Made a stop in Puno, enroute to Cusco primarily to visit the Floating Islands of Uros.
Located on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca, lives a community about 30 minutes away by boat from Puno. What is fascinating about this community is that they live on “man-made islands” that are created using a plant called Totora.
On a number of occasions when I mentioned to others that I am from Singapore, those that have been to Singapore would always bring up the thing about the words they see on the Singapore immigration card (something about “Drug trafficking is an offense that is punishable by death” and in bold red).
The moment I walked out in the streets I found myself in a middle of a parade! Not sure what was the occasion, but it was really bustling.
Isla del Sol is located on Lake Titicaca, about 2 hours away by boat from Copacabana. Boats usually land either on the northern part of the island (near the Inca ruins) or the southern part of the island (where town Yumani is based and where most accommodation are located).
The plan was to take a boat to the northern part of the island and trek for about 45 mins to the Inca ruins (Mesa Ceremonial & Roca Sagrada), and subsequently continue trekking for another 3 hours to the southern part of the island and find an accommodation for the night.
Las Velas, or translated as “The Candles” is located in Yumani and serves organic food cooked by a gourmet chef. It is called Las Velas because at night, the place is only lit by candlelight.
There isn’t an extensive selection in their menu. Other than vegetarian pizza, spaghetti, cannelloni and 1 other pasta dish, their main house specialty would be the trout baked in white wine and vegetables in an aluminium foil.
I was glad that there weren’t much of a road block today as I left for Copacabana, which is a small town located on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is said to be the world’s highest lake, located at about 3,800m above sea level.
The weather wasn’t that great either, being a cloudy morning when we left the city, and half way through our 3.5hr journey, it rained, making our boat crossing at Tiquina challenging.
Picture a basin, with the centre of the basin as the main centre of the city and thousands of brick coloured houses spiralling around the hills upwards towards the edge of the basin. And beyond those hills are views of snow capped mountains. That is La Paz…
It was never how I imagined it to be and I was amazed at how the city looked and how it had grown, and there is an interesting character and feel to the La Paz city.
After hearing my hostel mates dinner last night at a Thai restaurant, with comments that it was pretty good, I had an Asian food craving. Was considering heading to the same restaurant, but as it was getting late and I was too tired to walk any further, I decided to settle for something quick around the area.
The only Asian food I could find was a Chinese restaurant (Long2 Feng4 aka Dragon Phoenix), and I had always been a little hesitant eating Chinese food outside of Asia, as the quality aren’t always the best. However this place had a small and really Chinese type of outlook and decor in it. Plus there were quite a few people inside eating.
So I decided to take a risk and give it a try. Looking at the interior decoration, I would have thought that it would have to be run by a Chinese, but turns out that the cook was a Bolivian!
I went on a tour to Tiwanaku today, and as we were trying to exit La Paz, I noticed that the bus made a few turns back into the city. Finding this a little strange, I asked the tour guide what has happened, and he shared that there are blockades and 2 of the routes we had tried were blocked.
We were lucky that we managed to get out at the 3rd route we tried, but in the process wasted an hour, though we got a pretty good different view of the city. I am hoping that I will not have any problems with getting to Copacabana tomorrow!
Tiwanaku is a small town located about 70km outside of La Paz. This is a really important town in the historical period, as it was said that the Tiwanaku was the civilisation before the Incas (between the period of 2,000BC to 1,500AC).
63km downhill; 3,500m vertical descend; 3.2m wide gravel road. Put it all together and you have the World’s Most Dangerous Road. Riding it down on a bicycle within 4 hours and you get pure adrenalin rush!
Definitely not for the in-experienced nor for the faint hearted, as a lot of focus is required to keep eyes on the many dangerous bends one will encounter and combining it with good control of the bicycle and speed, otherwise one may find themselves at the bottom end of a 600m precipitous cliff drop!
This was definitely one ride I was looking forward to doing ever since I heard about it while researching on La Paz.
The road between La Cumbre (located about 1 hour from La Paz) and Coroico was called the World’s Most Dangerous Road in an IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) report, due to the number of fatal accidents that had taken place on this road. In 2007, a new replacement road opened, and all traffic has since been diverted to use that main road.
Sabor Cubano is located just a couple of blocks away from the travel agency and I was starving by the time I get there.
It has a nice cosy atmosphere, with walls filled with writing of all kinds and some Cuban images. There was only one other patron when I entered the restaurant, who was having his meal and also enjoying a Cuban cigar.
I left Stefano's house at 7.45am to catch the 8.07am train to the airport, which later required switching to an airport shuttle from T2 ...
