A few days off

The view over Cocacabana

A very easy boarder crossing - goodbye Bolivia, hello Peru

After the full on trip across the Salar de Uyuni we had a night bus followed by a few days off in La Paz before crossing the boarder into Peru. The night bus from Uyuni to La Paz was interesting to say the least... 11 hours with one stop with the first 5 hours of bumpy bumpy dirt road. The toilet stop was at 1am am saw the ladies in the bus exit for the bathroom which was a curbside, when you gotta go you gotta go. We were lucky arriving into La Paz at 6.30am that the hotel let us into our room so we could get some much needed sleep and a shower. F and I stomachs were still not very good which saw me reach for the antibiotics after 6days I had had enough. Needless to say the two rest days in La Paz were for catching up on the blog, washing, sleeping and getting better. It a pity we were so sick as we wanted to do a little more exploring. I managed to get out on the last day to take city tour to find that the bus had broken down, it just wasnt meant to be.

It is sad to be leaving Bolivia as it has been such a whirlwind trip and I feel we have only started to scratch the surface of what is a beautful and hospitable country. I wish the stomachs had been better so we could have had some more of the local food and beer and wine.

The bus for Peru picked us up early in the morning and had a lunch stop in Copacabana which is on Lake Titicaca. It is such a chilled out place it is a shame that we are not spending more time here. Onwards to the boarder crossing saw us get off the bus and walk across a pickett line as locals were protesting for a new school and had blocked all vehicle access. It was about a 1500m walk with packs and at altitude there were a few complainers. The Peruvian bus that waited at the other side for us was luxuriuos and smooth sealed roads made a nice change.

The actual boarder crossing was easy... walk into the Bolivian office, hand them your green tourist card get a stamp then walkl across to the Peruvian side and get a new stamp after filling out a new tourist card. Since F and I are staying a while in Peru we needed a longer tourist visa which they happily gave us we have 6 months before we have to leave Peru.