Road trip around lake Titicaca: From one country to another

So we finally left La Paz with bus (bus company Lake Titicaca, which was kind of cheap but also not very comfortable) and headed on a three hour journey on a very cramped bus, this included a boat ride over The biggest lake in South America; Lake Titicaca. It felt so, so, so nice being close to water again and getting away from the busy city.

We finally arrived to our destination; the little village of Copacobana. It's so small so we were able to walk from the bus station to our hostel, where we ended up on the top floor and had the nicest view over the gorgeous town.

The lady who owns the hostel we stayed at was soooo nice and friendly, and she said that we can feel safe here. "La Paz is loco, aqui es MUY tranquilo" to quote what she said when we told her about our misunfortunates in La Paz.

Unfortunately, just a few hours in our stay in Copa I started to feel ill (seems like the altitudes finally got to me with strong power) which affected our remaining days here and led to some very, very chilled days. I guess it was a good place to chill, so I guess I was lucky in a way. We didn't have to go far to find food, but since Copa is a town surrounded by its tourism industry, it was pretty expensive to eat out but we managed to find some pretty good deals in the end (you just have to make sure not to eat on the Main Street and by the beach to keep the costs low)

Almost all restaurants here looks the same. They all offer sandwiches, pasta and pizza and all have set menu for lunch. Most of them 20-25 Bolivianos. We tried one of them one day, where we actually managed to get a vegan three course meal which to be homages, was pretty bad, but it did fill me up. Quinoa soup is always a winner in that way!

We also found an expensive (in Bolivian terms anyway) restaurant called Thai Palace with sushi (!) and tofu. Even though most of the things of the menu was pretty prices, we managed to find the meals with lowest price that still filled us up. I had a lentil Dahl with tofu and it was lush! Especially the tummy rice that came with it.

And you know how they say that soup is healing food for your soul? (Or do they, I don't know but it feels like something someone wise would've said). With plenty of coca tea on the site and a big bowl of soup I did feel much better that night we went to veg-friendly restaurant La Orilla (which is also pretty privet for Bolivia! But you do get a lot of food as well and the daily soup is vegan and cheap!)

Guy went all in here on our last night in Copa and ordered the veggie tacos which was a lot of food even for him. (And yep the hand sanitizer comes along to all of our meals of course!)

After three nights Copacabana, we jumped on the next bus and left this last village by Lake Titicaca before the Peruvian border. So with this bus we left Bolivia and had a four hour journey to Puno in Peru.

The bus journey went fine. I've never done a boarder crossing like this before so it was definately an experience. The border control was only like a 10 minute drive from the bus station in Copacabana and went fairly smoothly. First we had go check-out from the Bolivian side and all we needed to do so was our passports, the little visa note we got when we entered Bolivia and a form that the bus staff provided us with to fill in. After that we walked over the border where our bus was waiting to go into the border control on the Peruvian side and the same stuff applied here really. 

After about an hour of queuing and waiting for everyone else on our bus be done, we could jump on the bus again and continue the journey. 

We arrived to Puno where we only had two days and started to explore the town straight away. We went nuts on shopping and ended up buying loads of DVDs and a Rubik's cube.. Now I just need to find the patience to actually learn how to solve it.

There is not much going on in Puno, unless you want to go on the floating islands which we didn't really feel like as we heard they're just a tourist trap. Another popular thing to do is to go up the the condor view point, but after reading reviews about people getting robbed there we turned that down as well and decided to have another few chilled days, which I think was necessary aswell.

This is gonna sound really sad, but the best things about Puno for me was the food we were able to find. First of all, we numbed into a funny place called MachuPizza, which was actually a really nice restaurant with really nice food and that was actually really cheap compared to many, many of the other restaurants around downtown Puno.

And I mean. Their pasta pesto was made with avocado, for only 10 soles, so how can one NOT be happy here??

The biggest joy for me though, was to find a Loving Hut that was actually opened! Loving hut is a vegetarian restaurant chain and I been wanting to visit one for ages but always when I've been in a city that has one it's either just shut down competent, or it's simply been closed. But this one wasn't so yay!

