No showgirls here!- Copacobana, Bolivia

Overlooking Lago Titicaca

Hola Chicos, Sarah here to tell you about our first stint on Lake Titicaca ( we were told the pronunciation is “titi-gha-gha” otherwise the “caca” bit means poo- like that´s the bit we need to worry about).

Not a bad bus journey at all

The bus journey around the lake to Copacobana was stunning. We hopped onto a small boat for 15 pence to cross a gap while the bus got on a wooden barge with a guy punting it across the lake which was fun to watch while we bumped into David our old friend from Buenos Aires and of course La Paz.

The bus barge

There wasn´t too much to see in town. A beautiful basilica, a view point over the city and an extremely touristy high street that led down to the lake front heaving with restaurants, hostels and tat shops.

The walk up to the view point was a 30 minute uphill struggle, firstly because we were at 3800m above sea level, secondly beacuase my left leg was still suffering from the death road bike ride and thirdly because I´m crap at climbing hills! But we did it and were a little surprised to find stalls selling toy cars and gifts in between the crucifixes on top of the hill. We descended as the sun dipped in the sky as it was getting cooler just as people were climbing up for a romantic sunset over the lake- after 9 years it´s about practicalities not romance people!

We booked overselves on a day trip to the Isla Del Sol & the Isla De La Luna to see a couple of Incan sites. A lot of people stay over on the Isla Del Sol for treks, but we have discovered they don´t agree with me, so we were able to enjoy the luxuries of our Hotel on the mainland for a little longer. The breakfast we have been used to has mainly consisted of white bread of varying textures and hardeness, with butter- again of varying hardness (usually on the rock solid end of the scale though), and some jam. So we tucked into our basket of bread when we were greeted with the question Fried or scrambled eggs?! This was just the beginning as the waiter did severeal runs back and forth from our table bringing us juice, yogurt, cereal, pancakes, eggs with tomatoes, cheese and ham and tea. And it was all included in the price of 10GBP each a night- I love Bolivia!

The tour of the islands was basically the boat transport there and back, but for 3GBP who´s complaining? Well, you might if you were on the boat. It took 1.5hrs to get to the Isla del Sol which is about 6 miles away on the slowest boat in the world. Chris and I continued on to the Isla de la Luna for another hour while David was left to struggle with his bag up the steep Incan steps on the Isla Del Sol with his luggage!

There wasn´t much to see on the Isla de la Luna but once we´d finally made it back on the boat to Isla del sol we climbed to the top of the Incan steps for a magnificent view. It was stupidly peaceful, except for the sound of a donkey here and there and a woman washing her clothes in a tub in her garden.

2.5 hours back to the main land on the boat, we enjoyed one last luxurious breafast before setting off for Peru in the morning. A whole new country , here we come!!!