we took a bus from copacabana to la paz. the kids are now seasoned travelers such that when we said it was a 4 hr bus ride their response was 'oh that's a short one!'.
one of my favorite things about traveling is seeing the creative ways that others in the world with limited resources figure out how to do things. the crossing of lake titicaca is a perfect example. in the states there would be a bridge but in bolivia they ferry the buses across. first they unload all the passengers (who take a separate small boat across). then load the the bus on a ferry and off it goes!
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| A bolivian woman on the passenger boat |
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| there is our bus almost to the other side! |
i just love things like this! we might grumble about our taxes in the states but we really do need to remember to be thankful for the infrastructure and public goods we share!
we only had one day in la paz (we'll be back when we head back towards peru again). it is a massively impressive city. the center of the city was built on a river bed and the rest of the city climbs steeply up from the valley floor. it sits at over 13,000 ft with even taller mountains in the background.
in our exploring we found the 'witches market'. lucy's face reflects that they are standing under dried alpaca fetuses.
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| leave it to a 12 yo to enjoy the 'gross' factor of a dried alpaca fetus |
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| the multi-colored flag in the background is the flag of the indiginous people of bolivia |
we also found other markets and lucy couldn't keep her hands off of the alpaca dolls....soooooo soft!
there is a new gondola that was built maybe 3 years ago so we rode that up to the top (which is an area appropriately called 'el alto'). there were some very impressive views!
that was all we had time for this round in la paz, but like i said we will be back in a few weeks! we are off to see southern bolivia next! hasta luego!
So very cool!
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