The guy working there who I guess was the manager was super friendly and explained they're complacent menu as if he had never done it before. They have sooo many different options to choose between that you almost get dizzy. I settled for the daily set menu, but was still couldn't decide at all what to get for a long time as it was many different choices there aswell!

In the end I had the quinoa soup for starters, BBQ seitan for main (and it was so incredible har I kept eating even though my stomach couldn't take it anymore) and a vegan quinoa cake & cheesecake for dessert. Mamma Mia. I wish there was a Loving Hut in every town!

And so on our last morning in Puno it was time to take yet another bus, this time taking us to Cusco. We went with bus company Cruz del Sur, which was really good. The journey took about 6-7 hours and was really comfy, since it wasn't many people on the bus, the seats were really comfortable and they showed movies the whole way which made the time go really quick. 

I'll be back with a Cusco-update soon my lovers. 

La Paz - The Peace.. Or something like that

The first 2 weeks of our backpacking trip through south- and central America haven't been off the the easiest start. It could have been a lot worse of course, so we have been pretty lucky in a way as well and we are really trying to stay positive and we are still extremely happy to be doing this trip. But due to altitude sickness not getting any better we haven't really been up to that much during the days. Just trying to rest and drink loads of mate.

Therefore we skipped the death road in La Paz and ended up walking up and down the very busy streets in the rain (it was raining constantly for all the three days we spent there), doing a little bit of shopping (which is when my precious iphone was pick-pocketed..) and also went up on the yellow and red cable car. They have many different cable cars with stunning views over this massive valley-city. It only costs 3 Bolivianos to go up one way, and most locals seem to use the cabel car to commute to work, while for us tourists is one of the main attractions in La Paz.

I found the biggest avocado I ever seen as well, one day when I saw an old lady on the side of the street selling it for 7 Bolivianos. What a bargain! Late that night we could make a bath of guacamole just from that one avocado.

There are also some vegetarian restaurants that pops up on the HappyCow app and we tried to find many of them, but failed. To be honest, I do not like La Paz at all, and wouldn't bother going there if you are not doing the Death Road. It's cold, wet, too crowded and it is VERY common that tourists gets robbed apparently. When we went to the police station after my phone accident, we did meet this group of really sweet and helpful Bolivian women (they made my day by the way. Isn't it great how friendly people can change your mood immediately?)  who could help us urge the police officers to actually help us with our situation instead of sitting there in the waiting room, confused and lost. Anyway, the last thing they said to us when we were gonna leave was "Welcome to Bolivia".

I guess alot of people have better experiences of La Paz than I do, but I mean, just trying to look for vegetarian restaurants is a hassle, since the traffic is absolutely manic and I felt as if I was gambling with my life every time I tried to cross the street. I don't know why it is called La Paz (Peace) as it is not peaceful at all.

The only places in La Paz I actually enjoyed was the only vegan restaurant in the city (which I unfortunately do not have any photos of, because yeah, you know, my phone is missing), you just have to trust me when I say that the food here was really yummy. It's called;

Reencuentro con la Naturaleza

and have very friendly staff and the food is very nutritious and healthy. The only serve the set meal, which changes every day. But every day you get salad, soup, two mains to choose between and tea. We went here almost every day it felt like and had mains like potatoes stuffed with soy meat, quinoa with sauteed veggies and creamy sauce, lentil stews and veggie tart. It was really cheap as well, only 18 Bolivianos for this lunch feast!

On our way back home from the police station it was almost as if someone wanted to cheer us up when we suddenly stumbled across Tomate Vegetarian Cafe, where they have loads of vegan options to choose between for a cheap price (three different kinds of burgers! lentil, quinoa and soy). We had a soy burger each for only 18 Bolivianos, with which you got fries and tofu and it was so lush that I think I was dancing on pink clouds for a bit. Not only that - they do vegan milkshakes! I had one with papaya and I also tried their soy milk hot chocolate.. bliss!

