BOLIVIA

Pat and Debora crossed their 14th border into Bolivia quickly enough, aside from pathetic attempts at bribes by police on both sides.  By mid morning they were in Copacabana on the southwestern end of Lake Titicaca and soon hopped on a boat headed for Isla Del Sol at the cost of a few U.S. dollars.  According to myth this was the birth place of the first Inca who was delivered to the island by the Sun and came to life out of a sacred stone.  Deb and Pat landed on shore at the first available port and walked for several hours from village to village along the rural island pathways arriving on a beautiful cove beach at sunset where they drank liters of beer and found a room for about $4.00 U.S.  The toilet was broken, and there was no shower, but the shorefront view from the bedroom window was great.  The following day they continued along on foot admiring the snowcapped mountains across the lake.  By noon they reached the north shore where lots of young South Americans and other tourists sun bathed on the beach.  Pat and Deb joined in before catching the next boat back to Copacabana where their beloved car waited in a hotel parking lot.  

Upon exiting town they were forced to stop at a rope stretched across the road where scum-shit cops convinced them to pay an "obligatory exit fee," which was really just robbery.  With a very bitter attitude they drove onward trying to appreciate the surrounding beauty as they approached a short ferry crossing to the east side of the lake.  They quickly loaded themselves and their car onto a boat, skillfully captained by a young boy, and soon they said goodbye to Lake Titicaca driving into the night towards La Paz.  A full moon rose from behind the giant roadside mountains and illuminated their snowy peaks.  Later than they would have liked, Debora and Pat rolled into down town La Paz and navigated the busy streets packed full of pedestrians who were not at all concerned by the motorized vehicles forcing their way through chaos.  After penetrating the city center, they passed on through to the other side of town and eventually found a (pay by the hour) motel in its sketchy outskirts.  Debora insisted they change the sheets and blanket as they had obviously just recently been used, and in the morning the clerk tried to charge more than originally quoted.  That was enough La Paz for them, so they left and headed southeastwardly through the desert towards Cochabamba.  

Out of the desert and over some mountains, they descended into a large valley where the touristic city of Cochabamba sat.  This marked the end of the dominant presence of Inca culture along their route,  which began to appear  along the Andes in northern Ecuador and intensified in southern-central Peru and northwestern Bolivia.  Driving into this city everything began to look more familiar again: more factory produced clothing than hand knitted wool attire; modern houses instead of mud buildings with grass roofs; fewer herds of sheep along the highway, etc.  After a night in a nice hostel they headed up and over some more mountains and found themselves back in the jungle.  Their car underwent a thorough search at a narcotics checkpoint, and by dusk they stopped in Warnes, what appeared to be a suburban working class town to the nearby city of Santa Cruz De La Sierra, and they got a room for a reasonable price.  The following day they drove through Santa Cruz and up a river valley towards touristic Samaipata and its surrounding towns, which are partly famous for Che Guevara's presence in the area just before he was captured and executed by Bolivian and U.S. forces.  Samaipata's nearby archeological site provided Deb and Pat with some mild historic interest and a little exercise with its short walk around the stone ruins.  After that they payed a couple of bucks to camp in nearby Cuevas and visited the impressive waterfall in the morning.  

This day started off with heavy rains, and on their way driving back down along the river they had to wait for road workers to clear new landslides from the road.  After a few hundred kilometers on the highway they stayed in Camiri, their last stop in Bolivia before heading towards its border with Argentina the following morning.  That evening, while they walked a few blocks to find some internet access and dinner, rain suddenly fell in a torrential downpour lasting for only about an hour.  The streets turned into small rivers.  They waited and watched from inside until it stopped then headed back to enjoy their room.  It would be the last one they'd have for weeks to come.

TRICKS:

Relatively cheap gas.

Last country visited with cheap food, rooms, souvenirs, etc.

TROUBLES:

Many corrupt cops, and they controlled a lot of the toll road pay booths which often didn't have prices posted.

Power steering pump began to fail.