How 3 planned days in Bolivia became 4 crazy ones

Buenos dias. Que tal amigos?
I am in Bolivia since 4 days. Even though i actually just wanted to cross it this travel for getting to lake Titicaca. We will get there...
So coming from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile i crossed the border (photo of this incredible small check point) in a jeep and we drove more than half a day through the bolivian highlands. (5 pictures of nature,  the regular 'road' and a small village in the way). We were always 3500m above the sea level,  maximum 5000m. I had a bit headache from the altitude but it was not too bad. :) we saw a lot of lamas and some flamingos as well. One time there was a sandstorm which means we couldn't see anything of the road, our driver knew the direction and after half an hour we were out of it.
Arriving in Uyuni i saw my first bolivian city. A bit dirty and ugly, although people were also nice there (photo of a market street).
Then i took the night bus to La Paz (city of the president, not the capital!). It was the worst bus ride ever! The buses are not that comfortable like in Chile or Argentina. And the 'main' road... there was no asphalt for 10 hours. Only bumpy earth. I literally jumped in my seat almost every 5 minutes, up to 40cm!!! And there were no security belts for holding you down. Well, just imagine how my backside looked like and how much i slept...

La Paz
Bolivia seems to be completely different from Argentina and Chile. Not much to see of being a bit like the western countries.
All the people here are really brown. The older women really wear this traditional clothes and the typical heat.
There is a strange mix of the original indigenous and catholic christian religion.
It is really cheap! Taxi ride for 1,60€. Nahrhafte Gemüsesuppe für 40 Cent. 90 Cent für ein komplettes Essen mit Suppe und Getränk. If you know where to eat and avoid the touristic areas :)
La paz just looked pretty sad, not completely ugly but just un poquito triste sin colores.
I went with 2 norwegian girls from the bus to the free city tour. We saw a lot. 4 pictures show the hills of the city, the presidents palace, the main church and dead lama babies at the witches market.
After the tour i got the opportunity to do sky walking for only 15 € from the roof of a hotel. I tried to get the Christmas feeling =) 4 pictures
Typical are also small street kiosks where you can buy something like sandwich with meat, egg and french fries. Also with vegetables for breakfast. Tasty and cheap (2 photos)

The next day i went to Copacabana at lake titicaca (3800m above sea level). On the way there was a strange ferry for the bus (photo).
The city itself was not too interesting, i went up a hill and to the nice church (2 photos).
Once again i was lucky getting a hostel dubble  room for me alone for about 3,30 € per night.
Beim Abendessen im nichttouristischen Restaurant (Foto für besagte 90 cent) hat mich eine Schulklasse samt Lehrern auf der Abschlussfahrt angelacht (Foto).
Ich habe auch das Coca-Blätter-Kauen gegen Höhenkrankheit probiert. Es ist bitter und typisch für hier, hat für mich aber glaube ich keinen Unterschied gemacht.
Mit einem Boot ging es in 2 Stunden zur Isla del sol auf der ich einen halben Tag verbracht habe. Viele sprachen vorher davon, wie magisch der Ort sei, ich habe mich abgesehen vom Genuss der Natur nur über die Touri-Masche geärgert. Ein Führer meinte man könne nicht allein gehen, und überhaupt nur diesen Weg. Und am Ende musste man ihn natürlich extra bezahlen. Das klingt nicht nach mir... ich bin allein los, habe sicher mehr gesehen, musste aber dennoch Wegezoll bezahlen. Nur um einen Weg zu laufen... Da sind die Bolivianer (und scheinbar auch Peruaner) deutlich unehrlicher als Argentinier und Chilenen. Oft werden einem horrend übertriebene Preise angeboten oder schlichtweg Folgekosten verschwiegen.
Auch auf der Straße fand ich Leute in den anderen Ländern etwas netter.
Also Tipp: Lasst Copacabana und isla del sol ruhig aus und besucht besser die Stadt Puno in Peru am Titicaca, dort in der Nähe befinden sich auch die schwimmenden Inseln der Uru-Ureinwohner.

Und nun wollte ich Copacabana und damit Bolivien in Richtung Peru verlassen. Aber es wurde nach der Grenze in Peru gestreikt! Und zwar mit Straßenblockaden und Steinewerfen. As a tourist you don't want to get into that. And also all the buses didn't work anymore. So as the strike would last at least for 2 or 3 days i seemed to be stucked in Copacabana. But I am an organizer. We made the plan to hire an entire big speed boat the next morning to cross Titicaca to get to the peruvian side.
Of course the next morning it came different. There came not enough people to hire the expensive speed boat. A travel agency offered me and a dutch guy (Maarten from Amsterdam) another boat option. So we took first the taxi to the border, got our passports done there. But because of the rainy weather there were no boats at the peruvian side. We took another taxi to get closer to the strike area. We tried to negotiate a good price with our taxi driver to drive us to Puno without getting into the strike. He tried to fool us several times with the price, with the route and so on. In the end we had to go for the good old good-cop-bad-cop game. I was the bad cop and yelled at him until he was shy enough to drive the way we wanted... it was a long ride through smallest peruvian villages. Once we had to hide our faces when we got into another strike area and drove through the stone-covered street with a few angry farmers with fire. But all went well. We arrived in Puno, got rid of this annoying for more money begging taxi driver (he already made his best day of the year with us), and took a 8 hours bus to Cusco - inca city :)
Just one more thing to mention. The bus is always entered for some minutes by people trying to sell food or things. This time it was an annoying guy trying to sell his books by talking about it... for an hour almost. Later 2 women entered and selled food, BUT HOW!!! They basically had a big bag with some potatoes and a whole lamb inside (Picture). With a small axe they chopped the lamb right in front of us apart and sold the meat with some potatoes to hungry passengers. Bolivia, Peru - you are different and sometimes crazy.
More stories about Cusco and Peru later :)

Buenas noches y buena suerte mis amigos!
Que os vayan bien!
Miguel, el viajero  :P