Copacabana May 21 – 24

We left La Paz around 8am and quite an empty bus which meant we could spread out and have at least two seats each. This also meant the journey went quicker as I had a little nap to make up for the early start. After a couple of hours on the road we had to cross a small part of Lake Titicaca. The bus went on a vehicle boat (if that’s what you can call it – it was a wooden rickety vessel which looked like it may sink). The passengers had to go across in smaller boats, once again wooden and rickety. The locals wouldn’t move enough to sit down so I had the pleasure of standing for the journey. Luckily it only took five minutes and we got there in one piece. Neither of us were keen on using the life jackets provided as they probably would have just slipped over our heads!

After a nice drive along the lake we arrived in Copacabana just before midday and found a place to stay. We opted for a nicer place with our own room, cable TV and views of the lake for about five pound a night (which is a lot for Bolivia). We settled in and then met up with Antonio and Angie whom Sean and I met in Asia. Together we booked a trip to Isla de Sol for the following day and the relaxed for the afternoon. We met for a nice dinner in the evening before heading back for a sleepless night as I appeared to have picked up a bug. I expected it to happen at some point and was just happy that it wasn’t as bad as when I got food poisoning in Thailand.

Copacabana is situated on Lake Titicaca, the highest altitude body of water in the world.

On our first full day we boarded another rickety boat with Antonio and Angie for our tour to Isla de Sol. We were led to believe that we would get taken to some museums, some ruins and other points on interest. After two hours battling waves and being told to move to certain parts of the boat to balance it out we arrived at our first point of call only to be told that to see the sights we would have to pay more money and walk for three hours. Somehow we felt like we had been miss-sold the trip, and being the lazy people that we are and also being told that the ruins and museums are pretty rubbish we opted for sitting on the beach and soaking up the sun instead! We were later to realise that we all caught more of it than we thought and would have lovely sunglasses marks.

The second part of the trip was another part of the island where we got to see a local (and pretty rubbish) band who danced like your Grandad! The part of the trip that we had been looking forward to most – a floating island turned out to be non-existent! Lucky that we only paid two quid for the trip and that we actually enjoyed being able to relax in warm sunshine and chat. Asides from the mishaps it turned out to be a good day.

When we got back we picked up our bags and headed to the border to see what the current situation was. We had heard that no vehicles could get through but it may be possible to walk over the border and get a cab on the other side. If we could avoid a long overpriced boat trip we would, but unfortunately this was not to be the case. We got talking to some locals who said that the road blockades had now extended for 30km and it was too dangerous for us to walk through as we may get stones thrown at us. Back to the drawing board then!

We got back to Copacabana to find out that the boats for the following day were all full. Looks like we would be stuck here for another night, there are worse places to be stuck but when you are low on money and the ATM doesn’t accept MasterCard it starts to become a nightmare!

Luckily I have a VISA and a new business ‘Banco de Janine’. We spent the evening contemplating what to do over dinner and doing the only thing we could do in a situation like this and that is laugh a lot!

We resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t be taking the boat until Tuesday and would have to pay a ridiculous price for it, but we didn’t have much choice. We checked back into our hostel and had a nice lay-in before finalising plans for the boat trip once we could get some cash. The rest of the Monday was spent relaxing as it wasn’t quite warm enough to start getting that tan we so much want and need!