The border crossing into Bolivia was a breeze. It took me longer on the Bolivian side because I needed a tourist visa. Can you believe that it cost $160 for a visa? Yikes, plus I paid the little shop next door 70Bs to help print out all the needed documents. All in all, we made it through in an hour. Notice where I placed my sticker! Near this border crossing at Kasani is the beautiful looking town of Copacabana settled into a bay on Lake Titicaca. This is probably where people with money from La Paz come to vacation.
A "ferry" would be a very generous word. To cross the Straight of Tiquina we took this little boat across Lake Titicaca. There were some with full-sized tourist busses on them! Getting the motorcycles on was one thing, but getting them off was quite a challenge. Once on the other side we had to back the bikes over the ramp. At 12,500 feet - I was winded by this exercise!
Incredible views of Lake Titicaca continued as we made our way to La Paz. The traffic was crazy. Absolutely jammed, but we forced our way through. It's not easy on this fully-loaded big bikes. Steep roads led us down from El Alto into La Paz. We found our hotel in the historical center of town. The hotel has parking...it's a single lane garage with a big door. With the help of a few others we pushed the bikes up the road to get in. Going around the block seemed to a feat none of us wanted to tackle. A group of other foreigners stood and watch this spectacle we performed!
By the way the money here is Bolivian Boliviano, also called BOB and represented by the symbol Bs. For example, my meal last night was 62Bs.
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