Before you all burst into lines from that Barry Manalow song, Its not that Copacabana! We crossed the borders of Peru & Bolivia around 6.30ish this morning after about 8 hours onboard a very bumpy night bus from Cusco (which was advertised as having a loo but much to our horro didn't). I swear at times there wasn't even a road that our driver was driving on, just dirt tracks or edges of cliffs. At least it was dark & we didn't really have any idea (probably best).

The border crossing was very bizzare, we got dropped a few feet away from the border by our bus then taken (luggage an all) on another bus for a few feet, then we were told to get off that bus and walk with our bags across the border point until we found immigration! We went in this tiny building forming an orderly queue until we'd all got our paasports stamped out of Peru & into Bolivia, then it was off to another little tin shed to do exactly the same for our tourist visa forms (all under the watchful eye of very stern looking, gun carrying, bolivian officials). After they eyed us suspiciously for a few moments & quite obviously took a huge dislike to my USA work visa plastered inside my passport, they begrudingly let us in.

Here we found another bus waiting for us to drive us the 20 mins or so into Copacabana. Unlike the previous buses this one had no handbrake and the driver thought a couple of big rocks behind the rear tyres would do just a good a job (am still unsure to as whether it actually had normal brakes too, or whether it was sheer luck we stopped)! After "securing" our bags on the roof, the rocks were removed and off we set again. It was sheer luck that when we got dropped in the small town that we picked exactly the right road our hostel was located on without even knowing it. This is where our luck soon ran out. The hostel was the only one we could find to book online, when we arrived we wished we hadn't. Its not in a bad location, its right by the beach overlooking lake titicaca, but its not very clean, we have a toilet that dosn't flush (nice), no loo roll, no towels, suspicious looking beds (helen informs me they don't smell that great either) & everywhere seems to be covered in a layer of dust. In a word..........it sucks! The thought of getting into that bed is one that is gonna keep me out of that place for as long as possible tonight. Luckily we only booked one night so I've already found us an alternative for tomorrow, just a few feet up the road (even had a look round the room before agreeing to stay there the night - I was taking no chances, lol).

After fleeing quickly from the hostel, we sat by the lake and had a quick drink before deciding that a pedalo ride was just what we needed. So we hired 'Donald'(yes, as in duck) which strangely looked like a swan though & set about peddling up and down the shoreline for half an hour! We've wandered around the tiny streets of Copacabana & to be honest there isn't much else here. We've seen the church wére the daily blessing involves motorcars not people (don't even ask). Other than taking a boat ride over to the Islands of the Sun & Moon tomorrow we've pretty much seen all there is to see here already.

I know our plans keeping changing but hopefully this is the course of action for getting us outta here and onto our final country. On Thursday we hope to take a 3 hour bus to La Paz (the country's capital & highest city) where we'll stay for two days, then its on another mammouth bus trip (18 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to Santa Cruz. Here we're going to stay for a few days then hopefully (flights permitting) we'll fly from here into Brazil, either Sao Paulo or straight to Rio (still got to book these yet). If we go to Sao Paulo we'll stay two more days here before getting ANOTHER bus (6 hours) up to Rio in time for the start of our tour on July 7th. If your exhausted reading it, just think of us actually doing it.

Be in touch soon, probably from La Paz. Love Kez xxx