We finally managed to escape from Sucre by air. Major roads all across the West of Bolivia were blockaded by striking miners. Apparently they think they deserve more than $3 a day, or something.
We were quite impressed with the extreme nature of the industrial action. It's such a contrast to the appalling situation in Australia where you have to have permission to commence industrial action such as wearing a badge of support, or not checking your email for an hour. So weak and pathetic.
The miners also like to wear their helmets when on strike and when they are in negotiations over their pay and conditions. It is a great show of solidarity, although I should note that the reason for the strikes is the disparity between pay and conditions in government and private mines.
So the result for us was that we couldn't get to the Bolivian salt plains at Uyuni or get out again. Instead we decided to skip that part of our plan and hope that we have time to go back in November on our way home. Our backup plan was to fly to La Paz (in a 19 seat Metroliner), then either bus to Lake Titicaca if the roads were open, or fly to Cusco. Luckily the road was open because the miners decided to have a break from striking over the weekend.
Being back in La Paz was exciting because it meant we could have some different food - Indian, Thai and some kind of non-Asian weird satay noodles. While the food wasn't as delicious as we'd hoped, it made a welcome change from potatoes, pizza and pasta which were particularly prevalent in Sucre. (I'd found 'Pad Thai' on a menu in Sucre, but it came out as spaghetti with broccoli, flavoured with curry powder).
The bus trip to Lake Titicaca was really beautiful. There were great views to the mountains, lots of lovely farm animals, and for the last couple of hours we were beside the lake. The bus trip is also broken up by a short ferry ride across the Straits of Tiquina (photo).
The bus takes you to Copacabana on the shores of the lake. It's a beautiful spot, but very heavily touristed. We were lucky to be there in low season so didn't have to fight it out for accommodation or a seat in a restaurant.
The restaurant we went to for dinner the first night was pretty funny. The guy serving (and seemingly running the place) was probably about 14 or 15 and was a bit freaked out with having tourists in his restaurant (although they had an English version of their menu so it can't be that unusual for him). What freaked him out even more was me ordering a vegetarian pizza with no cheese. He was dumbfounded. He checked a couple of times, then when it was apparent that I hadn't made a mistake he said, roughly "dude, that's not a pizza". They made it for us anyway; it was ok.
We stayed in Copacabana for a couple of nights before getting on one of the regular boats to Isla del Sol, home of the predominant Inca creation myth and some Incan and pre-Incan ruins. The island was beautiful and generally fantastic.
The boat takes about 2 hours to get to the north end of the island where we were met by a local Spanish-speaking guide and some pigs that live on the beach. Although it was possible to guide ourselves up to the Incan/pre-Incan ruins, we're glad we went with the guide. He had a lot of knowledge and history that was fascinating. In particular, he told us about a submerged pre-Incan temple just off the coast between three tiny islands. I bet there's buried treasure there. And probably evidence of ancient aliens.
We had the option of walking the length of the island (about 8km) to catch the boat from the south end. Once we'd finished pondering the ruins, there were only two and a half hours until the boat was due to leave, so we just caught it back at the north port instead. And hiking at that altitude's not as awesome as it might sound (between 3800 and 4100m above sea level). I'm gasping for breath just tying my shoelaces.
We got back to Copacabana around 5:15 pm, then boarded our bus for Arequipa, Peru shortly afterwards. I'm on the bus now. You're up to date.
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