Bolivia Big and Small

After the first night in a sketchy hotel, we moved to a much cosier hostel a few blocks away, smack in the middle of the Witch Doctor's Market: this is the place to go if you're running out of healing potions and dried llama foetuses! (apparently used as offerings to Pachamama) La Paz is a city of three million, surrounded by mountains. The old city is in the valley, with suburbs fanning out up onto the adjacent hills. Now in most big cities, tourists tend to stay within the five square blocks described in the guide book. However, as I mentioned in my last message, we were invited to have lunch with a family, and so we got to take a local bus up to one of these suburbs with our host Fabien and see the living conditions close up. They are a family of five living in a tiny two story brick house with no insulation and no heating, even though it can get pretty cold in the winter - we even saw a few snowflakes that afternoon! The bathroom is a small building in the courtyard - I suspect there is no hot water for the shower - and an outdoor sink for washing the dishes. Fabien has a small sewing business on the ground floor of his house, making work clothes, and we had to carry the chairs from his workshop up to the living/dining/bed? room so that we could all sit. His wife Beatriz also has a full-time job and they can't afford anything else. We spent all afternoon eating a lovely homecooked meal, talking in broken Spanish about our travels, and the possibility of Fabien finding work in Canada. When you realize that just saving enough money for one plane fare is almost impossible for someone like Fabien, you sure feel guilty about telling people that you have stopped working for a year and have enough money to travel around the world! The fact that it's even possible for North Americans to do this confirms, again, just how lucky we are. And as we left, they thanked us for coming to their house!
The next day we got to see a soccer game between two local teams from La Paz, the "blue team" and the "yellow team" - Club Bolivar -vs- The Strongest. We arrived early to get "lomitos", steak sandwiches from the street vendors, and a good seat. The stadium was packed with people of all ages, from small boys proudly wearing their team colors to teenagers with trendy spiked-up hair and grandmothers wearing traditional skirts and "bowler hats". At each end of the stadium the die-hard fans unrolled banners, threw confetti onto the field, chanted, sang, clapped their hands and waved their arms nonstop throughout the entire game! The atmosphere was unbelievable, never violent, but always very enthusiastic. In the row ahead of us was a couple cheering for opposite teams - it was quite amusing to watch them heckle each other. The game was great, ending with a score of 2-2: everyone was happy. Personally, I was very impressed by the player's stamina and agility, and in particular their ability to kick the ball sideways and make it go exactly where they wanted!
For those of you who love hand-made stuff like me, Bolivia is knitter's paradise: scarves, hats, mittens, bags, all made from local sheep's wool or alpaca. Women shopkeepers are almost always knitting something, usually while watching a couple of kids. I finally learned how to say "Yo tejo tambien" = "I knit too", so that they would know how much I appreciated their work.
From La Paz we took a bumpy bus ride to a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca called Copacabana (not the one in the song, it's in Brazil). This journey involved several stops on the side of the road for fetching water (either to cool the motor down or flush the toilet, we're not sure), and a boat crossing: all the passengers had to get off the bus and onto a tiny motor boat while the bus got onto a barge! (see photo) On our first night in Copacabana we stayed in probably the all-time cheapest accomodations of our entire trip: 10 bolivianos per person = $2.00. This got us a bed and not much else, but hey, what can you expect? And on the second night, one of the nicest: for 20 bolivianos per person, we had hot showers (which worked), and a television in each room! And what did we watch? We did like the locals and watched reruns of "Friends" subtitled in Spanish - very educational.
Copacabana is the departure point for Isla del Sol, "Sun Island", supposedly the birthplace of the first Inca, Manco Capac. And what an amazing discovery! Lake Titicaca, at almost 4,000 meters, is the highest lake in the world, and the island itself rises to almost 5,000 meters. When the tourists (including ourselves) get off the boat, they huff and puff all the way to the first village at the top of the island (this brings a whole new meaning to the concept of altitude). I'm sure the locals, who race effortlessly up and down, must have a good laugh. We certainly found it quite amusing after we had been there for a few days to watch the "new arrivals".

There are only about 3 thousand inhabitants on this island, divided into three small communities and most of the island has been terrassed for crops. The landscape is like a hilly patchwork, with small fields of corn, quinoa or beans almost everywhere you look. And best of all - no cars!! Only donkeys carrying water jugs or baskets of vegetables up and down the winding paths, passing right in front of our hostel. I could have sat there all day just looking at the scenery, it was so peaceful. We did a lovely two day hike, 18 km, to the north end of the island where we explored some Inca ruins: la mesa de sacrificios, and a maze-like temple called Chinkana, great for playing hide-and-go-seek. And saw some of the most beautiful sunsets (and one sunrise) of our entire trip.

As we were reluctantly preparing to leave the island, I was thinking to myself: I wonder if they could use an English teacher here? (Don't tell my boss!)