Going sola, part A

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Dear all,

You may be wondering what happened with the boat trip plan. Well, it failed, big time. We arrived in Trinidad again at about 6am, and headed straight to the port just outside of town, to enquire about boats. There were two leaving for Guayamerin that day, one within an hour (no could do, we still had lots to sort out), and another early that afternoon. This was a cargo boat, whose capitan we bartered with for a while, before settling on a price of 250 bolivianos (about $25US) per person, for hammock space and meals for the duration of the trip. Unfortunately water levels in the river were low at that point, so the Lonely Planet’s estimates of this trip taking maximum 5 days were a bit conservative… we were told we were looking at about 7 days. This would be cutting it a bit fine if we wanted to squeeze in Lake Titicaca before heading to Cusco for the fiesta on the 24^th, but we decided it was doable if we flew back from Guaya to La Paz. We returned to Trini, raced around the market buying all the provisions we could possibly want on a week’s boat trip, namely mozzi nets, snacks, drinks, 12L of water PER PERSON, sudoku, magazines, FISHING LINE, insect repellent, and oh so much more. We then loaded all this into another taxi, and scooted back to the port. Loading the shopping onto the boat presented a minor problem, in that there’s no car access to the port, only a bridge which crosses the river metres above. Therefore we had to roll the bags and bottles down a concrete drain shaft, scramble down the steep river banks, and lug it all a few hundred metres to the boat itself, before hauling it up onto the top deck which was to be our floating home for the next week. Needless to say this was sweaty, tiring business, in the blistering midday sun, and not one of the menfolk around us were of any use. The beefy Bolivian boatmen just sat and watched, and the Frenchman moved his own tings and then proceeded to FILM us doing the rest. Cameras are his hobby. Finally installed on deck, we ate lunch and lounged around for a few hours, looking forward to setting off…

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...tbc

Mmmhmmm it's MONTHS later, and I'm finally going to finish this thing!! So the afternoon came.... and went.... and the boat stayed put. They were waiting on a cargo shipment, but it didn't arrive, and they didn't think it would be there until the following evening, at the earliest, but more likely the following week. So sadly, we took down our hammocks, packed up our provisions and hauled it all back up onto the bridge, waving goodbye to the slow boat plan. We hitchhiked back into town (again I got the boot of the car dammit), checked into a hotel and worked out PLAN C. Rebecca and Christophe decided to head for La Paz and Lake Titicaca, whilst I opted to fly south to Cochabamba, a city in the centre of Bolivia, famous for its enormous market and 'perfect climate.' I spent 5 days here with Line (Christophe's friend) and a jokes German couple. The market was pretty amazing, it was absolutely VAST, and laborynth like, and utterly everything on the face of the earth was sold there. You'd walk along one winding passage past flowers, turn into the llama hide area, then into a noisy stinky corridor with hundreds of puppies, chickens, guinea pigs etc all in the same tiny cages (about 50p each), then into the powdered milk section, the dvds section with every seller blaring out music dvds at top volume from TV sets 3m apart, potato section... and the witchcraft section. This was not at all like the witchcraft market in La PAz which was super touristy, but totally real... Line had her cards read by an old toothless lady, you could buy all sorts of charms and dead animals (yes, the llama foetuses again), like sugar moulded into the shape of skull and crossbones... incense wafting out of every stall. Very interesting! I visited the market a few times, and got totally lost each time, it is about the size of Muswell Hill, at least. Good to wander. Another typically Bolivian attraction included the New York Globetrotters road show which was in town on my first night there. This was hilarious. Basketball is huge here, and everyone idolises the US players. We turned up about an hour before the show (it was a wierd show come game performance thing), along with the entire population of the city, and they only ended up opening the doors about 2h after the start time... suffice to say it was pretty scary, crushed up against lots of angry bodies trying to surge past police lines and break into the stadium!! The next day I did a tandem paraglide flight, which was fun, but not as exhilirating and I'd anticipated, mainly because we caught no thermals, so it lasted a mere 10 minutes!! Still, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately since leaving it so long, I'm having trouble remembering everything in Cochabamba... other highlights included taking a cable car up a nearby mountain with a Brazil style giant Christ statue on it, and going to a folk concert by a group called Norte Potosi. Inexplicably, half way through, someone came on stage and announced that there was a marching band in town, and they were going to share the concert, so this entire marching band squeezed on stage, performed two rousing songs, and then disappeared just as quickly as they'd turned up!! Why not.

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From Cochabamba, Line and I bussed to Copacabana, where we met up again with Rebecca and Christophe. Only a couple of days were spent together (dining in the PALACE - see part Beebs), before they left for Arequipa, Perou. Welcoming us to Copacabana was a this wierd car blessing ritual infront of the cathedral. Apparently this happens every Sunday, and everyone in town brings decorates their cars (or trucks... or JCBs...) in flowers and glitter, and queues them up to be blessed with holy water by the priest! This way they avoid traffic accidents for the rest of the week. It was pretty colourful... and things were to continue this way in Copacabana over the next few days, as we were nearing the Winter Solstice celebrations, with lots of dancing and singing in costumes in the streets. We spent 2 days on the beautiful Isla del Sol, the birthplace of the sun, in the middle of Lake Titicaca, it has some (not too spectacular) ruins, but is surrounded by literally sparkling bright blue water on all side, and has some amazing views. It also has some amazingly delicious trout, which we duly ate for every meal during our time in the area. I like! On the boat over we met some characters who would keep popping up over the next couple of weeks - the whole world and his wife was headed for Cusco for Inti Raymi. There was a