Say 12: early flight back to SF

4am: This is it... Gotta wake up, take a quick shower and hop in a taxi. My flight takes off at 6:54am from La Paz International Airport and I don't want to be late. It's raining outside, I really hope the taxi driver will be there waiting for me at 4:30am as planned.
After the shower, I wake up Max and Camille for a last good bye, and I take off! The hotel is quiet at this hour!

4:30am: I can only hear the rain thumping on the roof. I exit the hotel, open the gate, peek outside... and the taxi driver is here waiting for me! What a relief. I get in the car and we are off to the airport. This time, the taxi driver took the backroads to get to the airport. The ascent is steep, and the road is occasionally cut off by a small torrent of rain water which doesn't phase the driver. He barely slows down and drive straight through the gushing water.

5:10am: I'm at the airport on time, I pay the driver the agreed 60 bolivianos + 10 bolivianos tip for picking me up so early!

5:20am: The usual boring airport stuff: queuing for boarding-pass, queueing for check-in, queueing for security, waiting for boarding, queueing for boarding...

6:30am: I'm finally sitting in the plane, and the captain announce that the control tower has issues due to the rain and that we'll be a bit delayed.

8:30am: After waiting 2h in the plane, we finally take off! God... that was a long wait! Bye bye Bolivia, thanks for the trip, you've been good to us!

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Final words

The three of us were thick as thieves during these amazing 12 days! What a great trip :) We covered quite a bit of ground in such a short time. Here's the map, thanks to the GPS tracker lent by our tech sponsor Stephan! Thanks Stephan :) Full map here: https://share.garmin.com/SimonDeconde Here's what we loved: the country-side: amazing landscape, great for hiking... We wished we could have hiked more! being immersed in another culture without hundreds of tourists around: the low season helped, but even in high season, we wouldn't expect Bolivia to be too touristy, especially more remote parts like Sajama the fact that even at 4000m+, there are still huge mountains around you the alpacas! :) Here's what we didn't like so much: the approximate concept of time (see our posts)... The bus rides always take more time than announced, so you need to plan accordingly. If you have time, you can relax and probably even enjoy this difference in culture, ...

Day 4: Bus to Sajama

7am: I still feel like shit, but a tiny bit better. Today, we take the bus to Sajama, the volcanic area in Bolivia that has the highest peaks of the country (~6,500m). We pack our bags and leave the hotel. Based on the information we received, we should take 2 buses: 1 bus to Patacamaya (1h), then a second bus to Sajama (3h). 8:30am: our taxi pick us up and takes us to the Bus Terminal. Breakfast at the terminal (cake and tea) 9:30am: the bus leaves the terminal and takes FOREVER to leave La Paz. Traffic is really bad, and the driver doesn't seem in a hurry and stops for 15min to go shopping. 11:45am: we FINALLY arrive at Patacamaya. The first leg of the journey took 2h15 instead of 1h. We are starting to understand that the concept of time isn't the same around here! 12pm: we find the 12am bus to Sajama, which only left at 12:45pm (again, different concept of time). That gave us time to go to a local restaurant to get the lunch special: a very very hearty...

Day 2: Bus to Isla del Sol (Lake Titicaca)

6:30am: Driiinnggggg 7:00am: The bus picks us up at our hotel! Pretty cool. We were told that the bus took 3h to do La-Paz to Copacabana, so we were expecting to get there by 10ish The outskirts of La Paz are all in construction, half finished buildings, very very bad roads with massive potholes, wild dogs everywhere. 12pm: We finally made it to CopaCabana! It took more than 5hours... Nice little town touching the lake, obviously very touristy usually, but pretty empty right now in low-season. 1:30pm: we have booked a boat to get to Isla Del Sol. We climb aboard and sit on the roof to have a good view. We quickly put on our jumpers and jackets as the wind is fierce on the lake. 3:30pm: we reach the north part of the Island, where we decided to sleep tonight. 2h boat ride, we didn't expect it to take that long! We explore the village a bit and look for an accommodation. A young kid comes to us and says "...

Bolivia Xmas 2016

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