfortunately for us this also meant that the cable car up to (apparently) the worlds largest statue of Christ was not running, so it was a long hot walk instead!
The next morning we hopped on our most bargainous bus yet, only 3 squids a ticket for the biggest most comfortable seats we have experienced, for the 7 hour trip to La Paz. Why can't all buses be like that! Another hostel, more 'hot' showers. After a day filled with culture and, more importantly, souvenir shopping we felt ready for a little excursion out of the city, and cycling the Death Road seemed to fit the bill (Despite the fact it is now very safe and we were kitted out with full safety gear, that would have definitely made a differnce had we gone over the edge, we decided that it was probably best to inform families AFTER our successful completion of the trip - no point in adding to their worries!) Needless to say we both survived more or less intact and have now joined the ranks of Death Road survivors. It was certainly an exciting trip and I for one am glad we only passed one truck going the wrong way! A truely delicious pizza seemed like an appropriate way to celebrate.
Thursday morning we waved goodbye to La Paz, a city that we had both remarkably enjoyed despite our normal dislike for large cities, and headed in search of some fish! Something that had been so far lacking in our month spent in landlocked Bolivia. Copacabana on lake Titicaca was certainly the place to rectify this. After a longer than expected bus trip, which involved floating our bus across a 'small' stretch of water on a pretty aniquated barge, we dumped our bags into yet another hostel room (this one also had 'hot' water - obviously the word is lost in translation somewhere) and wandered down to the front for some trout! It was worth the wait! We even walked up yet another hill, past the twelve stations of the cross for some more culture, and took some pretty pictures of the town and the lake at the top, though we were unfortunately a fair bit too early to wait for dusk (apparently very beautiful). Good Friday was spent walking the length of the Isle del Sol preparing ourselves for our upcoming intake of Inca culture whilst being ripped off by the locals - culture, culture, culture, go us!! It needs to be said that on our arrival back in Copacabana that evening we came across somewhat the opposite experience to that of Cochabamba. Apparently thousands of Pilgrims walk, trek, cycle to Copacabana for Good Friday every year and so the town was bursting at the seams! Many UK festival-goers would be impressed at the spaces they managed to pitch their tents! Thankfully we had been pre-warned of this, and arriving a day before had secured us accomidation, unlike the several groups of foreign tourists we saw looking slightly stunned having been turned away from every inn in town, and for a small town it certainly has its fair share!!
Bolivia, time to say goodbye! We would love to explore you further but as it is we have less than 3 weeks to spend in Peru and we have an appointment with Machu Picchu waiting... Cusco here we come!