Uyuni - for all you salt lovers out there

On my dads birthday this year, I sent him a birthday wish from one of the most magical places I ever been to; Salar de Uyuni - the worlds largest salt flat.

It is basically a desert covered with salt and it felt unreal to be here. Because I've seen snow white photos from the salt flats before I just stupidly thought that it was gonna be really cold (especially since it was freezing in the morning when we left our hostel!) so I brought plenty of warm clothes. I didn't think about that this is a desert, and works like a desert usually does - super hot in the day and super cold in the night. Did I mention we didn't even think about putting on sun cream? Yeah I know. Stupid. My face is still sore from the sun burn from this day out..

Apart from the amazing views, the most fun part about this trip is trying to take funny photos. It is really a place to use your imagination!

Another small thing we didn't really realise before, was that some parts of this desert is covered with water, which makes it look much much cooler, and also gives you salt covered feet. (Not to mention salt covered jeans when you lay down to try to take cool photos..)

We went only went on a one day tour to the salt flats from Uyuni, which we booked with Tito Tours when we got to the little town of Uyuni the night before. There are loads of travel agencies to choose between in Uyuni. As soon as you get off the bus there are plenty of people ready to try to get you to join their tour. So you definitely don't have to worry about booking in advance, whether you do like us a one day or overnight (you can book trips to go through the salt flats to Chile! A pretty cool way to enter a new country!)

So the night before our trip, we simply went to the Tito tour office where two helpful women helped us to book, for a really good price, only 130 Bolivianos per person, which included lunch (and believe it or not, they were very understanding about my food requirements.. And when the lunch consisted of heaps of avocado, rice, veggies and potatoes - I am happy anyway) and a Spanish speaking guide who drove us around the salt flats along with the rest of our group. And apparently I'm the only one from the group that cannot jump..

We were picked up from the travel agency at 10:30 (although let's face it, this is South America, by the time we actually took of it was like 11:30), then we went to a couple of stops; a market and a old deserted train before we spent the rest of the time out in the white daze. After a few hours we were pretty tied though and it was a bit like, okay, I'm spoilt and have seen it now. And with that heating sun we were absolutely exhausted when we got back to Uyubi, where we had to go back to our hostel from the night before to pick up our bags and wait for the night bus to take us to La Paz. 

Oh and foodwise in Uyuni - super easy. It's a small place, where they only seem to have Italian/Mexican restaurants (honestly, all of their menus looks almost the same..but) = GUACAMOLE VEGGIE BURRITOS and PASTA. Can't complain at all.

A vegan in Sucre, Bolivia

It's now been a week in the cute little capital of Bolivia, Sucre. I still cannot believe that I'm actually in Bolivia. This is a country that I have been wanting to go to for ages - ever since I heard that McDonalds was banned from the country I've been interested to get to know this place. Turns out that Bolivians rather buy their burgers form the local street vendors rather than buying them from giant evil food chains. Apparantley though, this McDonalds-ban also has to do with the president being pretty anti-Western, so anti-Western that the clock on the constituation building in La Paz is anti-clockwise. The government claim that they are being creative and does not have to obey Western principles.. 

Speaking of the Government. Today the referendum is held, which means that the people of Bolivia vote yes or no for constituational amendments removing restrictions on the number of presidential terms. Because of this, everything in Bolivia is shut; all stores, restaurants etc. We were meant to leave Sucre today to go to Uyuni, but had to stay another night because all the roads are closed and there are no buses running. 

A week here has gone really fast though. I feel like all I've done is study Spanish and eat. So I can't really complain. I started a language school on Tuesday and have had private classes 3 hours a day for 5 days and only during this time I feel like my Spanish have improved lots! Could be because I have to use it alot, since it is pretty rare that people here understand English. Even my spanish teacher didn't understand much English. Sounds strange, but I think this actually made me learn more, only speaking Spanish during a whole class. 

Sucre in itself is a gorgeous small capital, crowded with many people. It is almost as if the town cannot hold all of its citizens. The streets are cramped all the time, mostly with locals but also some other tourists who are most of them here to study Spanish as well (there are so many Spanish schools to choose between here!)

