Copacabana

Bolivia

December 2006
6 days

11th to 17th December 2006.

Pretext: these photos are worth checking out, especially the ones of the Dung Beetle and Ned the Donkey - enjoy!!

Its an early start in Peru from Cusco to Puno, a stopover and subsequent bus across the Bolivian border to Copacabana. Just to confirm this is not the basis of the famous Barry Manilow song ´her name was Lola, she was a showgirl....at the Copa Copacabana´ that's in Brazil. Copacabana Bolivia is actually the only public beach in Bolivia - that might be useful in ´Who Wants To Be A Millionaire´. Its also at extremely high altitude between 3900 and 4200 meters. This also means you should be especially aware of the sun, see story later on.

By the time we got to Puno Jon is starting to feel unwell again after, we think, a dodgy tourist meal in Puno. We spend a noisy night in Puno which we disliked due to constant tooting of horns and barking dogs. We woke up the next day for the second leg to Bolivia and by now Jon had diahorreah, headache and nausea much like on the Inca Trail. The bus journey isn't too bad and we get visas with absolutely no trouble or bother....thank you and welcome to Bolivia.

Just so you know we did very little in Copacabana, its a beautiful place but very small and not too much to see and do. Each day we ate very very well, read books and went for short walks down to the waterfront and back. The restaurant in our hotel was absolutely amazing - world class food at prices so cheap you felt bad......their mashed potato was the best ever!!. We could both eat two or three courses and drinks for about 5 pounds.

Lazy days were indeed what we had in Copacabana, this was also coupled with the fact that there is no electricity until 6 or 7 pm on Wednesdays so you can lay about in hammocks or watch the water from the cafes lining the beach without feeling like there is something else you should be doing. The water here isn't actually the ocean, its the other side of Lake Titicaca (part in Peru part in Bolivia) and used to be an inland sea and is still the worlds largest navigable lake..

Saloms Lot
Jon: I had spent the afternoons reading a book by Stephen King called Saloms Lot! I terrified myself watching this on the TV when I was less than ten years old and was about a small town invaded by vampires starring David Soul and stuck in my mind for years. The book was excellent and bought back memories of watching this in bed on my old school black and white TV with the twisty tuner! A great read.

Pedal Poker
We decided to take a 45 minute pedalo pedal out onto the lake. Hard work as waves were coming in and each time we stopped for a breather we'd be pushed back to where we started from. At one point we did think the boat was letting in water, but it wasn't and we safely made it back to shore, after nearly hitting 2 other boats and a duck.

Solar Power
We'd heard the Island of the Sun was a must do and with Jon feeling better we boarded an early boat to the Island, after a brief tour around the Inca artifacts museum we started a &Quot;flat&Quot; 3 hour hike across from the North of the Island to the South. Flat in Bolivia and Peru is not flat, it's just not mountainous. It was tiring, shattering but spectacular and we were privy to some great Inca ruins and the Sacred Temple of the Sun. We were extremely high up and the sun beat down on us all day. We seriously put factor 30 on about every 20 minutes or so and from the photos you can see that I was wearing my woolly hat (to keep the wind out of my ears as there are no buildings and the wind whips off the sea at an alarming pace) and a long sleeve top.

We saw lots of farmland animals, donkeys and a crazy dung beatle... (see photo!) who was tossing this huge poo down a slope and leaping after it before it got away! Never seen one of those before.. what an existance. It was a great day but needless to say I got really bad sunburn on my face, yes I was wearing a hat but even so......it was so bad that that night my face swelled up and the next day was spend in bed feeling very very sorry for myself.

The day after we were due to leave we were told they would be turning off all power to the town for 3 weeks over the festive period... weird hey!

With Christmas approaching and Jon needing to complete some private work we decided to go back to our favourite place so far - Cusco Peru - for Internet connections, great people, amazing soups and Spanish School....watch this space!!