We had our first border crossing, which went much smoother than we had envisaged! We got the bus from Puno to Copacabana in Bolivia, which is basically a trip around lake titicaca. We got to the checkpoint, walked into the Peruvian Department of Immigration, got our passports stamped then walked through an archway (pictured) and into Bolivia where we then entered immigration and got our passports stamped for entry. HOW EASY!

However, one Irish guy didnt have such ease, having been plastered and fallen asleep on the bus, slept through all the way to La Paz, where he then realised he was illegally in the country (and was technically in Peru). We were told that he didnt seem to care, he just wanted some more beer! Mmmmm.

When we got to Copacabana, we had ZERO cash (Peruvian Soles, Bolivian Bolivianos, American Dollars) and we then found out that the town has no cash machine. So we wandered around, panicking for a couple of hours with our hostel demanding their payments for the nights accomodation. Nowhere took the 10 pound note we had (although we´re not sure how far that would have gotten us) and nowhere appeared to do any cashback on our credit cards. It wasn´t until 2 hours later that we finally found the one place in the whole town that did VISA cash advances, panic over.

So Copacabana is a very beautiful small cove at Lake Titicaca with some great viewing points. On our first night we visited a bar called "Pueblo Vieja" meaning "Old Village". The place was run by a group of drugged-up hippies who were very amusing. The most-stoned of these hippies had the same conversation with us 3 times in 15 minutes, then a further 2 times later on in the evening. The place was full of people who "appeared" to work there, but didnt actually do anything that resembled work, very strange but great fun!

Next day we decided we would take a boat to the Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun) and hike from one end to the other (boy did we regret the hike) and then stay overnight. We found the most amazing Hostal (Inya Wayra) on top of the hill with a panoramic view which was one of the most amazing views from a room we had ever seen! All for 9 quid. So we sat and watched sunset, then went into a Bolivian house, where the family cooked us a huge pizza and so we retired with full belly's and fell asleep with the curtains open and watched the lightning and shooting stars until we nodded off.

Then as tradition, Ben got sunburnt again. The auld "Blades of Fire" aka Gambia were back courtesy of the "wife-beater" vest and forgetting the sunscreen on the back where the vest doesnt cover, ouch!

Then we visited our hippy friends in Pueblo Vieja on our return to the mainland where we had the usual friendly, drugged up service which was once again hilarious!