Survived the overnight bus into Bolivia, made it through the complicated and expensive border crossing and took a few boat rides.
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| Sunrise in Puno, Peru before heading out on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. It’s at an elevation of 12,500 ft and has a surface area of over 3,200 square miles. |
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| Uros Floating Islands. Man-made, pretty incredible. Incans developed them for defense. |
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Part of our day was spent wandering the lively and bustling streets around us. We then made our way to the renowned cable-car system and rode that for a few hours, which led us to respectively walk through a cemetery with intriguing murals. Riding the teleferico (cable-car) system. These are 13,000 ft above sea level, the world’s highest cable system. It allows locals to travel quickly up and down the mountain and to bypass traffic jams. There are over 20 stations. The cost for one ride is $0.43. While riding the teleferico, we noticed a HUGE cemetery/mausoleum that spread over blocks and blocks. It was built in 1826. Families can rent a spot for 10 years and after that, they must cremate. It was interesting to see all of the artwork on the ends of each section and how personalized the individual plots were. Many had favorite drinks, snacks, toys, etc of the deceased.
After making our way around the majority of the teleferico system, it’s clear that La Paz is a clash of the classes. Parts of the city were modern and ritzy, whereas other areas could barely scrape 2 coins together. Spent some time in a park today and watched people enjoy the pigeons... if that’s even possible.
This picture seems to sum up La Paz. Turn your head one way and you admire skyscrapers and stunning architecture. Turn it the other direction and you find slums and filth.
El Alto. This is the city above La Paz and everywhere you looked, there were markets like seen here.
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