Thunderbolts and Lake Boobie Poo Poo (Titicaca)


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South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » Copacabana
November 26th 2006
Published: November 29th 2006
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Copacabana, Bolivia

On leaving Cusco it was apparant that the squitz were not going to abandon us and for the 14 hour bus ride to Copacabana in Bolivia, immodium was again our friend and we now own a proportion of the company which makes the tablets! The bus journey was difficult to say the least. Not only was it one of the most likely journeys to get your bag stolen on, but driving high through the Andes we encountered an extreme thunder and lightening storm. We were sat at the very front of the bus and had a birds eye view of a large thunderbolt land not 10 feet away from the bus, this was the only thing that made the bus driver slow down. The bus was very cold, so our next purchase was to be a blanket to replace Donnas´pashmina. Transferring from Peru to Bolivia was a simple process of getting off the bus and walking across the border, getting our passports stamped at either side.

Arriving at Copacabana we found a great room for 7 quid a night overlooking Lake Titicaca. Note that Titicaca is less of a lake and more of an ocean, only at 3800 metres up in the Andes. It really is unbelievable to see. It is believed that the sun was born here and the Incas believed their first Emperor arose from a rock called Titicaca (Rock of the Puma). At more than 230km long, 97 km wide the lake covers over 9000 sq km and our room had a great view of it. The room we got really was terrific, albeit a little quirky, as you can see from the video! The place is run by a Bolivian family which we nicknamed the Darling Buds of Bolivia for reasons which can only be shown by a photo of which we were too scared to take!

Despite the squitz being ever present (3 weeks and counting) we are bothg worried we are disappearing down the toilet. We endeavoured to fin our first taste of a Bolivian restaurant. Bearing in mind that Copacabana has about 30 restaurants and 20 tourists a day, you would think this would be an easy task. However, on entering the first restaurant and sitting down we were told 5 minutes later that the tables were reserved. Entering the second restaurant we ordered chicken with lemon and rice and a chicken sandwich, only to be told they could do thwe chicken with lemon but not the chicken sandwich. On entering the third restaurant we sat down amongst locals only to be completely ignored by the waiting staff, most likely because we aren´t Bolivian. Note that this racism against what south americans call gringos, seems to be apparant throughout south america. At the very least it´s nice that they don´t hide their racism like some countries which we have visited (e.g: Thailand).

We finally found a nice restaurant which served up some very tasty dishes at a cheap 4 pound for the both of us with no racism apparant. Most of the restaraunts in Copa sell very good trucha or trout as Lake Titicaca has some of the world´s biggest ...named ´trucha criolla´. Copa is a really nice relaxing place but the clock was ticking so we spent two nights here before setting off for the hustle and bustle of La Paz..the highest capital city in the world.

La Paz, Bolivia

The bus journey to La Paz was both the funniest and the worst experience of south american transport we have had so far. We arrived to the bus to have our rucksacks strapped to the top. We knew it would be a bit of a nightmare when there was no logic to how the bus was organised. It was a complete mess. We set off eventually on really high winding roads with unbelieveable views. The views were only spoilt by the innane chatter and flirting of an English girl and Israeli bloke in front of us (its hard to say which was funnier..the girl saying that Australia was part of the UK or everything that the bloke said about Israel). Our ears got a rest though when the bus abruptly stopped next to the lake after an hour of driving. We then had to do the strangest and funniest water crossing. The buses were loaded onto huge wooden rafts and we were all loaded onto small wooden motor boats. It was really odd to look out of the boat and see your bus with all the luggage strapped to the top floating past you. The Bolivian navy (ahem) was also out in full force. Funny seeing as though Bolivia hasn´t had a coastline since Peru and Chile nicked it a couple of hundred years ago. But proud they were in their sailor suits.

The rest of the journey was through very barren landscapes. How people survive here we can only guess. Our first glimpse of La Paz took our breath away. La Paz is a huge sprawling city built in a bowl of mountains. At 3660 metres above sea level it really is a towering city. Everything here is steep uphill climbs which left us gasping for breath. Of course the pollution didnt help either. We treated ouçrselves to a proper hotel in La Paz on account of the squitz, we even got cable tv so that when one was waiting for the other at the toilet we would have entertainment. La Paz is a nice city with lots of life and the people are full of personality. There is a strange mix of modern dressed business people and traditional dressed women with their hair in long plaits and babies swung over their shoulders in makeshift cloth haversacks. If you want to buy anything in La Paz, be warned that their isn´t a commercial centre. All things are bought from market or street stalls. There are no supermarkets as such like in other south
Hotel LeyendaHotel LeyendaHotel Leyenda

A strange hostal...but nice nevertheless
american cities, but rather lots of old women in avenger bowler hats selling everything you could imagine.

On our first night we passed the plaza de san francisco to see a huge crowd of Bolivians standing around watching two blokes have fisty-cuffs. Apparantly its a ritual entertainment here and they sometimes fight to the death. We didn´t stick around to watch though and soon we were planning our next part of Bolivia.


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Trout restaurantsTrout restaurants
Trout restaurants

Uncle Peter Mott would have loved these restaurants...
Demonic music in our hostal room..Demonic music in our hostal room..
Demonic music in our hostal room..

the owners made the mistake of leaving some pan pipes and a recorder in our room...


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