Copa Copacabanaaaa!

Yes, there is a Copacabana in Bolivia as well as Brazil! I wonder if Mr Manilow knows that...?


The town is situated next to Lake Titicaca which Im sure most of you have heard of due to its rather amusing name. (Caca is poo in Spanish...)

Our journey there from La Paz was really rather pleasant, with views of the lake along twisting roads of the route. All of which reminded me of my beloved Bariloche in Argentina. Bolivian Bariloche...ah : D
 

In order to get to Copacabana itself, we had to cross one of the lakes by boat. This involved us travellers catching a boat aross whilst our bus was taken across on a seperate boat. When we made it to the other side, I noticed one guy on our bus was travelling with no shoes on?! Walking barefoot in Bolivia. I can certainly think of better countries to do that. Nutter. I was recommended a hotel in Copacabana by Tom one of my travel buddies who is a few travel days ahead of me - perfect for getting hints and tips on future locations!


Welcome to the natural beauty that is Lake Titicaca

Boarding our boat

Our bus crossing the lake

Being a hotel it had individual rooms, a double bed and an en suite bathroom which was pure bliss after sharing a dorm with ten other travellers the last few days : D

The view from the hotel

 Copacabana town itself, was pretty small, with just a cathedral as its focal point. There was a plethora of stalls selling religious tat outside the cathedral which I had to refrain from purchasing anything from. I already get enough grief from friends for the Mr JC pepper mill I have at home so I didnt need to add to that! N.B. I am not uber religious, I just quite like religious items for some reason... a result of having a Spanish not so Catholic mother?!

Map of Copacabana - there are lots of islands in the area!

The "high street" in Copacabana



Copacabana, Clean city.



The bay of Copacabana where the boats set off



The cathedral

The next day I went to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) which was the main reason for visiting Copacabana as it is an hour boat ride away. The island is in the southern part of Lake Titicaca (which is incidently the highest lake in the world) and is famous for its Inca ruins, some of which oroginate from as far back as 15 century AD. The island is ridicuously hilly and rocky and as such there are no paved roads or any motor vehicle on the island.

The boat ride there took a rather boring one hour and thirty minutes, luckily I met a lovely Dutch girl called Paola to chat to during the journey there. Paola was staying the night on the island, something I had chosen not to do due to lack of time.

Arriving at the island, I was immediately grateful that I had decided not to bring my large backpack to stay the night as the stairs up to the top of the island were insanely steep and long. Even with my daypack I was stuggling to get up the stairs...but I blame this on the altitude ;-D

Map of the island

The start of the epic stairs...

The unfortunate ones carrying luggage...

The island was less turisty than we were expecting, there were (once again) lots of adobe brick houses along with countless donkeys and llamas which meant lots of smelly poo everywhere!

View wise, the scenery was spectacular, given the height we were at - climbing those stairs was worth it in the end. Due to the geographical nature of the island, the Incas had built lots of terraces so that crops could be grown. The result reminded me of Cinqueterre in Italy which has a similar scenery.

The donkeys and the llamas on the island were also really cute. One llama I saw, was so hairy it looked like a bear!

View of the terraces which the Incans implemented

Bear?



Eeee awwww



Local shop on the island

Lady carrying some crops



Some little girls we made friends with!

Lunch was a home made vegetable soup...its ridiculous how my diet has gone from being massively carnivore in Argentina to pretty much herbivore in Bolivia. This is mainly due to the eateries in Bolivia being pretty basic and laking in hygiene which makes me not want to eat any meat products. I think I am also a little scarred mentally and physically from my awful bought of gastroenteritis :( Looking forward to heading to Peru where the food is meant to be better...

View at lunch