Not the famous Copacabana of beach fame but a rather smaller town that nestles in a beautiful cove on the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca, just 8km from the border with Peru. It is the highest body of water in the world at a high of about 13,000ft above sea level. It covers an area of about 8,500 square miles. Really it operates as a small town with tourism as its main industry, focused around tours of LT and the small islands of Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) and Isla Del Luna (Island of the Moon) which were 2 sacred sites of the Incas who believed that these islands were the birth places of the sun and moon respectively. The Lake shares it borders with both Peru and Bolivia - the Bolivians say that they got the Titi and the Peruvians got the caca (spanish for crap) - so you can probably guess that there is some local rivalry. Bolivia is actually a landlocked country but used to have lands that extended out to the Pacific Ocean. These were taken away by Chile in a war between the 2 countries - which Bolivia feels very bitter about to this day. It still has its own navy, though its 1 ship is only able to peruse the waters of Lake TC on the Bolivian side, though we think they live in hope that one day their coast lands will be returned. After an afternoon chilling out on the beach we decided to take a 2 day trip to the Isla del Sol, do a bit of walking and soak up the atmosphere. The boat across could probably have accomodated a good 30 people but with one small outboard engine it took us about 1.5 hours to do the 5 mile trip to the Island (they believe in conserving energy over here!). When we got there, however, our hearts sank to see a 150m almost vertical climb. In normal circumstances that wouldn't be so bad but at 4000m and with a 20kilo rucksack each we were almost in need of medical attention by the time we got to the top. Assisted by a young local boy, who carried a couple of smaller bags for us, we found a very nice, new hotel in the centre of the very small village, at the top of the hill. However, a subsequent arguement over the price of the room firmly fixed our view of Bolivian people - they look at Gringos as walking dollar signs and we havent met one yet that hasnt tried to screw us for more money than the agreed price in the beginning. This could be a very testing month for our patience. However, we have some great ideas for when we get back home - we will camp ourselves at Heathrow and for every Peruvian or Bolivian flight that comes in we will charge an entry tax before they can get out of the airport - and tell them into the bargain that it is for the local community and pocket the money for ourselves - that should be familiar to them. Anyway, enough b****ing! The island itself was spectacular. We did a ridgetop walk along the spine of mountains across the island and eventually met up with a local man who had a small hotel and restuarant in another village that we had been aiming for. He took us on a 30 minute detour down the side of a mountain (that he swore would only take 10 minutes) to have couple of beers before starting the trek back. What a beautiful place - he had built his own hotel, with about 6 ensuite bedrooms, by his own hands, over 4 years - with a stunning view of the Lake ouside the front door. And get this - the price of a room was 1 pound per person a night - staying in a lowly travel inn is going to seem very expensive and boring from now on. One thing we discovered about island life is that you can't have everything all at once - in this case it is electric light or hot water - plenty of hot water in the day when you are out walking but just when you want a long hot shower, forget it - in fact water fullstop would have been nice. For dinner we ventured to a nearby hotel where we met another British couple, Glen and Ann from Solihull, who are travelling for 6 months. Fresh trout caught out of the Lake ad chips to die for were all served up by a 15 year old girl running the family buisness for the night. It soothed our rising tensions with the Bolivians - a bit. The next day was an even slower (and even more expensive) boat back to Copacabana. Having lunch in the hotel garden we suddenly heard a loud knock on the window above - it was Ruth and Rob the Dutch couple we met in Iquitos in north Peru, 4 weeks ago. They had travelled in that morning and just happened to check into the room next to us - we told you it was a small world didnt we! Anyway, after a further day of R&R (this travel lark is hard going you know) we are off to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, in the morning........... for undoubtedly new adventures.