Bolivia Expedition Dispatch

June 13, 2010 – The Afternoon, After Our Visit to Tiwanaku

This is Leila Silveira reporting from Copacabana. Today was such a full day that I decided to break our dispatch into two parts. After visiting Tiwanaku, we had to drive almost all the way back to El Alto, La Paz, where we took another road to Lake Titicaca.

Before arriving in Copacabana, we stopped for lunch in Huatajata where we had an amazing lunch which consisted of their specialty, fresh trout from the Lake Titicaca.

After placing our order, we made a quick drive to meet Paulino Esteban himself. Paulino is a builder who helped on the construction of the reed boat "Ra II", belonging to the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 1970. Thor’s goal was to prove that it was still possible to sail across the Atlantic ocean using ancient technology. The boats are built out of totora reeds that are grown around the lake.

Heiko was really excited to visit the place where Ra was built. He was brought up in East Germany reading books about the amazing expedition of the Norwegian explorer. He quickly bought a miniature of the Ra which he plans to put in his home on top of the book by the famous Norwegian.

We were all amazed with Esteban's work and his craft shop which is probably one of the last places where this art survives. We also saw a boat which he is currently working on for a European client. We were amazed to see the boat up close and we were also really impressed by his craftsmanship.

We then returned to the restaurant where our lunch was ready and we ate some fantastic trout. Sam, who likes her food really spicy, ordered the Trout a la Diablo, which was really, really spicy. She said that it was some of the best trout she has had but the dish still wasn’t spicy enough, so she added a little bit of extra jalapeno that came on the side.

We all had a great meal and right after lunch we got back on the boat to our next stop, the Strait of Tiquina, a narrow stretch of water that joins Wynay Marka with the main body of the lake. We all had to leave the bus and take a small boat to the other side while our bus was transported on a barge. It is just a 10 minute crossing but sometimes if it is busy we might need to wait awhile for the bus to cross. Luckily today it wasn’t the case and we quickly crossed on our private boat and waited a few more minutes for the barge to arrive bringing our bus.

We then continued the last 40 km to the village of Copacabana. The last part of the trip consisted of a very curvy road, said to have 150 turns, and even though we didn’t count, I'd be surprised if it is not true!

We arrived here in Copacabana around 7pm and the sun was already down so we had the most beautiful views of Copacabana with the last lights on the horizon! Stunning!

We still had energy to climb the hills of Copacabana after leaving our bags in our hotel to have dinner. We went up to a great little restaurant which we had to book a few days in advance in order to get a table. Some of us had fondue for dinner which was quite an experience. After the relaxing dinner, we all went to bed because tomorrow will be another busy day!

Stay tuned! Our adventure is just getting started!