The middle of March always calls to mind two important words: SPRING BREAK, and this year I was off to Bolivia to meet up with my REAL parents who I hadn't seen in nearly 6 months! On Friday night I flew out of Quito and got into Lima late at night. I stayed at a backpackers hostel near the airport and got up early to eat breakfast there and then walk to the Lima Airport. Eventually my parents got off their flight from Cusco that morning and we had a big crying huddle in the airport! We had plenty of time to chatter on the plane, which we were on for most of the day, until we got into La Paz at about 4 pm.
We caught a taxi to Hotel Rosario, which was quite a treat to be staying in compared to the $5 hostels that I´m used to! After dropping off our stuff we started exploring the city, including part of the Prado (the main comercial street), Plaza San Francisco and some of the neighborhood around our hotel. We ate dinner at Angelo Colonial, a really nice place with typical Bolivian food (we got quinua ravioli, trout and an alpaca steak!) and one of the most amazing slices of chocolate cake ever.
On Sunday morning we started off with the huge buffet breakfast spread at the hotel and then we went on a tour of the Tiwanaku ruins with a friendly guide. The museum and archeological site were very interesting and we had an enjoyable morning outside of the city. We came back to La Paz for lunch in the 4th floor terrace cafe in our hotel, which had amazing soup, tiramisu and a new drink I´d never had before-"The Submarine"- which is a bar of dark chocolate melted in hot milk! After lunch we walked all over the city, to a few parks with nice views, to the middle part of the Prado, to three different markets (including the Witches Market!) and then we ended with dinner at another colonial restaurant with tasty regional plates.
This is where Bolivian President Evo Morales works!
Hotel Rosario in La Paz
Typcial street view in La Paz
Tiwanaku ruins
"One hand on the stomach, one hand on the heart"
Tiwanaku cont.
Tiwanaku cont.
My mom and me in front of the massive city of La Paz
Tiramisuuuuuu at the cafe on the 4th floor of Hotel Rosario
Coca Museum
Alligator slide at a park overlooking the city
Llama fetuses at the witches market
Early Monday morning we headed out in a private car from our hotel on our way to Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca! Near the end of the car trip it started to pour, so we rushed into our hotel on the bluff, La Cúpula, and put on all of our rain gear. About 5 minutes later it stopped raining, and we enjoyed our time outside that afternoon walking around the town, buying souvenirs and eating fresh trout in an outdoor cafe. Later on when the sun came out, we hiked up 2 hills on the south end of the town for great views of the lake and the land all the way to Peru! As advertised by our guide book, the amazing hotel we were staying at made fondue in the restaurant and that was precisely where I was eating dinner! We originally planned to get both the cheese and chocolate fondue, but after being overwhelmed with the huge quantity of food that the "cheese fondue for 2" provided the three of us, we went straight to bed afterwards and didn't even order the chocolate!
Giant statue in Copacabana!
Copacabana church
The view of town from one of the hills we hiked up.
At this point, I really wished that I could fly!
Just before the incredible cheese fondue in the restaurant at our hotel...
Tuesday morning started off with rain and thunder and lightning, and we were disappointed that our plans for a trip to Isla del Sol might have to be cancelled. Instead of getting on a 2-hour-each-way tourist boat to the north end of the island in questionable weather, we opted for a taxi ride to Yampupata, where we found a guy who would take us in a 30 minute boat ride to the ruins in the south part of the island. Once we got there, the weather was looking better, so we saw ruins of some Inca stairs and a natural water spring and then climbed up to the ridge on the island to get a better view of Isla de la Luna and the mainland areas around the lake. After we returned to Yampupata by boat, the taxi was long gone, as expected, so we set off to hike back to Copacabana! 6 hours later, after passing by lots of incredible scenery, we returned to Copacabana and lay down, unable to move for a few minutes! But thankfully the restaurant was open again and this night, we definitely got our fill of chocolate fondue! It was so good and I’d been missing it for so long that I pretty much licked the pot clean. Mmmm…
Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca
Harvesting flowers on the shores of the lake
My two favorite companions near the end of our long hike
Wednesday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and said goodbye to Copacabana. We first took a 2 hour bus to Huarina, and from there we stood on the highway for a few short minutes before seeing a mini bus headed to Sorata. Our bags were thrown insecurely on top and my parents took the two empty seats while I got smushed against the seat facing the rear window right behind the driver, which was also at a 45 degree angle towards the back. Thankfully a few kilometers later some people got off with their great quantities of market baggage and I was able to see out the windows on the beautiful 2-hour ride to Sorata. The last 30 minutes or so of the journey was on an unpaved road, which made my mom a bit nervous, reminding me again how different it is to travel with parents compared to college students! That road wouldn’t have fazed them at all! But we did actually make it into the town and it was sunny and warmer there because of the lower elevation. We checked into the Residencial Sorata, right on the plaza, ate lunch near there too, and then decided to switch hotels, which was one of the best decisions of the trip! We moved to the Hostal Mirador instead, which was much more cleanly and friendly and as advertised, had an incredible overlook! In the afternoon we took advantage of the sun and walked around the town and on some of the dirt paths around the area, making a really nice loop. We bought some snacks for a guided hike that we signed up for the next day and had pizza for dinner on the plaza before heading back to the hotel for the night.
