We had booked into a hostel called Las Olas in Copacabana. It wasn't the cheapest place on offer but we had a great cabaña to ourselves with a stunning view over the lake and town. While some cabañas were shaped like a snail or a turtle, ours was rather simple, shaped like a little hut with a glass roof. The circular bed was unfortunately not the most comfortable though, we suppose they don't made circular postupedics.

In addition to big windows overlooking the lake we also had our own little area with hammocks and deck chairs to chill out, and chill out we did for a few days.

That afternoon we checked out town. A main tourist strip was lined with cafés and restaurants. One offered a discount with a discount card we have so we picked that for some lunch then headed to the markets to find something to make for dinner. Unfortunately most of the fruit and veg was beginning to rot so we ended up with 2 minute noodles and eggs.

The next day we did very little other than walking to town for food. In the late afternoon we watched a storm roll in over the lake which dumped such a huge amount of hail. The noise was deafening and we had a ball going outside once it stopped to play. The ground was completely white so much hail had fallen. The passing storm created a dark but beautiful sunset.

Our activity the following day was to wander along the shore of the lake. The rickety jetty's looked barely capable of supporting people yet somehow seemed to do the trick for loading boats.

You could choose a variety of activities with a couple of trampolines and hundreds of tricycles, bicycles, swan shaped pedal boats and kayaks available for hire, though there was barely anyone around to rent them.

Sitting back in the cabaña we caught up on reading and watched the pet alpacas as they ran rings around our cabaña. The rain that night meant we didn't venture far for dinner, so we unfortunately had to eat at the delicious and slightly fancy restaurant in the hotel next door.

We spent quite some time while in Copacabana in a great café run by an Irish couple. They only served breakfast and coffee but it was good food and coffee, and they had several books for travellers to write recommendations in, whether it be places to stay, tours, restaurants, transport, anything really. Plus things to avoid! It was a great reference, and we spent hours there taking notes and also left some of our own.

On our last day we decided we should venture up the hill behind the hostel, called Cerro Calvario. It was a reasonable effort to get up and at the top were some religious monuments surrounded by a huge amount of plastic rubbish. Despite a nice view it really wasn't a pleasant place to be, so we returned to the hostel but via a very rough pathway on the other side of the hill.

The next morning we would set off to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. All in all we had done very little in Copacabana but that was just perfect.

LAPFWT