Lake Titi

Thank goodness for small mercies. The trip to Copacabana is only 3.5 hours so we didn´t have to face another overnighter and all the dramas that entailed. We had banked on a cushy tourist bus but alas some kind of dispute between the operators meant that there were no tourist buses running, only local ones.

So we got the bus at 1 in the afternoon from La Paz, and managed to score the seats right at the very back of the bus. Not only did this mean feeling every bump of the journey and being covered in a cloud of thick black smoke belched out by the bus everytime it stopped, but also that we were wedged in the corner by a local family of mum, 3 kids, grandma and grandpa. One of the kids started whinging as soon as we left for bananas and bread, so we felt as though it may as well have been a 16 hour trip we were in for. We stopped in crowded market places to pick up more people, and all manner of goods to transport which were hauled up on top of the bus. One woman, as well as the customary bright coloured cloth which held all her travel possessions, also had 2 stacks of around 20 buckets which soon disappeared from my line of sight outside the bus window and up on top.

The countryside was beautiful from La Paz to Copacabana, a small town which sits at the edge of Lake Titicaca. The name of this place had always been something far removed from my knowledge, like some kind of fictitious land. The landscape reminded me of the Scottish highlands or somewhere like that, very green but rugged. But of course we loved taking the piss out of the name of the place, Lake Titi as it became affectionatly known by ourselves. How fitting then when the mum next to us was breast feeding her little one and fell asleep, breast hanging out of the bottom of her jumper for at least half an hour. We got such a fit of giggles and had to be sure to avert our gaze elsewhere!

Most of the locals were dropped along the road at places which seemed in the middle of nowhere, unmarked by a sign indicating a bus stop, or even anywhere near a house. It must have been a case of "I need a ticket to the place at the end of the line of rocks, near where those sheep usually stand, you know that place. One way thanks".

Copacabana turned out to be a cool little spot (literally - again it was freezing) and we found a private room sans bathroom for about 2 Euro each per night with a great little restaurant downstairs selling trout prepared in every conceivable way, shape and flavour possible, as most other places did. (Trout is an introduced species which is farmed on the lake.) Although quite blatantly geared towards the tourists it still had a nice little chill out feel, especially after the pace of La Paz. We enjoyed cute little cozy cafes with great hot chocolate, music and food. We did a couple of walks, one fruitless search for a museum which took us way out into the countryside, traipsing around amongst sheep, dogs, cows and tiny frogs, virtually in people's backyards, past feral kids and alpacas. We had a gawk at the local church which is famed for its virgin. "The Virgin of Copacabana" is a huge doll like statue dressed in a kind of a fairy tale silver costume, who brings people from miles around to come and worship her, especially at Easter when some people make the odd 154km trek on foot - barefoot. Outside this church miniatures are also sold. People buy for example a miniature (i.e. a toy) car, if a car is what they want in the coming year. This is then blessed in ritual and the hopè is by doing this, the person will actually receive this thing. So at the stall there were cars, little shops, paper money, suitcases to represent travel....at first glance we thought it was a toy stall. We also saw cars covered in flowers and assumed they were wedding cars. Later we read that people cover the cars in flowers and bring them to the church, either 10a.m. or 2:30pm, where they are blessed, sprinkled with some kind of holy water or alcohol, and sent on their merry way, in hope of having a safe trip.

At sunset we walked to the top of a lookout, a bit of a struggle when the altitude was mixed but we had great views of the lake.

We had booked and paid for a day trip to the islands of the Lake for the next day, starting at 8.30a.m. At 6 a.m. it was pouring rain and as I picked up some kind of cold and a cough which had conveniently moved ot my chest, I decided not to go. As we didn't have any wet weather gear John also decided to forfeit so we had a nice lie in instead. Decided to push onto Peru so booked a ticket to Puno which is the gateway to Lake Titi on the Peruvian side. We had some drama with getting the ticket and being overcharged which started a bit of a riot between 2 tour operators, but in the end we got the best deal and bid them farewell and left them screaming at each other. A mini bus to the border, a short walk across no man´s land and a nice big comfy bus to Puno.....3 hours later we were in Peru.

Immediately we felt the difference between the 2 countries in terms of their approach to tourism. We hadn´t really been bothered by touts in Bolivia but less than 15 mins from Puno city a guy got on the bus with leaflets about a new hotel, did we want to book with him and also take a tour of the islands on the Peruvian side? We tried to blow him off, he seemed too smiley and sucky-uppy but granted the info on the hotel did look good - private rooms with bathrooms and t.v! 24 hour hot water (that grabbed me....I hadn't been able to wash my hair for a week in Bolivia because the showers were so cold....I would almost be crying everytime I had to have a shower....the results when I finally did get to wash my hair weren´t pretty.....thank god for wooly hats.....) We decided to take the hotel in the end but not tell smiley man, he had the last laugh anyway when we rocked up after paying for a taxi when he had given the crowd of people who had committed to the hotel on the bus a free ride there.

The place was great anyway, except for the construction still going on upstairs which we were told would stop in half an hour. An hour and a half later John went down to complain, yes sir they stop right now at 5 on the dot. Half an hour later finally it stopped, not without a few threats from us to leave or get a reduced rate. Naturally at 6 we went out for dinner anyway!

We avoided smiley man's advances to book one of his tours, found our own company, and booked a 2 day, one night trip to the islands of Uros, Amantani and Taquile, which included a one nights stay with a local family.

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