It´s been a while since I last updated anything on here. The reason is I haen´t really done too much of note.
Finally left the sanctuary just over a week ago, and decided to spend a few days in La Paz. It ended up being a week, after I was so sick that I had to call the doctor in who told me that I had a parasitic stomach bug and conjunctivitis and gave me a mountain of medication to take. I spent the next few days in the hostel, generally feeling awful and watching a whole lot of DVDs.
I did see one interesting thing though that wasn´t connectd to a movie. It is called Cholita Wrestling and basically is Cholita women (the traditional women in the big skirts and hats and men dressed up in silly costumes fighting WWF wrestling styles with a Bolivian spin). It was the craziest thing I have seen (have a look at cholitaswrestling.com) and with our entry ticket we got a tiny souvenir of a cholita woman. We also got popcorn which we were to throw at hte performers if we saw something we didn´t like. I decided that the popcorn was too tasty to throw and ate it, but the highlight was an old CHolita woman taking off her shoe and whacking one of the performers on the head when they came and fought outside the rink.
My dose of violent entertainment over, I spent my remaining days in La Paz relaxing and also seeing the new Harry Potter film. Hoorah.
But I needed to keep moving and so to the Bolivian Copacabana it was, which rests on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Most people think that Lake Titicaca is the highest navigatable lake in the world, and the tours definitely capitalise on this misinformation. Although it is definitely one of the highest in the world, Peru and CHile have highest lakes, but Titcaca is the largest lake in South America by volume of water, so that still makes it special. I liked Copacabana, as it had a small town, but hippy style to it, and I spent a couple of days there, chilling out, buying cool presents and things for me and taking a boat to the Isla del sol (Island of the sun).
Today, I took a bus to Puno, which rests on the Peruvian side of the Lake, and am fairly unimpressed with the place, so I might move on to Arequipa tomorrow. I feel like I have ¨done¨ Lake Titicaca.
So I am in a new country after 6 weeks. What were my impressions of Bolivia. Although it isn´t everyone´s cup of tea, I had an amazing time here. The Salt flats was an amazing trip and the animal sanctuary was magical and a place I will remember forever. I also really liked La Paz in spite of the fact it contains lots of things I don´t usually like in a place. Bolivia was also incredibly cheap. I was going to see the Amazon in Bolivia as well, but decided that Ecuador heralded more wildlife and I had already seen so much wildlife so close up in the sanctuary that to see more in such a short time would lessen the effect.
Haven´t been in Peru long enough to notice the differences yet (although the internet is much faster) but I´ll be sure to make note of things when I see them.
