titicaca | Just Booked A Trip

People: Locals are friendly if a bit shy in Bolivia. We didn’t have many closer interactions than for clear tourist reasons. We met a mix of backpackers, many other couples around our age or a little older. Often we were also the only ones in our accommodation though.

Food: A bit of an issue, especially for me. There are not much vegetarian options, lots of fried chicken. The set lunch menus never excited us either. The best places we ate at were a Turkish place in Samaipata and an Italian pizza place in La Paz. Lol.

Weather: We were a bit unlucky with the weather since rainy season hit early this year. We had to cut our time in Bolivia and leave out quite some highlights unfortunately. Too bad! Luckily, we were also treated to some sunny days in the most important places such as Uyuni.

Costs: Bolivia was a nice change after visiting so many expensive countries. Finally things were cheap again! We spent around 28€/day per person. Could have done it a bit cheaper, but we did quite some tours and also some (necessary) shopping for warm clothes.

Accommodation: We almost always stayed in smaller guesthouses in a double room, barely in hostels because they were usually more expensive. What’s odd in Bolivia is that they always mention prices per person, not per room.

Infrastructure: Easy-peasy after the South Pacific. There’s busses or colectivos to go pretty much anywhere you want. Cheap, lots of competition and therefore often quite good (especially long-distance night busses). Taxis are also readily available and cheap and La Paz has awesome cable cars to offer.

Illnesses: Our stomachs didn’t quite enjoy the Bolivian food as much so we both had some issues now and then, especially Mathijs got quite sick once.

Safety: Bolivia is supposed to be a bit more unsafe and therefore I was a bit more nervous about things sometimes… without real reason. Everything went fine!

Itinerary: We visited pretty much all typical tourist destinations plus some that were a bit out of the way such as Samaipata. As mentioned, we would have wanted to see more – especially around La Paz there were some hikes and towns that I would have loved to do/visit. Also, the Sajama national park sounded very good. Guess we’ll just have to come back one more time!

Highlight: The Uyuni-Tour.

Lowlight: The battle with the weather. As in places: Cochabamba.

Click on the photo below to see our full photo album of Bolivia:

Our 2nd stop in Bolivia was lake Titicaca. I had visited this place before in 2012, but since the weather in and around La Paz didn’t look great for the next few days, I opted to join Mathijs and go there a second time. Good decision! Last time the bus trip from the lake to La Paz was in the dark – this time I could enjoy all the views I had apparently missed out on!

Also, we were finally treated with some sunshine and when arriving in Copacabana, walked around the little town I already liked back then. Surely it has become a bit more touristy, but it’s still rather quiet and pretty. After some happy hour beers in the sun, we hiked up Cerro Calvario for some good late afternoon views over the town. It was just as beautiful as I remembered it, but sadly there is much more trash laying around at the top of the hill now. Even though there are wastebins!

Our next day was supposed to be dedicated to Isla del Sol, but we found out that the entire North part is closed to tourism at the moment due to some conflict between the islanders of the North and the Center and South. Too bad! 6 years ago, I had taken the ferry to the North, then hiked all the way to the South where I hopped on the afternoon ferry back to Copacabana. Now this is not possible anymore. What the ferry companies offer instead now, are combined Isla de la Luna & Isla del Sol trips – so that’s what we booked then! At least, Isla de la Luna was something new then for me as well.

The boat trip took about 2 hours until we finally arrived – while it is a scenic boat ride, 2 h is a bit much and certainly due to the very bad engines the boats have. Sloooooowwww boats. On Isla de la Luna, we misunderstood the Spanish instructions and thought we had only half an hour, so quickly went up to the viewpoint and to see the ruins. It was nice, but we felt a bit rushed…only to discover that we would have had a full hour. Haha. Oh well!

The boat then went to Isla del Sol, where we disembarked at Pilko Kaina. In reality, we (without guide) should have stayed on the boat and got dropped in Yumani harbour after, and only the people with guide would have gotten off there. That would have meant losing another 30 min at least and walking from A to A instead of from A to B. So I got a bit mad at the boat guides and we were allowed off. Haha. It was a really nice walk from here to Yumani and we really enjoyed the views! Unfortunately, the snowy mountains were mostly hiding behind a layer of clouds – but the rest of the views we got were still awesome! Isla del Sol, you’ve been good to us: lots of sunshine, lots of great views!