Copacabana - On a Very Short Shoestring

Copacabana....hmmmm, sounds like a resort where you lie in hammocks, swim and drink coctails all day. It is actually a small town on Lake Titicaca, close to the Peruvian/Bolivian border. Yes, that´s right we have arrived in Bolivia and you are probably over half way through reading this blog. YAY FINALLY!!

We came through the border with no problems, except for the really stinky french boys sitting behind us on the bus. It is a bit of a problem for Americans to come here these days though, as the bolivian government has decided to put Americans through the same process that Bolivians have to go through to enter the states. Good on them I say!

One of the biggest surprises in crossing a land border is that things are actually different on the other side, even though it´s only separated by an imaginary line. One of the biggest differences we noticed was the sheer number of hippies in Copacabana, selling handmade bracelets in the street, loitering around with their long dreadlocks and cranking out Bob Marley. It seems this place is some sort of hippy centre of South America.

Copacabana is basically one main tourist street, although I do believe that Bolivians actually live there. Tourists go there to visit the islands on lake Titicaca, Isla del Sola and Isla de la Luna.

Wilson and I, instead of taking the boat direct to Isla del Sol from Copacabana, hike 17km to a small town on the peninsula. Upon reaching the town we were asked by a small girl if we would take her picture. Assuming that she wanted to see a picture of herself, I oblidged. Then she says, "Plata?" ("Money?"). Her friends all laughed.....and so did we. They train them young these days!

We were offered 2 options for getting to the Island from the peninsula:

1. 80 bolivianos for a motor boat or...

2. 20 bolivianos each for an old bolivian man to row us there.

Obviously, we chose option 2. Luckily the man had a big wad of coca in his cheek for energy and he was quite pleased when we gave him an extra 10 bolivianos as he dropped us off on a random rock on the island. The other upside of this covert sneaking onto the island was that we avoided the ticket office at the main tourist wharf and hence avoided being cajoled into buying an unneccesary tourist ticket! The reason for our overt cheapness at this point in the trip was the lack of an ATM in Copacabana, hence we only had the left over Peruvian Soles that we had converted at the border to see us through until La Paz.

We quickly discovered shortly after our arrival that, in line with most other Bolivian tourist facilities, all the hostels on the island were fairly much the same and offering fairly much the same food for the same prices in their restaurants, which they all had. We found a nice one with views of the lake, which they all had as we were on an island....

The next day we set off to the northern part of the island which promised such artefacts as an old incan temple and the rock of the puma, which boasts the origin of the incan creation legend. The walk along the ridge of the island was very tranquil with cracking views and very few other people. We looked down on the clear waters and bobbing boats of the little bays and enjoyed fresh breeze coming in from the lake. When we arrived at the ruins we found that it had been overrun by dirty hippies. As we were informed by a "guide", that Wilson foolishly thought might actually know something historical about the site, about the mystical energies of the stone, we saw that his associate in hippyness, had seen fit to spread his "trinkets for sale" all over the sacrificial stone. We were told that he was entitled to do this as he had "great knowledge". The temple ruins were somewhat dissapointing as well with the best part being the lakefront views...

We shot back to the mainland in the afternoon and struggled up the hill overlooking Copacabana, past the pilgrimatic stations of the cross, to watch the sunset dipping into the lake.

The next day we jumped in a van bound for La Paz, which involved a little ferry ride across the lake (they shuttle busses across on tiny barges dragging through the water). Little did we realise what was waiting for us in La Paz.....