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On the shores of Titicaca
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It wasn't the best of sleeps last night, I was coughing a lot. We got up at the same time as sunrise, in our state of half sleeping, half awaken, we waited for our bus at the hotel lobby. It was suppose to pick us up this morning around 7am and it was already 30min late. We were a little worried because this was the only direct bus to the "frontera" with Bolivia. The bus did arrive finally and full of travellers, I realized we were the last ones to be picked up. It was a fairly comfortable bus with TVs, and curtains to block the highland sun. Outside our window the sun was slowly rising above the dark blue waters of Lake Titicaca, and me & Juliette both fell asleep as the movie on the bus was boring.
We woke up at the border around midday. Everyone got off the bus, took all their backpacks and luggage, and one after another we went through the Peruvian Immigration. It was a very quiet and easy border crossing compared to Tumbes just over a week ago. By now me and Juliette were experts at land border crossings from all that we have experienced before. While some other traveller having difficulty "talking" to the immigration officials in Spanish, we knew it was best to just keep quiet and not say too much. All we wanted was the exit stamp and move on with as little hassle as possible. Of course there were always the odd traveller that wasted everyone's time and delayed our departure. We walked across to the Bolivian immigration only few hundred meter ahead, got our entry stamps and exchanged all of our remaining Sols to Boliviano currency. Everything went so smooth and non-stressed that me and Juliette wondered if we missed something, it couldn't have been this easy, could it? After all this was Peru to Bolivia, and it was the easiest border crossing of our entire trip. After seeing others struggled through the immigrations, we sadistically bought two coca-cola's and waited for the rest of our group.
We drove off to Copacabana after everyone was on board. After less than half hour we arrived at the village by the lake shores. We checked in at a nice central hotel by the bus stop, our third floor room cost less than $8 and it was luxury by our standards, with a large double mattress bed, floor lamps, clean towels in the bathroom and a TV; and the priceless unobstructed view of Lago de Titicaca.
Copacabana is a backpacker heaven, it is very budget with a relaxed atmosphere. Most hotels are priced around $2 and food costs just a little more. Anyone with a normal budget can live here for months if need be. We walked down to the lake shores, and for lunch we had some delicious local speciality "pescado entero" of fried fish from the lake. It was a relatively warm day as the sun was alone in the clear sky. The lake was calm and due to its high altitude looked very flat and endless. At 3800 meters, Lago de Titicaca claimed to be the world's highest commercially navigable lake. Its dark blue waters are legendary that the Incas believed it was the birth place of their Gods.
We meet up with some local kids at the beach and I invited them to play some fussball. One of the little rascal was so good at it, he could have hustled me for a month's income, but he was just a young lad and wanted to play with a passion. The 4 boys and me and Juliette had so much fun that we played until all my coins were used (less than a dollar total). Afterwards we visited the central Cathedral and the market, both were very vibrant. I bought a corn, as my love for it continued.
At night me and Juliette went over the "plans" for rest of our trip. Our money was getting short, between the two of us, we have about US$1000 left and half of South America yet to go (and no return plane tickets home). Out time was short too, less than 2 weeks until Carnaval in Rio, and we had 3 large countries yet to cross. I was also getting worried as we watched Argentina's economic depression getting worse by the day. People were marching in the streets of Buenas Aires, while every week there was a new President that just tried to hang on in desperation. With all the stresses of money, time, and Argentina on my mind, me and Juliette had a big argument of some sort and we yelled at each other so loud that our hotel clerk even heard us. With my coughs and her crying, we didn't get much sleep.
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