Day 240, 241, 242 - Lake Titicaca, Copacabana -Tuesday 12th, Wednesday 13th, Thursday 14th June 2012

Well today was going to be our first day in Bolivia! We checked out of our hostel after breakfast and grabbed the 1pm bus from the bus station - next stop Bolivia and the little town of Copacabana (no not the Brazilian one!!). After about four hours we reached the boarder of Peru and Bolivia and needed to fill out all the necessary paperwork, passport information and visa. It was the weirdest situation. We had to get off the bus and walk to the border control office to 'officially' leave Peru, then we all had to walk over the boarder to the Bolivian side to 'sign in' to the country, then walk back to the Peru side to get back on our bus!! Ten minutes later and we had arrived in the small and quaint village of Copacabana which lies on the shores of the famous Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca lies in the Andes and is situated on the border of Peru and Bolivia; By volume of water, it is also the largest lake in South America and is often named as the highest navigable lake in the world as it stands 4,000 metres above sea level - pretty impressive hey. After getting our bags off the bus we asked the driver where our hostel was as there were no taxi's around; he said that it was ten blocks away. Now this usually wouldn't be that much of a problem but Bolivia is not a flat country, in fact it actually seems like you are always walking up hill, even when the hill slopes down! This is probably because of the fact that you are 4,000 metres above sea level and the air is pretty thin. I think the bus drive took pity on Soph's little face when she said "Oh, ok we will walk - thanks ever so much" as when we started to walk away he pulled the bus alongside us and said that we could jump in and he would take us there! We checked in to the Hostel Utuma and I can describe it in one word - FREEZING!! It was so cold so we chucked our bags in and headed for some dinner. Earlier in the day we changed up our last Peruvian pesos into Bolivianos, we got $60 which is £6. So as we walked into town for dinner we stopped at the only three cash points in town, oh and guess what - none worked!! So we (in a mood) walked back towards our hostel when suddenly we were stopped by a Bolivian guy who tried to get us into his restaurant. We explained that we only had $60, to which he said "Oh my friends that is more than enough, we will give you a three course meal with coffee for $60". So we both nodded and followed him into his restaurant and for £3 each had a really nice and big three course meal!! We then walked back up yet another hill to our hostel and bed.

We walked around Copacabana and Lake Titicaca in the day; we were both amazed how many 'tourist' swan shaped boats they have by the lake, we're talking over two hundred boats!! The town itself doesn't get that many tourists in a month, so we were stumped as to why so many? Soph asked the locals and apparently they have various big festivals during the year and the Bolivian's go mental for little boats and peddlos! After our walk, which was accompanied by one dog the whole time, we popped into a café for a coffee, cake and Euro 2012!! Soph is bored of the euros already and we are only three games in! After the game we sorted some bits back at our hostel and then headed out to try and walk to the top of Cerro Calvario; Cerro Calvario is a religious site and also houses the twelve Stations of the Cross - which are exactly as they sound. The hill is literally a forty five degree upward climb and we were already high above sea level so just the thought of it was knackering. Well believe it or not we are fitter than we think, because (albeit huffing and puffing) we made it to the top in time for a perfect sunset - although Soph did nearly pass out on the way up! Once at the tip, we just sat there for ages looking at the lake as it met the horizon and the sun set beyond it - it was beautiful! The walk down in the dark was not so beautiful as we had forgotten our touches and it was pitch black but after some time we made it down and to a really nice restaurant. Dinner was great and after we headed back to our freezer of a room and bed.

The day before we had planned and booked (well Soph had) to visit Isla del sol, this is a small island on the lake where indigenous people have lived, fished and worked for many centuries - it is also supposed to be the birthplace of the sun. The trip was booked for 8am with breakfast at 7am, so we set the alarm for 6:30am. This gave us plenty of time so we woke up, showered and leisurely walked to breakfast. On the off chance Soph reminded the guy in reception that we were off to Isla Del Sol today. The guy said that this was not possible; Soph explained that we booked yesterday... The guy agreed that we did but we were too late! And that is when we realised that we had been in Bolivia two days and the whole time we had been on Peruvian time - we were unaware that as you cross the border you also cross a time zone and go forward an hour!! We felt like a right couple of plonkers! After that disaster we decided to go to a pre Inca astronomical observatory - Horca Del Inca instead. One word for this place - rubbish!! The views are amazing as it takes ages to get there and all up hill, but the actually Inca stones are really nothing special. We met a French couple up there who also shared our view, both visually and of the actual place!! With not much else to do for the rest of the day, we caught the 1.30pm bus into Bolivia's capital La Paz!!