Bolivia is a land-locked country. In the late 1800s, Chile fought Bolivia and Peru in the War of the Pacific. Chile won, and took over administration of land bordering the Pacific Ocean which Bolivia had previously controlled. Relations between Chile and Bolivia are still sour to this day over this fact. In fact, there are no official diplomatic relations between the two countries.
After the War of the Pacific, Bolivia opted to keep its naval forces in operation and moved the entire regiment to Lake Titicaca. It is the world's highest navigable lake at over 12,500ft ASL. It is an easy day trip from La Paz, and one Sunday Mauricio took me along with another friend to its shores for lunch.
The poverty of Bolivia is very evident driving along the altiplano towards the lake. Most of the houses are made out of earthen bricks, and the towns sit baking under the high-altitude sun. The soil is very poor, meaning that food cultivation is limited to potatoes. Vans packed with people on their way to/from La Paz speed down the straight, flat highway which is miraculously paved.
The lake was a beautiful sight. Its waters are very blue, and in the thin air the contrast with the brown earth is startling. We ate lunch in a restaurant on the shore, and then hired a boat to take us out on the water. I did not know that the lake is actually two lakes connected by a straight. The lake straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia. The Bolivians kept talking about how dirty the Peruvian side is: "Titi for us, Caca for them," they laughed. ("Caca" is Spanish for "crap".)
2 comments:
Heh-heh. he-he. Titicaca. Heh-heh-heh. (I'm typing my very best Beavis and Butthead laugh here.) Remember when we were in junior high in Mrs. Peterson's class, and we were learning geography and this one came up?
Welllll1! How about that Titicaca! The lake looks beautiful. I'm glad Bolivia got the titi and Peru got the caca. G
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