Although our hostel in La Paz was a party hostel and noisy, we were spoilt. Comfy mattresses, soft thick duvets, even a hairdryer and straightners in the bathroom. We were not aware of the luxuries that we had.

After arriving safely in Copacaban after a 3 hour bus journey which took 4 and also involved a boat we went in search of a hostel. The first we tried to enter we didn´t choose because we couldn´t find the door. Well the second, advertising hot water and private bathrooms, we took our chances and for 25 bolivianos (2 pound 50) and the first impressions of the room we thought we´d scored.

This obviously was not the case. With no toilet paper, a bathroom door that didn´t shut we were still content. We explored the town, went to the cathedral and saw the black madonna (which wasn´t really that black), booked our tour for the following day to Isla del Sol.

Upon returning to the hostel, we discovered you get what you pay for. The bathroom window wouldn´t shut and was blowing cold air into the room and making the windows rattle. So freezing cold, heating ourselves with a shower soon turned out to be problamatic. Not only was there no hot water, we didn´t have running water. This was fixed momentarily, giving enough time for two extremely cold showers but not enough to brush teeth or flush toilets.

The isla del sol, or the sun island, took 2 hours to get to by boat and then a further 25 mins to walk to the ruins. This was all up hill and took us quite a bit longer, due entirely due to the altitude and not due to lack of fitness. Our initial intention had been to hike to the south of the island and catch the boat there, but after the sweaty steep climb we´d already encountered we decided against it and took the boat to the south island. There Emma and I walked a mountain of steps to reach over 4000 metres.

Shorter boat journey back and we are now relaxing until dinner time and hopefully with any luck we´ll return to the hostel to at least running water. Tomorrow we´re heading to Peru, where we´ve booked a more expensive hostel - so one can only hope for adequate facilities.

Hasta Luego