Bolivia: Copacabana

We finally finished the Peruvian leg of our South American tour and headed off with much anticipation to Bolivia. A short 3 hour bus ride brought us to the border, where we all (tourist bus, so all travelers) unloaded, changed our Peruvian soles to Bolivians (more very thin, crinkled and always counterfeit looking funny money!!) and walked over to the Peruvian immigration to get our departure stamp. A quick scarf of a excellent tasting saltena (filled with potato and mixed veggies surrounded by a flaky pastry exterior) and we walked into Bolivia. As simple as that.

The road was crammed with street vendors selling everything under the sun, busses, vans and random dogs. Into the Bolivian immigration, 3 stamps later and our 30 days visa was granted in 30 seconds. No hassles. Another new country and only 8km to Copacabana. Not the famous beach in Rio, but a quaint little village on the shores of Lake Titicaca where another boat tour was waiting to take everybody out to Isla de Sol to see the ruins of the birthplace of the first Incas. After our last slow boat to China, we were not even tempted to investigate the tour, rather happy to just chill for the rest of the day and next morning, as our bus to La Paz did not leave until 1330.

Our hostel was bare bones to say the least, but an interesting introduction to Bolivia at a mere Bs20 for the night. (current exchange is $1USD = Bs8) The communal toilet was up or down one flight of stairs and the shower, well we never found it, therefore foregoing freezing our asses off trying to get squirt of hot water for that day. We decided to wait another day until La Paz when we could secure a bano privado. After 4 days on the Inca Trail, what was one more day?

We headed up to the sun terrace, where we met an array of other travelers from Oz, Scotland, Chile, Denmark and Finland. After we bolted off for some lunch, we rejoined the above travelers with some beers and continued chatting about our random travels and then decided to head down to the beach to get some warmth from the sun as it was slowly dipping into Lake Titicaca, promising a good view from shore side.

Rach and I were treated to a great view from the sand, surrounded by hundreds of local kids who were out and about celebrating something. Seems every little town we hit has some sort of festival going on. Sharing an incredible curry, we bundled up and decided to call it a night. Well the night actually lasted a long time as our bed was the worst ¨taco¨ anyone has ever encountered. No matter how hard we tried to scale the sides, the center pulled us in like quicksand leaving me with sore neck and Rachel with a shore back in the morning and neither one of us with a good night’s sleep. Well for $2.50USD total, I guess in the end you get what you pay for!

Well, the next day we were off to La Paz and sure to find a better bed to sleep in and a much needed shower.