We liked Copacabana, but felt like we could go for even more chilling out, so on the recommendation of other travelers, we headed for Sorata. A tiny town snuggled into a valley beneath some of the Andes’ imposing peaks.

There’s no direct route from Copacabana. The two options are to take a bus from Copa towards La Paz, hop off at a fork-in-the-road town called Huarina and try to flag down a “mini-bus” (minivan) headed to Sorata. Or to get a four-hour bus to La Paz, which drops you in the potentially hazardous cemetery area, look for a bus to Sorata, which will be backtracking for at least two of the three-ish hour drive. We asked a LOT of people around Copacabana and most everyone recommended going all the way to La Paz. The mini-busses tend to fill up before even leaving La Paz, and continue to pick up passengers along the way. Especially on weekends (we were leaving on a Friday), you could be standing on the side of the road in Huarina for a long time before anyone came along with space for one, let alone two, more travelers.

Naturally we chose the Huarina-side-of-the-road route. Looking at a map and the placement of Copacabana, Sorata and La Paz, and knowing that we’d be heading to La Paz in a couple of days anyway, we just couldn’t bear the counterintuitive path that the first option would require us to take.

But our journey turned adventurous long before getting out at Huarina. Soon after departing Copacabana, busses have to ford Lake Titicaca at a town called Tiquina. As if it’s totally routine, all the local passengers start filing off the bus and buying tickets for a little motorboat to cross the lake. Once empty, our bus kept on keeping on until it was aboard a floating dock (seemingly powered by lawnmower engines) for a smooth ride across. We got to use a bathroom, buy drinks or snacks and wait for our bus where they highway resumes on the other side. We didn’t mind that the locals (everyone else on our bus) thought we were stupid for standing around taking pictures. Because… really:

It was smooth sailing after that and we were dropped off, alone, on the side of the road in Huarina, which looks like a tiny stretch of open-air restaurants and convenience stores on a piece of the highway. Traffic was steady, and we felt pretty good about our chances of getting a ride to Sorata. We left nice and early in the morning, so it was barely noon and the sun was shining strong—great weather for standing around and waving at cars and busses as they pass.

Fast forward a couple of hours and we’re getting nervous. There’s a town about 20 Km away where many of the mini-busses stop and let off passengers, before continuing on to Sorata. Our backup plan was to get there and find newly evacuated seats, but even cars and busses heading there wouldn’t stop for us. We took out a marker and a piece of paper and wrote SORATA to attempt to hitch with any of the many cars and trucks passing us by. We got some laughs, but no ride.

What came a little while later was the kind of scenario usually reserved for road trip movie montages: a nice family, father-mother-daughter, in a pickup truck filled with lumber. We hopped in the back of the truck and were off with an amazing view of the Andes. This was the exact ride Eric was hoping for, much cooler than being crammed in a mini-van with 15 others. We were loving life, and the view. The little girl in the truck apparently enjoyed the view also—she couldn’t stop staring at us and giggling, so a bit of peek-a-boo helped us pass the time as well.

Then it started to rain. Good thing we have covers on our backpacks and our raincoats were accessible. No big deal, right? But then it got really cold. Then it started to hail. Hard. Then, we are pretty sure we saw a tornado in the distance.

The driver pulled over and showed us that we were sitting on top of a heavy duty tarp, and if we wanted to keep going with him, we could get under it. So we passed a two-hour ride through hail, really cold rain and potentially a twister, on top of a pile of wood, under a tarp, bumping along the Bolivian highway. It was awesome and ridiculous all at the same time.

We got to Sorata and, as promised, it’s a sleepy little town with beautiful scenery. We stayed in a family-run Eco lodge called Altai Oasis with really lush gardens and a pair partnered-for-life Macaws. All of the food at the in-house restaurant is tourist-ified, so we were able to binge on fruits and veggies which we’ve sadly had to avoid at a lot of places due to uncertainty about the water and cleanliness. Aside from a minor cold Laura got on the truck adventure, our bodies were so happy to be there.

Here’s where we were:
(Sorata, Bolivia)