Copacabana, Bolivia
Trip Start
Oct 21, 2009
1
7
23
Trip End
Ongoing
Copacabana, Bolivia
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Copacabana is a small hippyish town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. It was our first border crossing and it went relatively smoothly. We also still had the kiwi guy travelling with us. Lake Titicaca is a lot prettier from this side and Copacabana is a nice little chilled out place.
Hostelworld only has two badly rated places here so we decided to reach for the Lonely Planet guide which sent us to Hostal Emperador. We then found that you're better off winging it than trusting Lonely Planets accommodation recommendations. We stayed one night here on a mattress made from wood then headed out to Isla del Sol (which I'll write about in a separate blog)
Bus into Copacabana
. I also had my first proper encounter with the 'South American Electric Shower' at this hostel. This experience requires detail, so let me introduce you. Pretty much it's this massive shower head with live wires plugged straight in and a bunch of electrical tape around it. It makes the water hot. Thankfully the metal tap usually also has electrical tape around it. And, of course, there must be a fuse close by to shut it off just in case you get a shock. This is located in the shower. If you're lucky it's entirely attached to the wall, but usually it's hanging off with live wires exposed... inside the shower. Awesome. I hung a t-shirt over it and managed to have a successful shower. By success I mean that I got out alive. The way they manage to successfully mix water and electricity so closely is truly amazing.So moving on. In the evening we went and climbed a hill at the waters edge and saw an amazing sunset. Check out the photos, it was beautiful.
It was at this cosy little town that our newly found kiwi travel companion turned a wee shade darker. Kiwi's, Aussies, to me there's not much of a difference. Some friendly rivalry maybe but that's about it right? Usually yes. But there are some kiwi travellers who don't agree. Beware the 'aussie hater' kiwi
Border crossing Peru to Bolivia
. Usually these are few and far between, but when u do stumble across one it's like a bull at a fence. So let me tell you my story, I'll try to keep it short.This is a story about Sam. So for privacy reasons lets call him... Sam. Day 1 in Copacabana Sam tells me that all Australian women are like men. Thanks Sam. Sam appears to be lacking in the social skills department. Day 2, out of the blue Sam decides to share that he thinks all Australians are racist. Hmmm, interesting. What makes you say that Sam?? Sam comes up with the white Australia policy (which was phased out over 25 years ending in the seventies) and a small red head woman who owns a fish & chip shop in northern Queensland. Surprise surprise 'Senhor el Cultural' hasn't even been to Australia. So, it turns out that not only does our new found friend Sam have limited social skills, Sam is also a dick. World peace stops with people like Sam. So we decided to leave Sam at our earliest opportunity, before he decided to pull out any more pearler's of wisdom. Unfortunately this wasn't until La Paz.
Leaving Copacabana wasn't as easy as expected. We arrived back from Isla del Sol only to find there was a ferry strike. All buses were cancelled until further notice and there was no way out into Bolivia, only back into Peru
Border crossing, Peru to Bolivia
. So we brought a ticket to La Paz via Peru for the following day and were stuck in Copacabana a night. This wouldn't have been too bad if Copacabana had ATM's, and we weren't running very low on cash. The following day the lady we brought the ticket off was demanding more money, saying that the police were wanting bribes at the border. This was bullshit. This was our first encounter with what I now term 'The Bolivian Screw Over' there would be many more of these to come. So, along with about 40 other travellers we jumped in collectivos, bags strapped to the roof, for about 20 mins back to the Peruvian border. A place I thought I'd never see again. We went back through passport control and walked through the border, got on another set of collectivos, drove a few hours through Peru, crossed another border out of Peru, waited in a queue for 2 hours with our packs in the blazing sun, finally got back into Bolivia, jumped on a shitty little bus and strapped our bags to the roof, and about another 5 hours later made it to La Paz. All this while I was really sick. Not the best experience, but hey it's Bolivia, this sort of thing happens al the time.
