Day 106 (June 28) Copacabana

Day 106 (June 28) Copacabana

We took the mid day bus from La Paz over to Copacabana on the 27th. We drove through some beautiful countryside and some rather interesting sights. That included taking a ferry across part of the lake in the bus!

Once we were finally in Copacabana, we located a hotel (hostel/hotel, really about the same here) and dropped off our things. Copa is a quiet little lake side tourist town. Its streets (like the rest of of Bolivia are dusty and buildings look very weary) are full of tourist shops (selling everything made from llama or alpaca fur...), internet cafes and restaurants. We had some decent food, booked our trip to Isla del Sol and Puno, Peru for the next day. We also ran into two English guys that I had met in La Paz (everyone kind of travels the same road, just either north or south) who booked the same trip.

As we wandered around, we found a marching band of some sort playing in the courtyard of the Franciscan Mission (which was huge and really cool but no photos since it was dark)... not sure why but it was definitely cool and interesting. I also gave in and finally bought an alpaca hat and gloves... I've been cold so long I figured I should finally get some and I needed to spend the rest of my Bolivianos before we left Bolivia the next night.

The- next morning we boarded the boat for the 2 hr (turned out to be amost 4hr...) ride out to the island. It was mainly full of tourists but I managed to sit in the bow with 3 local cholitas who each had a kid and the local ice cream man... mayhem insued... As we rode out to the island, I was happy to A) not be riding on the roof (there were seats up there) because it was freezing in the wind and 2) that the boat was closed in since the waves were fairly rough and water still managed to splash in the open windows. Actually as the waves got rougher (which the ladies near me told me was normal) we watched the water come in through various small cracks and things... by the time we got to the dock (or pile of rocks with boards set across it that lead to a concrete pier...), the water under the floorboards was so high it would splash up the sides of the boat... eh no cause for concern right...? However this whole time the cholitas were buying their kids little ice cream pops to shut them up and then started chattering and screaming more themselves when the waves got rough...

Anyway we got the island and did the trek across it (about 9k up and down hills...). We somehow had to pay a "toll" three times, once to each community on the island... Oh well it was a beautiful day (don't think I ever saw many clouds in the sky in Bolivia and definitely no rain) and the walk wasn't too hard. It was fairly long though, about 10ks up and down hills... There were some ruins and things to look at but many it was just soaking in the sun and views.

We eventually made it to the souhern port, had some food and got the boat (the same leaky tub!) back to Copacabana. We got some food, a few snacks for the road and then caught the bus over to Puno. An hour or two later, we crossed the Peruvian border watched the sunset over the lake and finally made it to the Puno bus station. A cab ride later we were at the hostel and ordered a pizza. Day over.