The next day we covered the rest of our journey to our next country…Bolivia.
We stopped at a house to fill up with fuel just before the border, crossed easily and drove to Copacobana and the shores of the highest navigable lake in the world! Lake Titicaca.

We parked Peggy on the shore and walked up the nearby hill to enjoy the view and stopped for a bottle of wine on a restaurant balcony and soaked up yet another sunset. We pondered on how crazy it was that in only 2 days we were in a completely different country and so high up (12,504 feet) at a ‘seaside’ town, it was such a strange feeling!

The following morning we woke up early to enjoy the view for a while before we carried on towards La Paz. We had some serious miles to cover in a short space of time as we had arranged to meet new friends in Chile within a fortnight and we had 2,541 yet to go! We found our way to the Panamericana (a road we generally avoid at all costs as it is a road PAST everything) and settled in for a day driving. The road wound beautifully around the mountain tops and we stopped several times on our route to gape at the scenery, similar to Peru in landscape, beauty and abundance of Alpaca roaming in the fields.

We watched a lady tend to her rather strange assortment of animals; pigs, calves, alpaca, sheep and a dog and wondered where she was going and more importantly where on earth she had come from! We were literally in the middle of nowhere, mountains to the left of us, lakes and arid plains to our right and a long winding road afore and aft with not a passing car!

We soaked up the air, the beauty and the freedom as we sailed easily up and down hills with Peggys shiny new fuel pump. What a relief we felt. We were making good time and were on cloud 9 when the road seemed to come to an end in a tiny village square. The dialect in Bolivia was again totally different to the Spanish we had become accustomed to and as we asked for directions none of the answers seemed to make any sense. We drove around the tiny square several times and took both of the roads off it twice to find ourselves back in the same place!

In the end someone took pity on us and led us to the edge of a lake and pointed at a wooden raft! We looked out on the lake and sure enough saw a bus full of people on a tiny wooden raft sailing towards us. A man appeared from nowhere, put some planks of wood down and beckoned us to drive onto the raft. We held our breath, dropped Peggy a gear and drove her onto the awaiting ‘boat’. We waited a while and another small van tucked up tightly behind us and off we went, powered by a tiny petrol engine across to the other side. We spent the journey mainly gobsmacked that this was the PANAMERICANA…the road my Mum dearly wanted us to take to save us being in any danger…and it just ended! And put us on a handmade wooden crate slowly filling with water to take us across a lake…hilarious!

Of course the fun REALLY began when we went to get Peggy OFF the raft. We came to a bumpy halt and the ‘captain’ tied the raft to the ‘dock’ and we went to turn Peggy on to drive off and….NOTHING. No power. The battery was totally flat! Not just a bit flat…TOTALLY! nada, naught, zero, caput!

The ‘captain’ and the driver of the other van came to inspect the problem and we all agreed it must be the battery. With nothing else for it but to push Peggy off the ramp that is exactly what they did. The 3 of them pushed her 3 tonnes up the wooden ramp and let her roll off the other side onto the shore. The ‘captain’ took his raft to another docking station to let the other van off and politely waited while we upended the bed, pulled out the back battery (that runs the lights etc) and balanced it on the rotting shelf that somehow held the old one. Once connected she started fine and we paid for our crossing and embarked on our next adventure! Finding a new battery in the middle of nowhere up a mountain in Bolivia!!!

Our lives are never dull!

We drove 200 km to La Paz…a city with a population of 9 million at 13,500 feet  clinging to the Andean mountain range and before getting too far into the mayhem of the actual city we stopped for fuel and to ask for directions to a battery shop.

The attendant was more than happy to help with directions but refused to sell us fuel! We shrugged and went to the next gas station where the same happened! After 4 attempts we struck lucky. The attendant looked around like he was dealing in illegal firearms as he filled our tank. He was trying to explain to us why we couldn’t have fuel but we couldn’t understand. He told us it would be double the ‘local’ price but we needed it so agreed. Once the tank was full he asked Alex how much he was willing to pay! They bartered too and fro and eventually settled on a price! We paid and left confounded but happy we had managed to fill up!

Gasoline in Bolivia is very cheap due to government subsidization, which means drive in from neighbouring countries such as Argentina and Chile to fill up their tanks.  To counteract this, Bolivia passed a law in December of 2011 stating that vehicles with foreign plates need to pay a price about 3 times higher than the standard rate.

However, the nationalised gas company has yet to create the paperwork for the gas stations in order for them to process this higher price. Because of this, many gas stations just turn away vehicles with foreign plates.

Anyway after all the excitement with the gas we finally found a battery shop. We switched out our back battery for the new one, hooked up our back battery and as per usual ended up tackling the city at rush hour 5pm with no map and no idea where we were going. We were lost for 2 hours and we were finally directed by someone in English and could work out where to go. We followed our instructions which led to us driving up a cliff face (and thats only with 10% exaggeration) and thanking the powers that be that we had managed to get Peggy fixed otherwise we would be stuck forever more in the bowl that is La Paz. After driving uphill seemingly for hours we found some flat land, pulled over, ate dinner and went to bed exhausted.

Alex can sleep through pretty much anything but we were both awoken in the night by the most horrifying sound! We sat bolt upright and tried to peer through the window into the blackness to see where the sound was coming from. The night was so black and the only light was from the odd passing car and we couldn’t see a thing but we could hear it! We watched and listened and decided it could only be a cow SCREAMING! When I say screaming, I don’t mean MOOING, it was awful and I will never forget it. I guessed it must be giving birth or something and though it was awful I guessed it would have the baby and then be quiet again but it didn’t! It went on all night and others even joined in until around 3am when I think someone came and put the screaming cows into a van and drove them away! Anyway, needless to say we had a restless night and had to drag ourselves into consciousness for the drive to the Chilean border once the sun came up.

Another day, another country, another adventure! I wonder what the person who coined the phrase ‘never a dull moment’ thinks of our trip?!