Oct 10-24, 2016: Bolivia

Oct 10, 2016.  Hostel Arco Iris, Copacabana, Bolivia.

• My first day in Bolivia!  And it almost didn't happen.  Here's the story.  I began the day with a twenty minute, fifty cent minibus ride to Chucuito, whose principle attraction is the outlandish Temple de la Fertilidad (Inca Uyu).  Inside the temple's main stone walls are around a hundred stone phalluses, some up to 1.2m in length, row upon row jammed within the temple space, ranged like seats in a theater.  Some of the larger ones may have had particular ritual significance, and locals say that women who have difficulty getting pregnant still come here to pray for help on the giant phalluses.  

• There was a festival getting set to begin in the main square, and local women were lined along the sided of the adjoining streets, selling locally made items including bales of white, brown, and black alpaca wool.  As usual the women were wonderfully decked out in stovepipe hats, multi-colored skirts with wide sashes, and knee length socks.  And as usual I declined to photograph them: I have become less eager to either photograph on the sly, or to pay for photographs.

• Had to take a minibus to return to Puno for another bus to the Bolivian border, and it began raining on this trip back, pretty hard in fact, and I wondered how the fair in Chucuito was handling it. 

• The ride to the Bolivian border was not all that comfortable: I was crammed into the back seat with my backpack on my lap and three other riders by my side, and could barely move for the two hour trip, with rain falling most of the way.  Leaving Peru was a snap: just an exit stamp, and a short walk to Bolivian customs.  I had spent five weeks in Peru.

• Getting into Bolivia was another story.  I had no visa, and the officials insisted I have a flight reservation from anywhere in South America to the United States before they would issue me one.  There was a store next door with an internet-connected computer, so I signed on and purchased a ticket from Santiago to San Francisco, with an 8 hour stopover at  Bogota and 12 hours in San Salvador (!).  I don't want to begin to think about the total travel time.

• The promised email from the online travel agency had failed to appear after waiting about a half hour, so I decided to return to Peru for the night (there was a cool festival going on in the border town on the Peru side, and it would have been fun to watch), but the Peruvian border official wouldn't let me return, because I wasn't technically returning from another country (!).  So back to the internet cafe in no-mans-land, and oboy, the flight confirmation email had arrived.  So with that, and a photo, and $170, I had my Bolivian visa.

• Rode into Copacabana in another microbus (10 minutes, 15 cents), tried changing money at an ATM and failed, checked out a hostel recommended by Lonely Planet and decided it was too expensive (160 Bolivars), then chose another hostel at random for 35 Bolivars, right off the main square.  I local had told me the exchange rate was 4 Bolivars to the dollar, and this was confirmed by some English girl travelers, but in fact the rate is closer to 7 Bolivars to the dollar, so my room is costing me a new low of about five bucks.

• Ran across two of the couples I had been on the same bus with from Cabanaconde to Puno, so we chose a restaurant at random and had a fine old time, them mainly quizzing me on my travel adventures (the 5 year boat trip was the favorite topic), but also on life and work in Silicon Valley.  They are off tomorrow morning to catch the 8:30AM ferry to the Isla del Sol, planning to walk its length and return by ferry in one day.  I think I would rather take a more leisurely approach, and spend a night or two on the island.

• Forgot to mention that I visited the Museo Municipal Carlos Dreyer in Puno first off: some nice gold Inca jewelry, and three really spooky mummies.  No photos allowed, but I cheated, since I was the only one in the place.