Bolivia's Not So Bad

Bolivia has been all over the news lately....and most of it has been negative. The US Embassy was temporarily kicked out, the US Peace Core left the country, American Airlines suspended flights indefinitely in and out of Bolivia, and the US Department of State issued a travel warning telling americans not to travel to Bolivia unless completely necessary. All of these things seem scary, but the media always exploits situations. We talked to people who lived or have recently traveled through Bolivia and discovered that it really is not as bad as it sounds...so we decided to take a calculated risk and hop the border into Bolivia.

We took a night bus from Cusco that arrived at the Bolivian border where Americans are ''unique'' in the respect that we are the only people that have to pay to enter the country. $135 for a 30 day visa.....our British and Australian friends walked through unscathed. I left the customs building broke and violated..... I could tell from the start that this would be a different experience, as we drove past mud huts and abandoned buildings along the way to the small city of Copacabana. The city is located on the shore of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world (still not sure what that means), and has about 6,000 inhabitants. We checked into a hotel that had been recommended to us by a friend and quickly set off in search of food. We stumbled upon a local market and enjoyed the stares of the locals as the large group of gringos walked through the packed buildings. We sat down at a table and ordered this purple drink that everyone was drinking and a 6 pack of deep fried balls of bread with honey on them. The drink was ''api'', made from a purple corn, lemon, and sugar heated up to 4 million degrees. I (of course) disregarded the steamy warning sign rising from the glass and burnt the crap out of tongue....but it was delicious and nutritious and only cost about $0.25. We moved forward and ran into traffic jam of vehicles decorated with flowers and beads. I asked a local guy what was going on and his response was quite amusing. Apparently the Bolivians like to bless their cars every Saturday and Sunday to protect them from accidents......the funny part is that they do this by getting hammered off of beer and liquor and then driving home. He said it was really just an excuse to drink and get together.....not sure what Webster's definition of irony is, but I am sure that this scenario would fall under that category. The guy was so nice and pleased to have us in his country. It was great to talk to a person and find out that a lot of the news is b.s. and these people really don't want to stone Americans.

We went back to the hotel to take a nap to make up for the lack of sleep on the bus and I was woken up 3 hours later and told that my friends had just rented a sailboat. This definitely would not be allowed in the states....7 idiots given an 18 ft sailboat for 3 hours without any formal training or waivers to sign. None of us know how to sail....we set off with our stick sail boat and started taking in water within 5 minutes. We paddled with a set of 4 x 4 pieces of wood until we were outside the bay. The sea was angry that day and we had absolutely no clue what were doing....after 45 minutes of swearing and maneuvering we somehow managed to get the sail full of wind and began to glide over the crystal clear water at abrisk pace. It was awesome for about 10 minutes until we realized that we had to get back somehow. We looked back and could barely see the city. We tried to sail into the wind, but couldn't muster the brain power to get anything going. We spent the next hour and a half saying ''only 10 more mintues of rowing'' and ''we're almost there''. Thank god I wasn't a sailor. We ate burritos and drank Bolivian wine for dinner and returned to the hotel to sit on the roof and stare out at the mysterious Lake Titaca.

We woke up the next morning and booked a boat ride to the Isla del Sol to hike through the ancient Incan worshipping grounds. The boat went 0.2 miles an hour....seriously. I could have swam faster. We eventually got there and were weclomed by food stands and hippies playing weird instruments and selling bracelets. Not sure how these hippies manage to get everywhere...but they do. Anyway, we started hiking to the temple of the sun ruin near the north rim of the island when an old man popped out from behind a building and told us that we had to pay to hike the island. We waitied in line to pay the 10 Bolivianos ($1.50) and set off. The scenery was amazing. The islands are surrounded by massive rock formations poking out of the blue-green water. The view from the ruins was equally spectacular....20,000 ft snow capped mountains to the east and water as far as the eye could see to the west. We continued hiking and enjoying the scenery and couldn't stop talking about how peaceful and beautiful it was....we ran into a Bolivian sitting in the middle of the path and he told us that we had to pay 5 bs to continue on the hike, because the previous ticket was only for the community on the north and that we were now entering his community. We argued with him for a bit but finally gave in and paid the stupid fee after he promised that this was the last one. I was a little annoyed, because this crap happens everywhere. They lie to you and try to nickle and dime you everywhere. I finally got over it and we continued our hike only slightly perturbed for another 20 minutes......then HE showed up. An 80 year old Bolivian man with no teeth and a little badge hanging around his neck giving him the power to piss me off. Apparently we were entering the south community now (the other two were both north ones) and we had to pay another 5 bs to get to our boat. He tried selling us on the fact that the ticket included entry into the world's second worst museum and a bathroom, but we just wanted to get to our boat. I have never wanted to slap an old man until this very moment (of course I am just kidding grandma....kind of). We argued in spanish for about 15 minutes (please keep in mind that this is over 70 cents) but finally paid up after he threatened ''trouble'' at the boat. Now I was just annoyed...we got to the port and I went to the bathroom just to get my money's worth. The boat back was equally fast and we made it back in time to run up the mountain overlooking the city to catch the sunset. I almost didn't make it up in time (apparently 5 empanadas and 13,000 ft elevation don't bode well for running), but did get there before the sun slid behind the mountains. It was a peaceful end to an stressful day.

We booked a bus to La Paz for the next morning and I slept like a rock in our freezing cold room. We went and got more api and more deep fried balls of bread with honey in the morning to stock up for our 3 hour bus ride. The only interesting thing happened was that we were lied to again....the guy told me the bus crossed a bridge to get over to the other side of the lake....45 minutes into the ride we stopped at the shore of the lake and were told to get out of the bus. They put the bus on a floating log and sent it across with a 25 horsepower motor as we watched from shore. Oh....and they charged us 1.5 bs to cross the river in a little ferry....of course they couldn't include that 20 cent charge in the $10 price of the bus ticket.

Next up will be the devouring of everything in site in La Paz, the ride down ''The Most Dangerous Road in the World'', and the Salt Flats excursion. Unger out.