Just the thought of an amusement park with a coffee theme was intriguing to me. Parque del Café, part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, is located in a beautiful green valley in the heart of Coffee Country near the town of Montenegro in the department of Quindío.
Bus-capades. That’s how I would describe trying to get from the Uyuni Salt Flat back to Peru. The jeep driver told me if I went back to Uyuni, I would be stuck by the roadblock for possibly several days. There was no solution in sight and I was obviously going to miss my scheduled trip to Sucre. He suggested I go through Chile to get back to La Paz and finally to Cusco. Lasting over 2 ½ days, it ended up being the longest bus trip of my life.
My primary goal in Bolivia was to see the world’s largest salt flats in Uyuni. I planned the perfect 10 days through Bolivia, booked all of my accommodation, tours, buses, and flights. Suddenly, the day my overnight bus to Uyuni was to leave, the lovely people of Uyuni decided to protest and block the only road into town. All buses to and from Uyuni stopped running.
I had plenty of time to kill in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Potosí while trying to figure out how to break the roadblock to Uyuni. I decided to go on a silver mine tour and found a street with a few tour offices.
When my bus to Uyuni was cancelled because of a protest and roadblock, I decided to hop on another bus to Potosí. It was once the richest city in the world because of its silver mines and is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. I went to the La Paz bus station and stopped at four or five different companies before I found Trans Copacabana, who offered a cama, or reclining bed, for the 10 hour overnight trip. My goal was to see as much of Potosí as possible and find a way to break the roadblock and get to Uyuni.
In Copacabana, we boarded a small boat to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) and sat on the top deck. The ride was windy and cold but I enjoyed the scenery. Lake Titicaca is a strong shade of dark blue and the contrast against the clear Bolivian sky was an incredible sight. On the way, we passed by the Isla de la Luna (Island of the Moon), where the Incas believed the rising of the moon was commanded. The ride took about 90 minutes.
An hour after the bribing incident, we pulled up to Copacabana, a tiny town on the shores of Lake Titicaca that happens to be the namesake for the famous beach in Rio de Janeiro.
I made a huge mistake during my visit to Lake Titicaca. From La Paz, I bought an organized day trip including transportation to and from Copacabana, lunch, and a tour of Isla del Sol. That wasn’t the mistake. The mistake was not spending a night there.
One of the fascinating things about La Paz are its seemingly never-ending maze of street markets in the city center. Tents, stalls, or sometimes just blankets on the ground line the streets selling just about everything you can imagine. Do you need vegetables for a big dinner party? Head to the streets. Are you looking for a pair of socks, a light bulb, shampoo, and perhaps a toilet seat? You’re in luck!
