Living the High Life!

One night bus later and we were in La Paz.  One of the highest cities at 4,000m.  Breathtaking?  Or just breathless as you try and adjust to the altitude again?  After a while you begin to think that maybe you are just that unfit as you pant up another street or have to steady yourself upon climbing up to the top bunk.  The effects of being so high are very strange and they continued to take me by surprise anytime I'd try to do something as active as climbing the stairs!

In the spirit of experiencing the local culture, we went Cholita Wrestling, where the indigenous women, Cholitas, would wrestle and pull each others pig tails to the applause of Gringos and locals alike.  Well, so we thought, what we actually ended up seeing was men fighting the Cholitas ... and normally several men fighting one Cholita in a warped WWF fashion! But despite the non PC display, the women always won ... so that's ok then?! A very odd, yet amusing, thing to see!

From one high spot to another, we went to Lake Titicaca.  At 3821m it is the highest commercially navigable body of water in the world.  So there. 

We visited Copacabana first which a resort on the side of the lake.  On climbing to a viewpoint (cue lots of panting and frequent stopping just to climb a couple of hundred metres!) we really could appreciate what all the fuss was about. 

We then completed the experience with a visit to Isla del Sol, the largest island on the lake, about 3 hours from Copacobana.  After a pretty rough boat ride in a full on rain and wind storm we arrived and hiked from the one end to the other taking in more spectacular scenery and Inca ruins.