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Copacabana
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We caught the bus from La Paz to Copacabana with Taro who we´d previously met in Puerto Natales and happened to be on our flight back from the Amazon. Copacabana is the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca and when the bus pulled up by a big lake we thought we´d arrived and were confused when the conductor seemed to be telling bus to board a small boat moored on the lake. We did as we were told and then watched in amazement when the bus boarded what looked like a large floating plank of wood and proceeded to make its way across the lake as our boat followed! Thankful that the bus and our belongings made it to the otherside without falling in, we reboarded the bus and set off for Copacabana once again.
We saw the lights of the city against the sun setting on the lake as we appraoched. The bus dropped us off on the square where we were instantly nabbed by a hotelier, we agreed to take the hostel only after proof of "agua caliente" after a cold shower that morning! He led us through the market where people were busy sawing up meat carcuses to his hostel and upon arrival Katie made straight for the stairs to turn on the shower. As we came up the stairs we heard two familiar Aussie voices, it was Chole and Jess from our Amazon tour. They´d booked us a room in their hostel in La Paz but as per usual in Bolivia it didn´t run to plan so it was wicked to bump into them. The shower was hot so we took the room, a one pound twenty a night bargain and went to book a tour with the girls to the Isla del Sol the next morning. We then went for a meal at a restaurant, we should have known better than to order a set menu for the equivalent of one pound twenty but couldn´t resist the bargain - the soup was tasteless, the chicken was literally a drumstick and dessert was a banana!
The boat to Isla del Sol left early in the morning and was just over two hours, after 30 mins of "sunning" ourselves on the sundeck we retreated to the warmth underneath. We´d decided we´d all stay a night on the island so we ditched the tour group that were returning the same day on the boat and decided to take our time making our way from one end of the island to the other as it was so pretty with rolling green hills and turquoise blue waters. We bought the tourist ticket that granted us access to all the sights on the island (a museum and some ruins basically). When we reached the ruins we gave our tickets to the cholita at the entrance, she kept our tickets and promised to return them on our way out, however when we returned she´d disappeared so we just set off across the island again. As we were nearing the village where we would be staying the night there was a set of three guys asking us to show are tickets, luckily the girls could speak Spanish and explained the lady had taken our tickets, they tried to get us to buy another ticket. They let us go as the girls questioned it in Spanish but five minutes later we were asked to buy tickets again by yet another islander this time we bought one but talking to other tourists later on we realised we´d been scammed by the locals who seemed to be lining up along the route selling and confiscating tickets!
When we reached the village we got a hostel and had a few beers while we watched the sun going down over the lake. After our unpleasant experience on the mainland we were all stunned when the set menu we ordered in an empty family run restaurant turned out to be completely delicious. We were all knackered from the altitude and our "stenuous" walk across the Island so after a few card games we went to bed only to be woken a few hours later by enourmous thunder rolls and deafening hail on the rooftop. The storm lasted a few hours and the next morning it was brilliant sunshine again so we made ourway down to the catch a boat back and spend the day in Copacabana.
When we arrived in Copacabana we were gutted to discover that the bank was shut until the next afternoon and there were no cashpoints, with barely any money between us we went back to the bar where we´d had the disguting set menu and ordered the most inedible pizza known to man which we didn´t eat so we could sit it out in their video room until our bus at 6pm that night!
Where I stayed:
Hostel Tupac
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