The capital lies 2810 meters above sea level, and because of this we've had mild altitude sickness since we arrived. We've had some trouble sleeping and constant head ache, but it usually gets better with drinking tea with coca leaves. It is good that we have started off here in Sucre though, because I can already feel my body getting used to the altitude and we are gonna go even higher when we go to Uyuni and La Paz next week. 

And so, to the most important thing - food. Thanks AGAIN to happycow.net, my travel saviour, we've found some really good gems and it hasn't been hard at all to live in Sucre as a vegan. I've loved being here foodwise. I mean you'll find cheap avocados (that also taste divine) in the central market (where you can also find all veggies, fruits, bread, nuts and food you can imagine), but stuff that are really expensive at home are really common and cheap here. In an ordinary bread roll that comes with your quinoa soup, is made with chia seeds. This is definitely something I could get used to.

Here is a little list of the food that we've found during our week. Since there is only one fully vegan restaurant, we did go back to the same restaurant more than once instead of having to go to meaty restaurants where you have to ask for the ingredient for everything all the time.

PREM El Arte De Vivir
Open for lunch, and dinner (according to staff, but not in real life..)

Prem is the vegan mecka of Sucre. We went straight here on our first day in Sucre and fell in love immediately. Here in Bolivia, a breakfast usually only consist of coffee or tea and maybe a piece of bread and for lunch (almuerzo) they go ALL IN with a three or four course meal. Almost every restaurant offer a set menu for lunch, and so Prem does the same but of course, all vegan. 

We went for lunch here two times. For starters they served lentil soup and the other time quinoa soup and there is also a salad buffet available every day included in the set lunch. For main we had pasta pesto the first time, and the a shepards pie with soy meat and for dessert we've had rice pudding (which I'm not the biggest fan of unfortuantely..). Apart from all of that, you also get a drink and for all of this AMAZING food which makes you feel like you have to roll you way out from the restaurant, you only have to pay 25 Bolivianos (!)

After two lunches here though, I started to feel bad for not being able to eat it all up. I'm not able to eat that much in the middle of the day when it's hot out. So we tried to go by for dinner a few times, but all of the times it was closed (seems like they had trouble finding staff that's been able to work their shifts..). Which is very unfortunate as their dinner menu looks amazing - soya burgers, burritos etc. It's a shame that you can only get the set 3 course menu during lunch and not be able to choose anything else. Except for one time when they sold cupcakes for 4 Bolivianos..

Condor Cafe
Open 8:30am-11:30pm

Condor Cafe is the only vegetarian restaurant in Sucre that is opened from morning to evening. The great thing about this cafe is that much of the profits goes to their non-profit organisation, which aims to end poverty in Bolivia.

Unfortunately there aren't that many vegan options, but their daily soup is vegan and is only 8 Bolivianos! Their coffee is amazing and they also do delicious sandwiches (they have a falafel sandwich which I never tried, but it LOOKS good. Yep I know cause I was staring at others peoples orders..)

Other veg-friendly places we've visited

This Thai Restaurant That I Can't Remember the Name of!
Only on the road down from Condor, before the 25 de Mayo square!
Open for lunch and dinner

A really cosy restaurants which offers a couple of vegan meals. Chiang Mai Noodles, beer and crisps was a very good combo (Yes, the noodles are egg-free!)

El Germen 
Open for lunch and dinner

I think we found the darkest place in Sucre, when we found El Germen on a Thursday night. There was no one in there, it was quite and hardly any lights. A bit creepy actually, and I don't know why we didn't turn around to run, I guess we were too hungry. They do not have much vegan on their menu at all, the lentil burger and soy burger unfortunately contains egg, so I had a tofu and tomato fry thin instead which was lush. So I am glad we stayed in the end. And they did put music on in the background after we sat down..

Florin
Open morning - late

And so we found quinoa again. This time, in the form of a burger in a dutch owned pub. On Tuesday nights they have burger night, with 20% off all burgers that we took advantage off and only paid 26 Bolivianos for our burger with fries. That is basically the only vegan thing you'll find in there though.