In the morning of Puno, we were transfered to the bus that we will pass the frontier to Bolivia, along with a whole bunch of gringoes. I met the Japanese guys again, the ones that I was showing off my Japanese, they looked exhausted. I saw two guys on the corner, at the very back of the bus, looking Argentinian to me, I told Piril...Then one of the guys started talking to me and we became friends in 10 minutes!!! They were Gustavo and Gabriel (Gaybriel as he called himself, though he is straight!), Chilean brothers, one is forestry engineer and the other one is electronical engineer, 
living in Chile. On the bus, we did not talk much, as the journey was a little bumpy. Crossing the border to Bolivia was a smooth process, you first exit Peru and enter Bolivia, that simple...After we passed the border, it took only 8 kms to reach Copacabana in Bolivia. I was expecting Copacabana a nicer place, but seemed like a tiny town which owes all its fame to Isla del Sol (the Sun Island) in Lake Titicaca. We headed to a restaurant in Copacabana, later Gabriel and Gustavo joined us and we made a long conversation about the beauties of Istanbul and Turkey. By the way, Piril and I gave them Turkish names, as they looked exactly like Turkish! Gabriel was Mustafa and Gustavo was Deniz!!! After a quick lunch, we took the boat to take us to Isla del Sol. We were told 
1 hour about the duration of the boat trip, but it took 2 hours!!! Well, after all, between the moment we arrived in Isla del Sol and we left, we had 1/2 hour!!! All I had was a photo in front of Inca Steps and listen to the call of the nature!!!The we came back to catch the bus to take us to La Paz. Gustavo and Gabriel was on another bus, so we decided to meet in La Paz and said goodye. Our bus was stinking, it was an oldie, there were 3 adults and 2 kids, and a dog occupying 2 seats next to ours! The journey was a quite winding one...The bus, at some point, passed Lake Titicaca on a small boat or row boaty like thing, which worked with some primitive engine and during that 15 minutes,
I prayed all the prayers I knew so far!!! Thank God, we survived and continued the trip. The bus started descending into a bowl like city...La Paz is the highest capital of the world, it is about 3500 m from sea level...It was quite scarry but interesting at the same time, to descend into a bowl like town! We arrived in La Paz at about 22:00, headed the hostel that Gabriel recommended, Gloria as Piril had a bad headache, we just showered and went to bed. The hostel looked pretty dirty, so we woke up in the morning, gave our laundry to the lavanderia and went to 
Estrella Andina Hostel to bargain the price. We found out that Gustavo and Gabriel were staying there too! However, they had gone to experience the "Most Dangerous Road of the World", a very narrow descending road on the bicycle, where the usual traffic flows. We had some breakfast, bought our flight for Sucre from a nice lady, did our city tour, came back, moved our backpacks to Estrella Andina...And met the chicos for dinner!
Dinner...We went to the nearby Hard Rock Cafe which had the slowest service and the worst Greek Salad I have ever had...The chatting with the guys was nice though. They are really polite, very nice and well educated.
Their food, long awaited food was nice...After the dinner, we decided to meet up for breakfast and see the rest of the city together. They were going to fly back to Santiago at noon time, so we woke up early and showed them a little bit around...We had tickets for an afternoon tour at La Paz, that was our plan...
At about 10:30, they left, we ate something and took the Hop on Hop Off Bus at La Paz. It rained from time to time, there was a audio guide system on the bus. They showed us inside and outside of La Paz and the Moon Valley, which resembled a little bit Cappadocia to me. We came back to the hotel and crashedThe next day, we took it slowly and went to the airport to fly to Sucre. They took us aboard the plane but later we were kicked out as the plane was delayed due to bad weather conditions in Sucre. We had lunch and finally we flew. The plane was Aerosur and 
we liked the service too, they gave us a lunch box as a courtesy...We arrived in Sucre, went to La Cruz del Popayan Hostel and really liked it. It was 31st of Dec, the last day of the year and it seemed like we were going to stay there 2 days!!! It was time to explore Sucre...
Sucre...Sucre thinks like Arequipa, it is a colonial city and the state of Chuquisaca wants independence...The buildings are lovely, the main city center is pretty compact...We liked it...We wandered around, Piril bought stuff, I took pictures...We found a place to eat our NY eve dinner, a bar which probably is full of gringoes! We came back, took some rest and went to have our dinner. Our table was lovely, we had a Cabernet Sauvignon Vino Tinto and various appetizers to share on our table...It was a rich and nice table. Then 
some Dutch and American friends joined to our table, until 10 we were there and we left. I could not see the midnight as I fell to sleep, but I barely remember hearing the fireworks...I opened my eyes and it was already 2008!!! Happy New Year to you all!!1st of Jan in Latin America and most of the places is a day of descanso (take a rest). People do not work, they don´t even go out from their homes...However, the supermarket was open! We had some lunch, walked around, tried to find bus tickets for Uyuni via Potosi...There was a direct bus, but we could not purchase its tickets, as 1st of Jan was holiday. I had a lazy day, watching TV, taking some rest and getting some stuff for dinner at our patio...
The next day was going to be a very long one, so we went to bed early...We were going first to Potosi and then to Uyuni and were going to look for a trip on Salar de Uyuni...
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