Direct bus, arrives 8 in the morning
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
40
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Copacabana,
Bolivia
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The company was San Luis, the same one we had used to get from Puno to Cusco in the first place. The bus left at 9.30 and supposedly arrived in Copacabana at 8 the following morning. I remember this because I asked the lady specifically if we had to wait in Puno or change buses. She assured me that I wouldnīt have to change buses and would only need to wait in Puno for 20 minutes. There was no problem with language here
Blessing the cars
.The bus left on time and was mostly as promised. It was a double-decker bus and we had one of the bed-seats on the first floor. The seats reclined and another little attachment came down and gave you something to rest your feet against. It was relative luxury to us. The bus trundled down to Puno and arrived around 5:20. Everyone got off. A couple of us foreigners stayed on the bus, assured that it would take off again soon. After a little while I got off to check. Our bags were the only ones left on the bus. The driver motioned for me to take them. I told him we were going to Copacabana. He told me that we werenīt going on this bus, since it wasnīt going to Copacabana. It wasnīt going anywhere. Sigh.
We grabbed our bags and went inside. The San Luis counter was dark and closed. Had we been betrayed?
Not quite. A couple of touts brought us to another company, Panamericano. This company took our San Luis tickets and issued us a ticket to Copacabana. It left at 7. The helpful guy literally pushed us up to the cafe upstairs. We ordered a banana pancake. The waitress took the order to the kitchen. They didnīt have any banana
sprinkle sprinkle
. The guys next to us ordered a drink with banana. The waitress got yelled out of the kitchen. "We donīt have any banana!"The other couple who had been on the bus were even more misled than we were. They had a "direct bus-cama" ticket to La Paz. The lady informed them that they would have to change buses again in Copacabana to get to La Paz. The next bus was not a bus-cama. The final bus didnīt have a toilet. She was getting pretty angry. "I just want you to tell me the truth!" she wailed.
In any case, it wasnīt all that bad. We arrived at Copacabana only about three hours later than promised. We left Peru and entered Bolivia. We got charged an illegal entry tax by the border official. At about 10 cents, it really wasnīt worth arguing about. But when we got charged a little more just to enter Copacabana (this one was legit), some people got a little angry.
Copacabana is a little town on the shores of Lake Titicaca (the Bolivian side), that has been a site of religious pilgrimages for quite a while now. We got a pretty nice room with private bath and hot water for a little over 5 dollars. You might want to take your showers this evening, he advised us, since the whole town wonīt have electricity from 6 in the morning til 6 at night
Bus gets blessed, too
.In the afternoon we wandered over the the moorish style church (tell me how a church can reasonably be built with Muslim architecture?). We sat outside to watch the "blessing of the automobiles." Instead of not driving like a drunk racecar driver, Bolivian drivers do the next best thing and seek protection from above. It was a rather slow day outside the church--only three cars. One guy said that there can be up to 40 on Sundays.
Eventually a priest emerged from the mosque-church. He was wearing a white robe, and - I kid you not - a NY Yankees baseball cap. Hilarious. He had a bucket of water and a water-flinger thingie. He went to the first car, owned by a family. He flicked water on a bunch of offerings carried by the children, the family themselves, and all over the car. As he moved on the next one, the family opened bottles of champagne and beer, spraying them around the car and tires. Then flower petals were thrown over the liquid. It seemed like quite an event for the family. They got their picture taken in front of the car and clustered round to stare proudly at the freshly printed polaroid. All in all, a rather interesting event. We went into the candle chapel around back, a dark and gloomy chamber with a bunch of candles burning down the center
All decked out
. The walls were smeared with wax grafitti. A lady carried a well-dressed doll to pray at the chapel. I think it was a representation of her son. After we went inside the church to see the famous Virgin of Copacabana. A series of pictures showed her story. It was quite an adventure she had.We climbed up to the mountain overlooking the lake to see the sunset. It was something of a pilgrimmage. A bunch of crosses lined to path and people would place stones at each of the stations of the cross. It was actually quite a moving experience to puff up the hill past each cross. At the top we watched a beautiful sunset over the lake while various people brought miniature objects of cars and houses to be blessed in hope of the real thing the following year. One guy had a plane. Quite ambitious.
The dinner menu of soup, trout, french fries, rice, and vegetables was 9 bolivianos. About $1.20. I love Bolivia.
Travis
Comments
Avid reader :)
Is this the copacabana that the song is talking about? Also Travis, remember La Mezquita in Cordoba? That was a church inside a mosque I think. It sounds like the church/mosque you guys saw. I love reading your blogs! They're awesome and it sounds like you guys are having the time of your lives.
sorry
this is katie schmahl by the way.. adios amigos!