Bolivia

I now have a Bolivian visa in my name and am able to enter Bolivia for up to 90 days a year for the next 7 years. I was a little nervous about the process because there was a laundry list of documents they claimed to require included things like a letter of invitation. It turned out all the border guards really cared about was the $100 fee.

I am currently in La Paz, a large city with both modern looking areas and less westernized parts where you can buy about anything from the multitude of small booths and carts on the streets. The entire city is set in a kind of natural bowl and you sometimes catch glimpses of the snow capped peaks surrounding you. Logan and I spent a while trying to find the perfect hostel here but it was somewhat of a lost cause. In the end we settled in a quieter one with a nice owner, a pretty courtyard, a sunny roof hangout, a double room, and shared kitchen and bath, for $35 bolivianos. The exchange rate is about 7 bol to the dollar, this being the cheapest country I have travelled in so far. Meals are usually about 15 to 25 bol. Being in a city you have a little more option in the type of food you are eating. We had Arab food the first night and Italian last night. The Bolivian standard is quinua and veggie soup, rice, pan fried trout and chicken.

Before coming here we spent about 3 days around Lake Titicaca. It was vast and beautiful, reminding me a little of the Mediterranean Sea. We had two days of hiking with a day pack, which tested my lung capacity and endurance due to the amazingly high altitute, around 3,600 meters above sea level. We made our way along the coast to a point on the mainland and then took a rowboat ride from a hunched 70 year old local over to the Isla Del Sol. We spent one night in a hostel on the southern part and the next day hiked on the mountain crest line to some ruins in the northern part. A two or three hour boat ride took us back to Copacobana, the main Bolivian town set on the lake. Copacobana was very chill with lots of wandering South American hippies playing live music in cafes and selling hand made jewelry on the streets.