Crossing the Border to Bolivia

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Friday was a long travel day as we left Puno, Peru on Lake Titicaca and traveled to La Paz, Bolivia. While the trip is only about 160 miles by bus, with the border crossing, rest, lunch and site seeing stops and horrible conditions of the roads, it took us almost 10 hours. 

Once we left Lima we actually did not see anything but two lane roads until we arrived in La Paz.  And while the road conditions in Peru are bad, nothing could have prepared us for Bolivian "highways". 

We boarded our Peruvian bus at 7:00 a.m.  From there, we drove about 2 and 1/2 hours to the border town of Desaquadero which is located on Lake Titicaca.  Since Friday is a market day and the streets are packed with local merchants and customers, there was no way that our bus could even get to within seven blocks of the border. 

After going through the official, formal distribution of our passports and visa the night before,  the border process just got more curious.  Fortunately, Tauck came up with an ingenious and extremely memorable  way for us to cross the border successfully.  The first step was that as soon as the Bolivian Counsul officially handed us our passports and visas the night before we then personally handed them to a courier who was to meet us on the Bolivian side of the border.


Then when we arrived 7 blocks from the border we immediately transferred to their local transportation system - bici bikes - bicycle powered taxis to take us through the marketplace and over the border to our awaiting Bolivian bus.

Tauck secured enough bici bikes to handle all 25 (12 bikes with two passengers each and one for the guide) of us plus additional ones to take our luggage across.  We then proceeded as a caravan through the narrow, dirt streets of Desaquadero to the other side of the border.  Our courier had all of our passports stamped and met us at the Bolivian bus.

None of us had to go through customs or immigration.  We then boarded our new bus to take us to La Paz.

Our next stop was for lunch in Tiwanaku and a tour of a pre-Incan archeological site where we also observed a Shaman ceremony. 

Along the way were observed  numerous fields in what is known locally as the "High Plains" that were dedicated to the growth of Quinoa - the current darling of the international health food scene.  It is so dense with protein and essential amino acids that it has been called a "super food".  In 2013, the United States imported over 70 million pounds of quinoa - mainly from Peru and Bolivia.

We also experienced horrible road conditions that got worse the closer we got to La Paz.  In fact, when we finally reached El Alto, the 13.300 feet above sea level suburb of La Paz, we were given the choice of riding the new, aerial mass transit cable car system - Mi Teleferico - or continuing on by bus.

All of us chose the Mi Teleferico and it was a splendid ride taking us from 13,300 feet above sea level to our hotel which was only 10,700 feet above sea level.  The views of the city from the cable cars was magnificent.

We finally arrived at our hotel around 6:00 p.m.

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