Beware the might of the Bolivian Navy!
What? Bolivia has a navy? But isn´t Bolivia land-locked you ask? OK, well maybe you didn´t ask that, but anyway.
Yes, it´s true, land-locked Bolivia does indeed have a navy (you can even check out the offical site), based at Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian-Peruvian border. The navy patrols the lakes and rivers to prevent smuggling, etc., ever since those darn Chileans stole their coastline back in the 1880s. Actually, Bolivia has a very sad history, as it has lost OVER HALF of its territory since independence from Spain to its neighbors. Every single one of its neighbors (Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Peru) has stolen land from Bolivia. Poor thing. Besides the main War of the Pacific in the 1880s where they lost their coastline, Bolivia has gone to war with Paraguay in the Chaco War in the 1930s. The Chaco War is interesting because the region fought over was thought to be rich in oil so the American oil companies were heavily involved, with Standard Oil (later Exxon/Mobil, Chevron, BP/Amoco) backing Bolivia and Shell Oil backing Paraguay. Hmmm, major oil companies getting involved in foreign politics/wars? Who would have thunk it? ;) I´m glad we´ve moved on from those darker days of the past. An earlier dispute with Brazil in the early 1900s left the rubber-producing state of Acre leaving Bolivia to join Brazil.
Anyway, enough of Bolivia´s sad, sordid history. I know Karen has already written about the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, with the floating islands and I know I´m going back a bit, but I wanted to write about the Bolivian side. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, at about 3800 meters or so above sea level.
Our base on the Bolivian side was Copacabana, which is situated on a peninsula that can only be reached by going by boat or via Peru. The Peruvian-Bolivian border cutting through Lake Titicaca is a very strange line indeed, as you can see from the map.
On the way to Titicaca we passed by some ladies dressed traditionally on the roadside.
To get to Copacabana, we had to cross the narrow Straight of Tiquina between the Bolivian mainland and the peninsula. The bus is transported on one boat while passengers are transported on another (due to a fatal capsizing a few years ago with people still on the bus). Pretty interesting to see the bus cross on these small platform boats.
I tried to sneak a picture of this family (many Bolivian ladies don´t like their pictures being taken), but it looks like I was caught in the act.
As you can see from this sign, Bolivia is still pretty determined to get their coastline back from Chile and demands the international community to pay attention. I have a better chance of winning an Oscar than of Chile giving up what they got from Bolivia, as 40% of Chile´s wealth comes from the copper and nitrate rich northern regions.
Copacabana itself is beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately I got some of the worst food poisoning (or call it what you want) of the entire trip there (as did 2 others we were dining with) and was very ill for the next 3 days.
I liked the look of this cloud looming large over the surrounding countryside.
Trucha, trucha, trucha (trout, trout, trout) is all you can get in the Titicaca region (and neither Karen nor I particularly like it). This restaurant was actually fairly limited as we went to some restaurants with 15 or 20 different preparations for trout. In inland Bolivia and Peru we realized that going to Japanese restaurants was almost pointless, as the only fish on offer was trout (trout sushi, anyone?). Seriously, a Japanese restaurant with neither salmon nor tuna is not a Japanese restaurant at all.
And here´s the legendary Bolivian Armada itself. Now, considering most of the buses we saw in Bolivia were old castoffs from China, Japan, and Korea, I guess it should have come as no surprise to see that the Bolivian navy was supplied with old castoffs of the Boston Swan Boats. Well, I don´t think that was their actual armada, but I thought the juxtaposition of swan boats next to a military post was just way too funny.
From Copacabana we went to Isla del Sol, which is very important in Incan creation myths. It´s a beautiful island. Unfortunately I was well under the weather so the traverse of the island that should have taken 2-3 hours took me over 5 hours to complete. It was well worth it for the beautiful scenery, though.
Karen even managed to find the local Wal-Mart megastore and bought a nice hat.
The island has a decent amount of Incan ruins which were fun to explore. And the scenery all over the island was amazing.
One of the funniest bits was when a traditionally dressed farmer girl was walking on the path in front of us and was afraid we were taking pictures of her and so she essentially played "1-2-3 redlight" (hopefully you know that game) with us for about 20 minutes, turning around intermittently to try to catch us taking a picture of her. She even did some fancy twirls while trying to catch us out.
The island provided brilliant sunset views over the mountains on the mainland.
Here´s Karen at sunrise.
Some more locals down at the pier.
OK, that´s it for our wonderful trip to Lake Titicaca. But before I deleted some photos from my memory card, I wanted to share a few random ones.
First, some pictures of some beautiful alpacas we found near Titicaca. You might recall that when we were in New Zealand Karen mistaked an alpaca farm for a farm with really tall sheep. Alpacas have some of the softest natural fibers and make great sweaters.
A random restaurant sign in Puno, Peru. I´m not really sure what "great full food" is supposed to be.
And not to be gross, but I was intrigued by this shop sign in Puno. I assume these businesses exist elsewhere but are a bit more subtle with their advertising. I don´t think I need to translate what services they are offering. Not the sign I expected to see on a street full of restaurants.
Some locals on the roadside charging for pictures with their baby and baby alpacas.
More local color.
That´s me checking out an elaborate carnival mask.
And to end on a completely random note, we couldn´t figure out if this was a sign for one restaurant with three names or multiple restaurants. I especially like the one called "THE" Restaurant.
Yes, it´s true, land-locked Bolivia does indeed have a navy (you can even check out the offical site), based at Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian-Peruvian border. The navy patrols the lakes and rivers to prevent smuggling, etc., ever since those darn Chileans stole their coastline back in the 1880s. Actually, Bolivia has a very sad history, as it has lost OVER HALF of its territory since independence from Spain to its neighbors. Every single one of its neighbors (Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Peru) has stolen land from Bolivia. Poor thing. Besides the main War of the Pacific in the 1880s where they lost their coastline, Bolivia has gone to war with Paraguay in the Chaco War in the 1930s. The Chaco War is interesting because the region fought over was thought to be rich in oil so the American oil companies were heavily involved, with Standard Oil (later Exxon/Mobil, Chevron, BP/Amoco) backing Bolivia and Shell Oil backing Paraguay. Hmmm, major oil companies getting involved in foreign politics/wars? Who would have thunk it? ;) I´m glad we´ve moved on from those darker days of the past. An earlier dispute with Brazil in the early 1900s left the rubber-producing state of Acre leaving Bolivia to join Brazil.
Anyway, enough of Bolivia´s sad, sordid history. I know Karen has already written about the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, with the floating islands and I know I´m going back a bit, but I wanted to write about the Bolivian side. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, at about 3800 meters or so above sea level.
Our base on the Bolivian side was Copacabana, which is situated on a peninsula that can only be reached by going by boat or via Peru. The Peruvian-Bolivian border cutting through Lake Titicaca is a very strange line indeed, as you can see from the map.
On the way to Titicaca we passed by some ladies dressed traditionally on the roadside.
To get to Copacabana, we had to cross the narrow Straight of Tiquina between the Bolivian mainland and the peninsula. The bus is transported on one boat while passengers are transported on another (due to a fatal capsizing a few years ago with people still on the bus). Pretty interesting to see the bus cross on these small platform boats.
I tried to sneak a picture of this family (many Bolivian ladies don´t like their pictures being taken), but it looks like I was caught in the act.
As you can see from this sign, Bolivia is still pretty determined to get their coastline back from Chile and demands the international community to pay attention. I have a better chance of winning an Oscar than of Chile giving up what they got from Bolivia, as 40% of Chile´s wealth comes from the copper and nitrate rich northern regions.
Copacabana itself is beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately I got some of the worst food poisoning (or call it what you want) of the entire trip there (as did 2 others we were dining with) and was very ill for the next 3 days.
I liked the look of this cloud looming large over the surrounding countryside.
Trucha, trucha, trucha (trout, trout, trout) is all you can get in the Titicaca region (and neither Karen nor I particularly like it). This restaurant was actually fairly limited as we went to some restaurants with 15 or 20 different preparations for trout. In inland Bolivia and Peru we realized that going to Japanese restaurants was almost pointless, as the only fish on offer was trout (trout sushi, anyone?). Seriously, a Japanese restaurant with neither salmon nor tuna is not a Japanese restaurant at all.
And here´s the legendary Bolivian Armada itself. Now, considering most of the buses we saw in Bolivia were old castoffs from China, Japan, and Korea, I guess it should have come as no surprise to see that the Bolivian navy was supplied with old castoffs of the Boston Swan Boats. Well, I don´t think that was their actual armada, but I thought the juxtaposition of swan boats next to a military post was just way too funny.
From Copacabana we went to Isla del Sol, which is very important in Incan creation myths. It´s a beautiful island. Unfortunately I was well under the weather so the traverse of the island that should have taken 2-3 hours took me over 5 hours to complete. It was well worth it for the beautiful scenery, though.
Karen even managed to find the local Wal-Mart megastore and bought a nice hat.
The island has a decent amount of Incan ruins which were fun to explore. And the scenery all over the island was amazing.
One of the funniest bits was when a traditionally dressed farmer girl was walking on the path in front of us and was afraid we were taking pictures of her and so she essentially played "1-2-3 redlight" (hopefully you know that game) with us for about 20 minutes, turning around intermittently to try to catch us taking a picture of her. She even did some fancy twirls while trying to catch us out.
The island provided brilliant sunset views over the mountains on the mainland.
Here´s Karen at sunrise.
Some more locals down at the pier.
OK, that´s it for our wonderful trip to Lake Titicaca. But before I deleted some photos from my memory card, I wanted to share a few random ones.
First, some pictures of some beautiful alpacas we found near Titicaca. You might recall that when we were in New Zealand Karen mistaked an alpaca farm for a farm with really tall sheep. Alpacas have some of the softest natural fibers and make great sweaters.
A random restaurant sign in Puno, Peru. I´m not really sure what "great full food" is supposed to be.
And not to be gross, but I was intrigued by this shop sign in Puno. I assume these businesses exist elsewhere but are a bit more subtle with their advertising. I don´t think I need to translate what services they are offering. Not the sign I expected to see on a street full of restaurants.
Some locals on the roadside charging for pictures with their baby and baby alpacas.
More local color.
That´s me checking out an elaborate carnival mask.
And to end on a completely random note, we couldn´t figure out if this was a sign for one restaurant with three names or multiple restaurants. I especially like the one called "THE" Restaurant.
posted by Kevin at 5/28/2007 04:58:00 PM
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