Copacabana didn't go as planned.

The bus ride was only a few hours with some good sceery. crossing the Tiquina strait was funny. We had to get off the bus and cross by boat whilst our bus was also transported across on a rafty thing - a very odd sight indeed. once we got back on the bus we were driving alongside lake titicaca, supposedly the worlds highest navigable lake,until we reached copacabana.

This was the plan: spend one night in copacabana then in the morning get the boat to isla del sol, the inca creation site and the birthplace of the sun. spend the day seeing the ruins there, stay a night, get the boat back the next morning and hop on a bus to puno on the peruvian side of the lake.

heres what actually happened: the first day we found a nice cheap place to stay. just over a pound a night for a twin room in this pretty pink 'alojamiento'. we wandered around town a bit. they were having a big celebration with a parade in the main square and all the women were wearing their best skirts, shawls and bowler hats and carrying big banners with the bolivian flag on them. We also got to see the blessing of the automobiles, a bizarre ceremony that they hgold twice daily in the main square where they cover cars and taxis in flowers and have them blessed. yes, i said twice a day. we did a bit of browsing of the jewelry stalls and had trout, the local speciality for dinner.

that night i couldn´t sleep and started to feel increasingly ill until i had to get up and be sick. needless to say i didn´t feel like getting up early and jumping on the boat. so we had a long day in copacabana with nothing to do. that night was even worse. my symptoms got even worse. i dont want to describe them too graphically but lets just say my stomach was not in a good state. and i was in a lot of pain. i had to wake aislinn up who went out into the street at about 3am with my insurance document and a note i wrote in spanish saying i was sick and we needed to call the emergency medical number. she managed to find a local policeman who drove us to the local hospital who didnt even have a phone. the nurse had to go into town and wake up the doctor who told me i had gastroenteritis and gave me antibiotics and aload of other stuff. he also had to give me an antispasmodic injection to try and help me with extreme pain in my stomache but it didnt really do much. luckily they showed me that the needle had come out of a packet and was thrown away after. i was a little bit worried about being in a bolivian hospital.

the next day i was feeling alot better and we even managed to rent a pedalo and go out on the lake in the afternoon. we were getting sick to death of copacabana which cant really keep you entertained fopr long but i wasnt able to go to the island so the next day we just headed straight for puno. we had also planned to visit islands on the lake from puno but aislinn wasnt feeling well now either so we stayed one night in a crappy hotel (puno is a crappy town) and got a bus the next morning to cuzco...