Copacabana

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After Puno, it was off to the Bolivian side of the lake and a little town called Copacabana, described as utterly enchanting by our guidebook. The Bolivian end of Lake Titicaca is supposed to be much better than the Peruvian, so between that and our guidebook´s description we were expecting something reminiscent of our time in Lake Garda in Italy.

And well, that´s not quite the case! We were pretty taken aback initially as the little town is basic to say the least. The final few hundred metres to our hotel (one of the best in town, may I add) wasn´t even paved, and we had to pass a bit of a pig farm on the way! And we really had to turn a blind eye to the standards of hygiene in some of the restaurants and cafes in town. Luckily our hotel restaurant wasn´t bad at all, the kitchen was certainly clean, and ridiculously cheap, 2 courses with water and wine for about a fiver (and I man for both of us)!

Once the initial shock had worn off, the little town was quite interesting, as it turns out it´s the most important pilgrimage destination in Bolivia: the church contains the Virgen de la Candelaria, a statue of the Virgin Mary believed to work miracles, and even though we had missed the famous annual fiesta, every single day people arrive from all over Bolivia (and we saw lots of Peruvian number plates too) to have their cars blessed, so there´s always a bit of a carnival atmosphere. The views of the lake (especially from our hotel, up on a hill) were just gorgeous too, and it had a great little market where we were able to pick up nick nacks (a magnetic chess and draughts set for a pound!). On a more gruesome note, we also witnessed a man electrocute himself as he fell from the telegraph pole he was working on and tried to save himself by grabbing the electrical cables. The smell of burning flesh will stay with us for a while!

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