On Thursday morning we got up very early to meet our local Sorata guide and two travelers from Argentina who would be accompanying us for the day. We road in a mountain-ready taxi for over an hour and then we followed our guide Mario on foot for another hour, straight up a hill. When we reached Laguna Chillata, it was just about the most disappointing thing I´ve ever seen because it was so foggy. We had clearly gotten too early of a start and we didn’t stay there for long because the Argentineans and the guide got very cold. The lake did come into view for about a millisecond, but we weren’t able to see much of the gorgeous surrounding scenery. On the way back to Sorata in the taxi we stopped for lunch on a grassy knob. We got back into town much earlier than we had planned because the weather up higher in the mountains had been really cloudy. But we spent the afternoon doing some laundry in our hotel and hanging out on the deck with some South American hippie travelers (probably from Argentina or Chile based on the accent) playing guitars and bongos, juggling or doing circus tricks and patching up their already tattered clothes. I felt right at home. The sun eventually came out in Sorata, although probably not at the higher elevations where we’d been in the morning. For dinner we decided to try some traditional Bolivian food, so we stopped in at a place called the Royal House. The food was pretty tasty, and the people there were amazing! They were super friendly and it turns out that they have family living in Seattle, about 10 blocks from my parents’ house! We talked to them for a while and took some pictures to show their family when we meet up with them in our neighborhood.
Laguna Chillata, in the fog
Waterfalls coming down from Chillata
On Friday, the weather was about the exact opposite from the day before and we were kicking ourselves that we hadn’t done the Laguna Chillata hike one day later! After breakfast in the open air market next to all of the locals, we each took a bunch of pictures of Illampu and the 20,000 ft-plus gorgeous snowy mountains that were visible from the plaza that morning. We packed up our picnic from a panaderia in town and headed out to the San Pedro Grotto. I really enjoyed the cave, which was partially filled by a lake, but it was weird because it was usually hot inside, about 75 degrees and 75% humidity. It was also hot outside and sunny all day. The hike turned out to be a little bit more uphill than downhill on the return hike, so we were tired by the time we got back to Sorata! We wanted to have dinner again at Royal House because we really liked the people there, but they’d run out of food after lunch, so we had to settle for a more touristy restaurant on the plaza.
Mt. Illampu and others with the town of Sorata in the foreground
Inside the San Pedro Grotto
The next morning we didn’t waste much time in getting out of town, although it was starting to look like another beautiful day for hiking in Sorata! The bus ride back on the gravel road wasn’t as bad as it had been getting there and we made it to La Paz by about mid-day. We checked into the fabulous Hotel Rosario again and then went out to lunch at a tasty Cuban restaurant. After a strong but brief rain and hail storm, we did a little souvenir shopping (mainly at an awesome, community-supporting fair trade shop) and then set off on another walking tour of the town. This time we ate ice cream at Dumbo’s, checked out a Tiwanaku exhibit in the roundabout of a busy intersection, saw some amazing views of Mt. Illimani, hiked up the other side of town to a park called El Montículo (where we saw a wedding and a dance performance!), strolled through the upscale student neighborhood of Sopocachi, and finally walked back to our neighborhood by the intercity jail where there had been revolts a few days before. We already had dinner on our minds, and I knew exactly where we were going! We had to go back to Angelo Colonial so I could eat their super duper chocolate cake ala mode one more time! Afterwards, our last stop before the hotel was to use up extra Bolivian coins by buying, what else, Bolivian Dark Chocolate! I think we pretended that some would be “gifts for friends” but we really just went a little crazy in the store! Our last night at Rosario was perfect, and they were even participating in a one hour “lights out” energy use awareness program that night, so they lit lots of candles.
Mt. Illimani as seen from La Paz on a clear day
The next morning we were up super early to eat breakfast and then get to the airport ridiculously early, as they require. But we passed the time taking in the incredible views of all of the mountains surrounding La Paz! We got into Quito in the early afternoon, with the only problem being about 20 minutes of sitting in near-death heat while on the runway of the Lima airport. The air conditioning wasn’t working and I seriously thought that I was going to pass out because it was so hot! But back in Quito it was sunny and in the 60s, just about the perfect weather! Sunday afternoon we headed straight to my parents hotel on the outskirts of the Mariscal and then we walked past Parque El Ejido, Parque La Alameda, La Basilica and into old town Quito. I got to show them all of my favorite churches and buildings and we even stopped for humitas in Plaza San Francisco. At about 6pm I returned with all of my luggage to my host family’s house in north Quito and reunited with them briefly. The next day I had to go to classes and get ready for my internship and then I celebrated my birthday at a local Ecuadorian restaurant with my parents and amazing friends. On Tuesday, the day of my actual birthday, my parents and I were headed for the Amazon to my new host family in Tena and an internship at the hospital in Archidona!
