When last I left you, I had just completed a tour of the Salar de Uyani in southern Bolivia. The boys and I had planned to head for Lake Titicaca on the Bolivia / Peru border, and that we would stay in the lake side town of Copacabana. This meant an 11 hours bus ride to La Paz, then a further 3-4 hours on a bus to the lake. The bus ride to Copacabana was interesting, to say the least. Getting out of La Paz was a mission in itself. People would randomly board the bus and try selling random things to you – one guy stood on the bus lecturing the passengers in Spanish about the benefits of knowing a little Bolivian history. He was quite charismatic, and managed to sell all his Bolivian history books before disembarking. When the bus slowed even slightly, people would purchase food off street vendors through the windows. Most of the time, I had no idea what the hell was going on.
After nearly losing Steve along the way, when the bus had to be ferried across an inlet, we arrived at the picturesque town of Copacabana. Lonely Planet describes this town as ‘touristy’ but I’ve since learnt that more often than not, when it comes to South America, Lonely Planet is full of shit. However, one thing that Lonely Planet is correct on was recommending La Cupula for a hotel/hostel. It is one of the best I’ve stayed in, in terms of comfort, position, view, and food. The trout in caper sauce was a revelation. It was a bit quiet on the ‘party atmosphere’, but I’m guessing because it is a slight bit more expensive than many other Bolivian hostel, many backpackers don’t even bother.
We stayed in Copa for about two days, hiking up to the top of Cerro Calvario to look at the stations of the cross, and gaze upon the might of the lake at sunset (Josh, if you are reading this, I now know where you got that picture that I thought was so great….and now I have multiple copies of the same picture!), we also dined in style, and rented a sail boat for a few hours to cruise a small bit of the lake (our captain was hilarious).
We eventually made it to the Isla del Sol, the largest island on the lake, and home to some pre-Inca, and Inca monuments. On the way over, a random Bolivian befriended Steve and regaled the boat passengers with some impromptu charango playing. As we neared the island, it occurred that the random Bolivian just so happened to own a hostel on the island. How convenient. He ended up helping us to a reasonable hostel (we weren’t a fan of his), and demanded a tip. I understand that Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, but I really dislike the idea of being given a service that I hadn’t asked for. We were perfectly capable of finding our own accommodation. In the end, we gave him some form of tip, that he wasn’t exactly happy with. We never saw the guy again.
After dumping our bags at the hostel, we suited up for a full day of trekking. We had arrived in Yumani, and decided to hike the alleged four hours along the mountain path to the north of the island to view the ruins, as well as the Titicaca rock (‘The Rock of the Puma’). With the aid of coca, we managed it in two. We lunched in labyrinth like Chicana ruins, and search in vain for a while for the elusive rock of the puma (again, Lonely Planet’s directions and descriptions were WAY off); however we were eventually successful in finding it.
We decided to take the coast road back to Yumani, which may have been a bit of a mistake, as it was a much harder trek than the mountain way. Along the way, Steve took a dip in the waters of the freezing cold lake, I lost my beloved combination lock, Steve had his ring taken by some 5 year old Bolivian girls who surrounded him (he got it back by bribing them with cough lozenges), and Moss got trapped in the famous Isla Del Sol rush hour traffic – of sheep and llamas. We had a great meal at our hostel of local trout and soup and even bananas for breakfast.
Ok, I know this is a long entry, but one final event of significance. We got up early enough to catch the 10.30 boat back to Copa, but the hostel owner, with pure sincerity, told us that there was a cheaper boat leaving from the other side of Yumani, which would get us back to Copa faster (which is what we wanted). Upon his instructions, we rushed down to the other dock, to see a boat pulling away. Another boat owner was about to leave and demanded 40 bolivianoes per person to get to Copa (it normally costs between 15 and 20 bolivianoes). We eventually bargained him down to one hundred for the three of us with the help of Spanish speaking german. Still, the boat owner complained about a rip in the one hundred dollar note, but we just simply muttered some expletives and wandered off.
Our next stop - Puno, Peru. If you’ve made it this far, I applaud you.
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