Copacabana, Bolivia

Day 67

Today we head to Copacabana, which is a small town which sits on Lake Titicaca, and is a stones throw away from the Peru-Bolivia border. We woke early and jumped on the bus which picked us up from our hotel. The bus trip was fairly uneventful with the exception of a small crossing over a portion of Lake Titicaca. Instead of a bridge, or a large ferry which lots of vehicles can drive onto at once, the bus was driven onto a small wooden barge-like thing, and then driven across the lake by a tiny outboard motor. All the passangers were taken off the bus and driven across in another ferry– thank goodness! I would have been packing it.

Once we were past this crossing all we could see was the vast expanse of the Lake Titicaca. It is big enough to be an ocean!

We arrived at Copacabana and went and checked into our hostel. Our host was a lovely lady who couldn’t speak a wink of English. She knew we couldn’t speak much Spanish, but blabbed on 100 miles an hour anyway and kept laughing to herself. I find a lot of older ladies do this, I think they are just high on life, or have had too many coca leaves in their time!

We then went for a big walk out of town, and came across a lot of ladies and men farming their potatoes, as well as a few pigs casually strolling around. It’s all pretty relaxed here!

We came across a random resort/restaurant which was sitting like a raft on the lake. It was unlocked so we went for a sticky beak. It was kinda creepy but kinda cool walking around on this big raft thing without anyone insight. We only hung around for 5-10 minutes not wanting to get caught and yelled at in Spanish.

We then wandered back to the hostel to have a rest and plan a bit for our next leg into Peru. Sadly, we planned the last leg of our trip before we fly to Canada. It is all coming to an end 😦

For sunset, we walked up to the top of a big hill which sits right on the water overlooking Copacabana. We still aren’t used to the elevation, this lake sits at 3700m altitude, so we were huffing and puffing up to the top of the hill. It was painful, but it had to be done, Ellen loves her sunsets. Note – the photo below Ellen is doing the sexy Llama pose.

Day 68

Today we set off early to catch a ferry out to Isla De sol. It is an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca which used to be inhabited by the Incas. The island looks close, like it is visible from the shore at Copacabana. But oh boy, it took over 2 hours to get there due to the painfully slow speed of our boat.

When we finally arrived we had a bit of a wander around, ate some food and looked at some Llamas. There is a fair bit of infrastructure on the island now, a lot of backpackers stay in the many hostels overnight. I have never been a fan of been stuck on an island, not sure what the word for it is, but I guess the feeling is like claustrophobia! So we opted just for the day trip.

We then had some lunch, the menu was all in Spanish, so we only ordered the quinoa soup this time to avoid eating pigs tongues again! For the rest of the afternoon we didn’t do a lot except relax and take in the views.

We caught the painfully slow ferry back at 3pm and relaxed some more for the afternoon. There isn’t a lot to do in Copacabana except relax, eat, drink, sleep – which we both love to do!

Today is our last day in Bolivia, tomorrow we will cross the border into Peru! Wooohooooo!

More photos are located here.