April 19, 2000
Day 180 To Puerto Perez: Lake Titicaca
It's a bike tour again
We get up early and order breakfast in our room. After that we carry all our gear down from the fourth floor to the lobby. Our bikes are stored in the basement, we bring all up to the hallway in front of the hotel. Next, while Rachel brings all our gear out, Patrick walks towards the roundabout to find a hatchback taxi with a roof rack. For 50 Bolivianos the driver will transport us back up to El Alto. We decided, probably during the long downhill and subsequent push up to the hotel, that there was no glory in backtracking, certainly if it's up a 400 meter high hill.
The bikes go on the roof rack, our gear piled in the back. Our ride takes us just past the TAM airport, there we unload and hang the gear on the bikes. Off we go. The ride is flat, it takes a while to clear the sprawling adobe slums of El Alto. We see lots of evidence of past blockades, but the road has been cleared. Many of the brick signs lining the roads with social slogans or Banzer propaganda have been toppled and used as blockades. Now all that rests is piles of rubble on the shoulder which a grader is pushing aside.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
It’s busy on the road, lots of traffic, but also walkers and cyclists. We soon learn it’s an Easter pilgrimage to Copacabana underway. After about 50 km cycling, in Baldellas, we leave the asphalt road for a 7 km dirt road to Puerto Peres on Lake Titicaca. We find two hotels, and expensive ($50USD) and cheaper ($24USD) both owned by the same owner. Because the cheap one is still expensive, we look further but find nothing. Because of that we have to wait until two for the keeper to return from his lunch. Patrick cleans the chains in the meantime.
After we move into a nice comfortable room, we lay on the bed and read. We are both bothered by the altitude. Then the power fails, but that is nothing special in Bolivia. A knock on the door, the hotel keeper and the Swiss lady that runs the expensive hotel are here. It seems that the power failure is caused by remodeling activities and will not be restored tonight. If we want, we can move into the luxury hotel at no extra charge. Sounds good to us. We load up the bikes and roll them across the street. A large room, king size bed and view of the lake!
We stroll along Lake Titicaca, get some good pictures of the blue water, reed fields along its shore, colorful boats and white capped mountains in the distance. Pretty awesome!
Before dinner, at five thirty we set off on an hour long “sunset cruise” with a local fisherman. He first rows us out a ways on the crystal clear shallow lake, then raises the sail and off we go. The sunset is a fizzle because of low clouds of the horizon, but the experience of sailing on Lake Titicaca is great, certainly worth 40 BS.
We eat at the hotel, trout, some other fish, potatoes, nice soup de flan. Very good and fancy!!
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |