After our lunch on the salt flats, we headed back to the lodge, taking a few photos along the way.
Friday, October 30, 2025
Departed Explora Lodge and the Salt Flats early morning and drove back to the airport at Uyuni to fly to LaPaz. The altitude change was difficult as the elevation was 13,350 and I felt the difference while still on the plane waiting to exit. In spite of the high elevation, 2.5 million people live in La Paz.
We met our next guide, Gabriela, at about 11am and immediately began a 3-hour drive from the airport to Copacabana. During the ride we saw hundreds of trucks parked along the road sides waiting to get diesel fuel. Apparently the country is low on fuel and everyone is suffering from a lack of supplies due to a lack of hard currency. A newly elected president will take over soon and people are hoping he will improve the financial situation.
From Copaccabana we took a one hour boat ride on Lake Titicaca (12,510), the world’s highest navigable lake, to an island called Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun).
Our accommodations were an ecolodge at the far end of the island from our arrival point. It took us 2 hours to hike the very rocky two kilometer path uphill.
Thankfully, our bags were carried up and down by donkeys. We stopped many times along the path to catch our breath.
The scenery was breathtaking, but that was not why I was out of breath the whole walk. I felt very oxygen deprived and wondered if I would make it. Mark and Gabriela helped me nearly every step of the path. We did see a BC temple to ancient pre-Inca gods, beautiful snow-covered Andes mountains, the large and lovely Lake TIticaca, an alpaca grazing near the path, and many pretty flowers.
Once we got to the ecolodge (13,013), I was begging for oxygen. As my condition was not unusual, there was a bottle of oxygen available. That and a light dinner helped me get through the night. However, as Mark noted, the lodge was not much of a payoff.
Saturday, October 31, 2025 Halloween
Next morning we started the return trek down the hill, stopping at the top of a sacred well on the Inca trail that has spiritual significance to the Aymara people, many of whose descendants still live on the island. At the bottom of the stairs are statues of the gods Marco Kayak and Mama Ojllo, who compare with the Adam and Eve of the Christian world.
The boat was waiting for us and we returned our steps. In Copacabana we captured preparations in front of the Cathedral of the Virgin of Copacabana, aka the Bacha Mama, for the coming Day of the Dead, a major holiday for Bolivians.
From Copacabana, we drove back to La Paz passing slowly by modern architectural motifs that made us laugh, they looked so peculiar. They generally consist of a storefront floor on the ground, two floors for ballroom dancing and parties and a residential floor above that. On top is another residence that looks very different and out of place, called a cholet, a derivation of chalet.
We pass through El Alto to get to La Paz. At Gabriela’s suggestion we road in a cable car for a couple of stops to get a feel of the city and understand how the cable car system is used as transportation for the locals. Our driver met us at the end of our cable car ride and delivered us to our hotel for the night, Atix. We arrived just in time for me to get a much needed pedicure at a nearby salon. As soon as that was done, Gabriela, Mark and I had dinner at a nearby food court. It was fast and easy and we were in bed by 7:15 as we had to sleep fast to be ready for a midnight pickup for a flight to Bogata, Columbia.
Over dinner Gabriela told us how Bolivia came to be landlocked. Part of northern Chile had belonged to Bolivia before the 1879-1884 war between Bolivia and Peru against Chile, who was supported by England. The fight was over the minerals and seagull guano that Chile wanted. Chile won the war and the minerals. Bolivia lost the coastline.
Sunday, November 2, 2025
We managed to sleep through much of the flight to Bogota, and felt somewhat rested when we arrived at 6:15am and met our Bogota guide, Santiago. He escorted us to the Four Seasons Hotel at a reasonable 8500 ft elevation. The population of Columbia is 53 Million, while the population of Bogota is 8.5 million. The landscape consists of rolling hills with many trees. At 2pm Santiago retrieved us from the hotel and off we went to visit the Gold Museum. We chose it because it has the largest collection of Pre-Colombian gold. Here are some of the pieces we admired.
From the museum we walked through the old, colonial part of town. The area was filled with people enjoying the lovely day with friends and street activities entertaining everyone on this Day of the Dead holiday. But first we checked out the two churches full of gold leaf.
At dinner time, Santiago directed us to a favorite place of his called Andres DC. He gave us a suggestions about what to order to get the flavor of Colombian food. So we did. The place was amazingly crazy. There were 5 floors of tables, decorations everywhere and costumed servers.
The place was nearly full when we went at 7pm and packed when we left at 8:30 with a long waiting line. We gave the waiter the list of items Santiago wanted us to order and soon our three starters and one main began to arrive. We had a good meal of perfectly cooked beef, pork belly, French fries and other nibble bites. While there three other tables of 10-15 people were each entertained by a small costumed band for some celebration or other. We were the only party of 2 we saw. Everyone else was in a medium to large group. Finally, we Ubered back to the hotel and happily dove into bed.
Monday, November 3, 2025
Santiago picked us up at 8am and off we went to the biggest market in Bogota to sample unusual fruits and taste other foods he considered safe to eat. The place was packed with shoppers. Here are the unusual fruits we tasted. Next to it was the flower market.
Santiago insisted we try some “breakfast” food as well.
Apparently Bogota has the greatest amount of graffiti in the world. We certainly saw a lot just driving around the city. Santiago took us to a couple of shops that specialize in graffiti art, which is completely different from what he called tag art and I call graffiti. Graffiti is regulated in Bogota. You must apply to do graffiti on a specific wall. There are competitions to earn a right to a particular space. The better the artist, the more likely to get approved. A lot of illegal “tagging” still goes on, if the tagged can keep from getting caught.
In the late morning Santiago drove us to the airport for our afternoon flight to Medellin.
Adventures with Julia 