EL ALTO, BOLIVIA
- Altitude: 4150m
- Temperature: 9ºC
- Distance by train: 176km
La Paz has been a surprisingly positive experience. Despite having read numerous blogs about travellers wanting to just pass by due to horrible traffic and pollution, I find myself actually liking this place.
A little set-back was my getting ill. I wonder if it was the good old altitude sickness (despite the medication we took), or just a tourist flu, but it made me bed-ridden for a full day. Kai went off to the Death Road biking trip while I stayed in our tiny El Alto hostel room. The smallest heater I have ever seen was on full steam, and still I was wearing thermo leggings and merino wool shirt as well as my down jacket while tucked in under two blankets. Well, at least I had time to catch up on Netflix! Kai had a good time at the Death Tour (as I call it) and even came back alive (which I had doubted). The biking was easy, as the road was quite wide for that purpose. But imagine that not too long ago cars and trucks transported all the fruit and veg we get here in town via that road, and for those vehicles it is unbelievably narrow. The drop over the cliff might be a few hundred metres if you slip off the road…
On Friday we moved house from the Airbnb apartment to this cute little hostel. We took the teleferico to the nearest station and walked about 10 minutes to the hostel. The amazing thing was that the whole way was a huge fruit and veggie market. This means dozens of blocks all full of little huts selling fresh product. We got some eyes while walking through this site. El Alto is not a common tourist attraction and it gets pretty dangerous here at night, so tourist opt to stay in La Paz instead. We chose to stay here as it is a different experience, and also because our train adventure on Sunday began here.
We are both quite the train enthusiasts, so this train ride, albeit pretty touristy, was a treat. The ride from El Alto to Guaqui via Tiwanaku takes place just once a month, every second Sunday, and luckily we were around to catch it. It is such a rare sight that almost every single passerby, including cows and sheep, stared at the train while it crawled through the landscape.
First stop was the village of Tiwanaku, the home of ancient ruins of the pre-Inca times. The village was cute and while we did not pay to get in to the ruins site, we saw it from afar. The final stop was the port of Guaqui, where most tourists boarded a ferry for a Lake Titicaca tour. We opted for the train museum and enjoyed a tasty trout and beer lunch at the (only) local cafe. The train went back the same way and the views were quite spectacular especially at sunset.
Tomorrow our journey continues to the lakeside village of Copacabana, the place to stay for visiting the famous Isla del Sol. We are supposed to take a minivan from a bus station in El Alto, but have no idea when and exactly where they depart. Well, it will be another adventure!