BOLIVIA...Copacabana, LaPaz, Sucre

After leaving Puno, we took a local bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. The border crossing from Peru to Bolivia was very interesting. When we reached the Bolivian border, we had to get off the bus, go through the Peruvian exit customs, walk across a bridge to the Bolivian border and process through Bolivian immigration, then get back on the bus and travel 8klm to the town named Copacabana. We still are not sure why we spent the night and half of the next day in Copacabana. It was a very dirty nothing of a town without anything good to say about it.



We traveled to LaPaz in the afternoon. LaPaz is the administrative capital of Bolivia. It is the highest capital city in the world at 3666meters. It is a beautiful city with lots of hills and many many people. The high altitude and the hills made walking very difficult. By the third day, we were able to walk up the hills without having to stop and catch our breathe every 25 feet. The streets are lined with merchants sells their wares. The fruit and vegetable street market was something to see. The street was lined with piles and piles of any kind of fruit and vegetables that you can begin to imagine. The streets are so dirty that it is hard to imagine that people actually purchase their food in these conditions.

A visit to the witches market was an eye opener...they had potions and exlicers for any ailment that you can imagine. I was afraid to ask the use of the dried animal bodies....????

I needed a fleece and of course there was nothing available ready made that would satisfy me so the lady in the shop said that she could make me one and have it available the next day.....the cost....49bolivians..7.00USD...can you believe???

We changed group leaders on Friday. We kept more of our old group members than we lost and we only gained one new person. Our new leader is very nice and seems very knowledgable....looks like the last part of our adventure will be as good as the first part.

We left LaPaz on an overnight bus on Saturday....destination Sucre. It was an uneventful bus ride except for the extreme cold during the night.

Sucre is a very beautiful city with lots of white colonial buildings. Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia. The documents of independence were signed here. We have enjoyed the quiet of the city...a nice change from LaPaz.

Tomorrow we leave for Potosi another high city. We will visit the silver mines in Potosi and then head out to Uyuni for our adventure in the Salt Flats....more news to follow after our adventure to the Salt Flats.