After a night of frankly drugged sleep, thank you Ambien! we arrived in La Paz about 6 am. We are in the same time zone as the U.S. east coast. We quickly coasted through customs and immigration, got our bags, which were all ready and waiting for us – another big thanks – and met our guide, Ivar, who is with us these next two days. One of our team had not been able to get her visa prior to the trip as she was traveling, so we were all praying that that would be easy, and it was!
We all felt rather groggy due to limited sleep and now we are an elevation of over 12,000 feet – the highest I have ever been, even when I was on top of Mt Hood, many many years ago. Our guide suggested we all drink some coca tea before we set out so we obediently did. It tasted and felt good – warmth for the body and soul. It is cold here – they just had some snow a couple of days ago and we saw a few patches still on the ground. Then we were told that our bus wasn’t heated!
We headed outside into brilliant sunshine and the brightest blue sky, Over in the East, the Andes Mountains appeared, freshly covered with new snow and gleaming. All quite breath taking, literally, for us tired sea level dwelling Oregon women. The bus turned out to be great – even without heat, the sun had heated it up nicely, the seats were comfy, and we even had blankets. Driving through town, we passed outdoor markets filled with colorful fruit and vegetables and equally colorful people. We were on our way to Lake Titicaca, about an hour and a half away. The landscape was beautiful, fairly dry and brown with the Andes dominating the horizon. However, with the warmth of the sun and my cozy blanket, I soon dozed off and only woke up when we arrived in town. We had to detour around a town celebration and caught a glimpse of some of the bright costumes and heard the horns.
Our hotel is quite nice, right on the edge of the lake, and part of a compound we saw more of later. The lake is clear blue and everything seems so clean and fresh. We checked in and had some time to unwind a bit. However, to enjoy the room, we had to climb five flights of stairs which left us winded and sucking air at the top! A quick shower felt great and closing my eyes for a few minutes felt even better. Lunch at the hotel followed and soup seemed like a good choice. The sun is brilliant and warm but it is cold. Coming from our hot summer, it is a bit of an adjustment! Next we headed out onto the lake on a hydrofoil. Now I had visions of an open boat with water spraying over us – horrors! – but it was enclosed and again there were blankets. They know us pathetic tourists! Again the sun did its job and after a short half hour ride, complete with some local history, we came to one of the floating islands – yes, literally floating! Many hundreds of years ago, one of the local tribes, in order to flee enemies, used the ubiquitous reeds around the lake to weave an island they could live on. The reed mat is about four feet thick and a number of these islands exist on the lake! Pretty amazing.
We put in at one, which I think exists primarily for the tourists, but a few people live there in small reed huts. There is definitely a reed theme! It really was fascinating. We were welcomed warmly, sitting on our reed stools. One of the men offered us a brief ride in one of the reed boats so of course we had to take advantage of that! The boats are quite solid and have plied these waters for hundreds of years. Each boat lasts for a year or two so new ones are constantly being woven. It is quite an art! And there was even a reed outhouse! I feel like I am writing a children’s story with repeating words.
Back to the boat and the hotel and another brief rest – LuAnn and I dragged ourselves up to our room and promptly feel asleep. Luckily she had set an alarm because I was out! She had to shake me to wake me up! Then we did a tour of some of the other buildings here. The first was a small museum about the history of the area – complete with headphones and drive. Next we visited the resident llamas, alpacas, and vicuña. They do have lovely eyes! The next building we visited was the most interesting to me – this is where weaving of boats is done – and it is not just the little lake boats but much larger ones. There were small replicas of Thor Heyerdahl’s famous ocean going boats – Kon-Tiki, Ra I, and Ra II. A local family here built the Ra boats and some others for different groups. Having read Kon-Tiki as a kid, it was fascinating. Using these reeds to build ocean going vessels! Then we toured a few replica huts of local fishing tribes.
Down to a very nice dinner – many of us trying the local lake trout. Delicious!
Then we went to a little observatory to look at the night sky up here. We were all pretty much running on fumes and it was quite cold but still very worth it. We watched a short video and then they turned out the lights. It was pitch black until the roof started to slide back and there was the spangled night sky – more stars than I’ve ever seen before! And the Milky Way oh so clearly made its way across the sky and there was the Southern Cross and the Southern Crown and so many others. A beautiful ending to a very good day.
However, with the altitude and general weariness, bed was very welcome and we crashed early.