At the Copa-Copacobana!

Trip Start Sep 04, 2008

Trip End Jan 11, 2009

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Flag of Bolivia Copacabana, Bolivia
Sunday, October 12, 2008

Bus to Copacobana was fine, even better without a hang over! It only took three hours and crossing the border got me another stamp in the passport. Also changed up some money; Bolivia is painfully cheap, about 12 Bolivianas (bs) to a pound.

Living life a bit more on the edge I - shock horror! - had not booked a hostel in advance. Instead I wondered around the small town looking for a place for a couple of nights. It was pretty hot especially loaded up like a donkey with all my bags, but found a good hotel for a really cheap rate (which I negotiated in Spanish, v proud). I had a modest room with my own bathroom for 50bs for two nights; I think that works out at less 4 pounds for two nights?

I met a lovely girl on the bus, Jane from Gloucestershire via Birmingham. We spent the remainder of the afternoon just moseying around the town. There isn�t much to it, just a main street of restaurants and tour agencies, a port and a main square where the buses live. At 5pm Jane and I walked up the Cerro Calvario to watch the sun set. It was quite a climb, I can�t remember the altitude. The sun was so strong even when setting. Thankfully I have my Lancome 50+ that Christina G recommended, and the lovely scarf she gave me in Glasgow for my birthday. Apparently the ozone hole is over Bolivia and Chile... After that Jane was really tired so I had dinner alone which sucked a little bit; they wanted me to sit out the back which I wouldn�t do. So my meal was delivered super-quick and I was shoved out the door within an hour. The food was really good though, pasta with real pesto.

Sunday I had a trip to the Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca booked. The Bolivian side of the Lake is so much prettier than the Peru side. The Isla was lovely to look at although there wasn�t much to do there. The main point of the trip is to walk from the north point to the south point, which takes about 3 hours. It started off well but the heat (it�s not called Sun Island for nowt) and the altitude (4,000+ meters, higher than the Inca Trail I did in April) meant the walk was slow and hard. I walked the path with a lovely Swiss girl I met called Ornella. Much like many movies I�ve seen lately, the walk could have done without the last 20 mins. It was also a bit of a scam for the locals; about 3 times along the way you had to buy a ticket to keep going along the path. Each ticket was only 5-10bs but it�s a hidden extra we weren�t told about. A lot of people argued with them and some refused to pay. I�m a sucker: I paid.

Ornella and I met Jane for dinner at 7pm, and picked up Duncan, an Australian on his tod. Not a large night out as we all had our ailments: The high trek on Isla del Sol I think has sparked off my first ever case of altitude sickness, I think. I�m not sick or dizzy but have really sharp cramps in my tummy. Poo. Lunchtime bus to La Paz tomorrow - even higher!

The Internet in Bolivia is, like, well bad. I�m having a bit of trouble getting my photos online, Flickr is lagging behind the blog I�m afraid. Hopefully in La Paz I�ll find a good Internet place.

www.flickr.com/photos/bongo76

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