La Paz Backpacking Eight Months On the Road Bus Through South America By David Rice |
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La Paz
Page Forty
Page Forty
| La Paz Backpacking by Bus In South America Eight Months On the Road By David Rice |
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Page 10
La Paz, Persian Carpets
I bought a ticket for La Paz in Bolivia and we left at ten PM, reaching La
Paz in mid morning. I had visited La Paz before so I knew where I
wanted to stay. I headed towards the Hotel Torino in the middle of the
large city.
I was on my way home now, back to Missouri so I spent just two nights in
La Paz, a city of over a million at 3,500 meters above sea level, too high
for most airliners to fly into and consequently an expensive place to buy
air line tickets from the lines that do serve the airport. I was looking for
air passage to Colombia but the price in La Paz was too much.
From the Southern Altiplano the land drops severely and in a canyon at
the edge of this extreme, the city of La Plaz occupies the valley on a
tributary of the Amazon. I walked the streets in the wealthy section of
town and spotted a store selling Persian carpets, ones similar to carpets
that I collect. The store had a sign advertising 50% off.
In I went and found that they were good quality Cashmere carpets some
of cotton and some of wool. I bought a nice Persian carpet that came
from Kazan, a great center of carpet making in Iran. I paid $150 for that
one and I bought another made in Cashmere, a prayer carpet of cotton.
Now I had some extra baggage that I would need to carry with me on my
return and I needed to wrap them in opaque plastic.
Next day I bought my bus ticket to Copacabana, a small town on lake
Titicaca at the border of Bolivia and Peru. This little town is not much
more than a transport hub for trips to Peru. Of note, however, Isla del
Sol, five miles off shore in Titicaca, was once the most important
religious site in South America, the place, according to ancient legend,
where the sun and the moon were created.
From Copacabana I caught a bus heading for Arequipa. With no roads
or bridges across the lake, the bus made the lake passage aboard a
raft. The passengers boarded a boat while the empty bus crossed the
lake on a rickety raft. Later, on the opposite shore, bus, raft, and
passenger met and we were again on the road.
Now I was on my way north on the west side of Peru to Quito in Ecuador
but first I wanted to make a side trip to Lima. I had read in an airline
magazine article on the plane from Easter Island about a store in Lima
that sold baby Alpaca scarves, a wool as fine as cashmere, and I
wanted to take a look.
I bought a ticket for La Paz in Bolivia and we left at ten PM, reaching La
Paz in mid morning. I had visited La Paz before so I knew where I
wanted to stay. I headed towards the Hotel Torino in the middle of the
large city.
I was on my way home now, back to Missouri so I spent just two nights in
La Paz, a city of over a million at 3,500 meters above sea level, too high
for most airliners to fly into and consequently an expensive place to buy
air line tickets from the lines that do serve the airport. I was looking for
air passage to Colombia but the price in La Paz was too much.
From the Southern Altiplano the land drops severely and in a canyon at
the edge of this extreme, the city of La Plaz occupies the valley on a
tributary of the Amazon. I walked the streets in the wealthy section of
town and spotted a store selling Persian carpets, ones similar to carpets
that I collect. The store had a sign advertising 50% off.
In I went and found that they were good quality Cashmere carpets some
of cotton and some of wool. I bought a nice Persian carpet that came
from Kazan, a great center of carpet making in Iran. I paid $150 for that
one and I bought another made in Cashmere, a prayer carpet of cotton.
Now I had some extra baggage that I would need to carry with me on my
return and I needed to wrap them in opaque plastic.
Next day I bought my bus ticket to Copacabana, a small town on lake
Titicaca at the border of Bolivia and Peru. This little town is not much
more than a transport hub for trips to Peru. Of note, however, Isla del
Sol, five miles off shore in Titicaca, was once the most important
religious site in South America, the place, according to ancient legend,
where the sun and the moon were created.
From Copacabana I caught a bus heading for Arequipa. With no roads
or bridges across the lake, the bus made the lake passage aboard a
raft. The passengers boarded a boat while the empty bus crossed the
lake on a rickety raft. Later, on the opposite shore, bus, raft, and
passenger met and we were again on the road.
Now I was on my way north on the west side of Peru to Quito in Ecuador
but first I wanted to make a side trip to Lima. I had read in an airline
magazine article on the plane from Easter Island about a store in Lima
that sold baby Alpaca scarves, a wool as fine as cashmere, and I
wanted to take a look.
